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<blockquote data-quote="Rechan" data-source="post: 5115129" data-attributes="member: 54846">Stalker0 many moons ago posted a <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/254630-stalker0s-guide-anti-grind.html" target="_blank">how-to avoid Grind</a>. In it, he saysNow I begin to speak for myself.The point of &quot;grind&quot; hits when the fun has left the encounter and everyone is waiting for it to end. So, a LONG combat can be non-grindy if everyone is still interested and having fun. Meanwhile, a short combat can be grindy if it's not interesting or threatening. The trick is that &quot;Fun&quot; differs for different people and groups, so &quot;Grind&quot; vary. Piratecat for instance claims to have never really had a &quot;grindy&quot; combat because all his players seem constantly engaged.I think there are several elements to grind. Beyond &quot;Too many monster HP/too high defenses&quot;, there are a few other bugaboos:-Predictable. There's nothing else that's going on, all the surprises have been exposed. There's also nothing posing a real significant factor. If the terrain is different (such as a very high vantage point where archers are), the threat of those guys up there we can't charge, or the threat of being pushed off, makes it &quot;less&quot; predictable, than if everyone is in a nondescript room.Predictability also has the subset of goals. If the goal is just &quot;beat eachother until one side stops moving&quot;, this contributes to nothing else exciting coming down the pike. If there are different objectives, the objective gets to play alongside &quot;beat one another's head in&quot;. -Limited Threat. Part of what I think makes encounters &quot;fun&quot; is when there's a definite risk. So when things are &quot;Predictable&quot;, and when monsters are out of powers and Pcs are at too high HP, then they just feel they're not in much danger. This even occurs even if they've used all their powers; there's no worry that they'll die. A contributing factor to this is too many leaders. The more leaders you have, the more healing you have, the less likely you are to really die. A group with a bard versus a group with a cleric and a warlord are going to differ quite significantly in what they can &quot;take&quot;. With PCs being durable as it is, and monster damage not being all that hefty, things Aren't that risky. This also deals with group makeup. If you have no defender, your weaker characters are going to get in more danger more easily. If you have a lot of strikers, your enemies are going to die faster, making combat faster.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Rechan, post: 5115129, member: 54846"] Stalker0 many moons ago posted a [url=http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/254630-stalker0s-guide-anti-grind.html]how-to avoid Grind[/url]. In it, he says Now I begin to speak for myself. The point of "grind" hits when the fun has left the encounter and everyone is waiting for it to end. So, a LONG combat can be non-grindy if everyone is still interested and having fun. Meanwhile, a short combat can be grindy if it's not interesting or threatening. The trick is that "Fun" differs for different people and groups, so "Grind" vary. Piratecat for instance claims to have never really had a "grindy" combat because all his players seem constantly engaged. I think there are several elements to grind. Beyond "Too many monster HP/too high defenses", there are a few other bugaboos: -Predictable. There's nothing else that's going on, all the surprises have been exposed. There's also nothing posing a real significant factor. If the terrain is different (such as a very high vantage point where archers are), the threat of those guys up there we can't charge, or the threat of being pushed off, makes it "less" predictable, than if everyone is in a nondescript room. Predictability also has the subset of goals. If the goal is just "beat eachother until one side stops moving", this contributes to nothing else exciting coming down the pike. If there are different objectives, the objective gets to play alongside "beat one another's head in". -Limited Threat. Part of what I think makes encounters "fun" is when there's a definite risk. So when things are "Predictable", and when monsters are out of powers and Pcs are at too high HP, then they just feel they're not in much danger. This even occurs even if they've used all their powers; there's no worry that they'll die. A contributing factor to this is [i]too many leaders[/i]. The more leaders you have, the more healing you have, the less likely you are to really die. A group with a bard versus a group with a cleric and a warlord are going to differ quite significantly in what they can "take". With PCs being durable as it is, and monster damage not being all that hefty, things Aren't that risky. This also deals with group makeup. If you have no defender, your weaker characters are going to get in more danger more easily. If you have a lot of strikers, your enemies are going to die faster, making combat faster. [/QUOTE]

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