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Message: <blockquote data-quote="giant.robot" data-source="post: 5523084" data-attributes="member: 93119">This is it exactly. My example was completely contrived but events could have taken a totally different turn had the dice rolled differently (I did roll to see how things would go). The impaler in my example might have been able to turn things around had he parried the crippler's attack or the attack not done enough damage to stun him. Even if the die rolls are against you superior tactics or strategy can still win the day. Other times your superior tactics are no match for bad luck.I think active defenses also a lot to the tactical aspect of the game. Instead of hand waving defense as a single AC score a character can take different defensive reactions. Dodging an attack from a flail makes sense if you've got a rapier but maybe a parry puts you in a better counterattack position if you have a shield. Different weapons also offer advantages over different armor types rather than just having a different die code.D&D for a lot of reasons has abstracted a lot of details into static scores or simplified die rolls. There's nothing wrong with this form of game design and I certainly enjoy playing D&D. At the same time it's not the most tactically fulfilling game in the way most people would define tactics. D&D tactics are valid tactics in the context of the D&D rules but sometimes don't make complete sense if you're thinking about those actions "in the real world". Tactics in GURPS tend to look like tactics two real sword fighters would use in combat. D&D isn't meant to model reality but there's times when it can be hard to visualize what a game concept because it's so abstract. How do you describe a Defender's Aura or a mark to somebody? What exactly is a second wind? How does an attack with an arrow slide a targe 2 squares (10 feet)? These are abstract game concepts that make sense on a map grid but require some mental gymnastics to visualize or describe. This is where a system with more explicit models and less abstractions can be very attractive.</blockquote>

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