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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6861945" data-attributes="member: 42582">To me, this seems to go to a pretty deep point (at least, deep from the point of view of RPG play and design).What is the point of playing an RPG?For some players, it is to find out what happens to their character. For these players, being mechanically less effective is not a "punishment", because they don't place any particular priority on affecting the content of the shared fiction.For some players, the point is to impact the shared fiction via their character. For these players, mechanical effectiveness is closely linked to protagonism. That doesn't mean that we have to make open hands do the same damage as swords; instead, we might give the unarmed monk the Vow I will never use weapons, and then every combat that the character engages without using weapons earns a point of inspiration which the player can spend as s/he thinks appropriate. (In other words, there can be more than one way to skin the mechanical cat!)This also relates back to my discussion upthread with [MENTION=6801328]Elfcrusher[/MENTION] (and probably to my discussion with [MENTION=6834463]happyhermit[/MENTION] too). Different mechanical systems can be better or worse suited to these various approaches to play (and I've only mentioned two: they don't cover the field). This monk example, for instance, illustrates one relatively modest respect in which 5e is not as well suited to protagonistic play as another system in which choosing to play a monk with such a vow does not reduce the player's capacity to impact the shared fiction.I think that Maelstrom Storytelling, Over the Edge and HeroQuest revised all do a pretty good job in this respect.I think Marvel Heroic RP comes fairly close, too.In all these instances, the key is universal conflict-resolution mechanics based around freely chosen descriptors. (MHRP isn't as free-descriptor based as the others, which is why I say it only comes close; but if what you're trying to do is play a Marvel superhero, its constrained descriptors still do a pretty good job.)Being poisoned, or turned to stone, or falling down a cliff or pit trap will all kill PCs as well; but they are generally resolved via a single check/saving throw (4e is an exception for the first two, 5e for the first).Combat could easily be resolved as an opposed check. That's how most conflicts, including violent ones, are resolved in HeroWars/Quest, and it's one common way to resolve combat in Burning Wheel.</blockquote>

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