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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5799573" data-attributes="member: 42582">Well, no. But suppose this particular campaign arc takes 5 or more sessions to play out. Which might be a couple of months of play time. I'm going to look to mechanical solutions for the 15 minute day (a number of which I've canvassed upthread) rather than draw comfort from the fact that, in due course, nova-ing will no longer be a stragegy that proudces a noticeable imbalance of effectiveness between the PCs.Is it essential to imply that all those who play with a different playstyle from yours are necessarily inferior or stupid?My campaigns don't particularly reward strategic play (unless you count diplomacy as a branch of strategy). I don't care for it, and so don't set it up for my players. My campaigns reward players who (i) care to immerse themselves in intricate and often morally complex relationships between numerous NPCs, gods, and the PCs, and who (ii) enjoy finding out what happens when commitments to one or more of these parties are made and then tested. (Which is to say that if follows <a href="http://isabout.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/the-pitfalls-of-narrative-technique-in-rpg-play/" target="_blank">the standard narrativistic model</a>. <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/313724-actual-play-pcs-successfully-negotiated-kas.html" target="_blank">This actual play report</a> is as good example as any.)It's not as if 3E/PF offers some great potential to enhance my games that I'm missing. For various reasons - including features of its action resolution mechanics, which in turn feed into its approach to the handling of ingame time, which in turn feed into the sort of scene framing techniques it supports - 3E/PF is not particularly suitable for my sort of game. I've run my sort of game using Rolemaster, which is about as unsuitable as 3E/PF in its non-combat action resolution mechanics, but probably is more suitable in its combat mechanics (because they are more metagameable) and definitely more suited in its PC build mechanics (because they produce richer PCs with more points of connection to the fiction).I'm sure my game is narrow in its appeal. Luckily I have players who seem to enjoy it.But I think it's a little strange to suggest that my focus as the DM "need never waver from the immediate, tactical encounter." You may or may not recall this post from a couple of months ago, which was in reply to me:And the example of actual play that I had linked to - the encounter of which you said "I can see that the encounters you're creating "pour on the pressure" and are created using Forge-like narrativist techniques" - was of a social encounter in a combat-free session. (My first combat-free session of 4e.)You may or may not recall my reply to you, in <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/5725872-post852.html" target="_blank">this post</a>. It elaborates some of the points I've been making in this thread, about the different approach to timekeeping, scene transition and action resolution that 4e's mechanics support in comparison to more simulationist ones, which in turn better support the "Forge-like narratist techniques" that I am using in my game.</blockquote>

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