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Victories and No Defeats in D&D
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<blockquote data-quote="KesselZero" data-source="post: 5844314" data-attributes="member: 6689976"><p>You're right, of course; flavor is important, and thoughtful play isn't just figuring out which challenges won't kill you. I also can see that there are ways to have zones of equal challenge hold different meaning-- perhaps there's a town being attacked by orcs and a cult finishing up an evil ritual, and you've only got time to stop one. That's certainly a meaningful choice even if both adventures are balanced for the party.</p><p></p><p>Nevertheless, I'm talking specifically about sandbox play, and in such a style the sense of verisimilitude is important, the feeling that the world exists outside the PCs while being influenced by their actions. I believe that a sandbox campaign in which every dungeon, zone, or encounter was balanced to the PCs' abilities would ring suspicious and hurt suspension of disbelief. Similarly, a feeling that the PCs are never really in danger-- which after all is what this thread is all about-- would hurt both the illusion of a real world and the sense of real choice. I definitely get what you're saying about flavor being important, and I really don't mean to be implying that a pirate ship adventure and a volcano adventure would be identical in the players' minds-- sorry about the hyperbole from before. But I do believe that if the players pick up on the fact that whatever they choose, it'll be neatly balanced for them, it'll take away a lot of the power of choice, because then the PCs' lives are much less in the players' hands, and are back to being in mine.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="KesselZero, post: 5844314, member: 6689976"] You're right, of course; flavor is important, and thoughtful play isn't just figuring out which challenges won't kill you. I also can see that there are ways to have zones of equal challenge hold different meaning-- perhaps there's a town being attacked by orcs and a cult finishing up an evil ritual, and you've only got time to stop one. That's certainly a meaningful choice even if both adventures are balanced for the party. Nevertheless, I'm talking specifically about sandbox play, and in such a style the sense of verisimilitude is important, the feeling that the world exists outside the PCs while being influenced by their actions. I believe that a sandbox campaign in which every dungeon, zone, or encounter was balanced to the PCs' abilities would ring suspicious and hurt suspension of disbelief. Similarly, a feeling that the PCs are never really in danger-- which after all is what this thread is all about-- would hurt both the illusion of a real world and the sense of real choice. I definitely get what you're saying about flavor being important, and I really don't mean to be implying that a pirate ship adventure and a volcano adventure would be identical in the players' minds-- sorry about the hyperbole from before. But I do believe that if the players pick up on the fact that whatever they choose, it'll be neatly balanced for them, it'll take away a lot of the power of choice, because then the PCs' lives are much less in the players' hands, and are back to being in mine. [/QUOTE]
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