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General Tabletop Discussion
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What makes us care about combat balance in D&D?
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<blockquote data-quote="arscott" data-source="post: 6657842" data-attributes="member: 17969"><p>Here's an example:</p><p>In D&D, the characters and monsters both get turns, so it's possible that a character who isn't at all effective in combat ends up nevertheless bearing the brunt of a monster attack. In DW, the 7-9 results of various moves and the whole system of moves as conversation help to naturally ensure that the potential negative consequences of an action are much more in-line with the potential positive outcomes.</p><p></p><p>For that matter, DW has fewer numbers overall, and they don't scale in the ways that D&D numbers do. It uses 2d6 instead of 1d20, and in general, the results of any given interaction of combat numbers in DW is far more predictable than the results of any given interaction in D&D.</p><p></p><p>I'll admit to being more familiar with Cortex Drama than with Cortex heroic, but at least in Drama, Lois Lane's d10 fast-talker is just about as powerful as Superman's d10 heat vision in terms of how they can shape the narrative--the fact that some skills would be inherently more useful in a combat situation isn't very important because the characters have the narrative control necessary to put themselves in situations where whatever their abilities are, those abilities are what's needed.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="arscott, post: 6657842, member: 17969"] Here's an example: In D&D, the characters and monsters both get turns, so it's possible that a character who isn't at all effective in combat ends up nevertheless bearing the brunt of a monster attack. In DW, the 7-9 results of various moves and the whole system of moves as conversation help to naturally ensure that the potential negative consequences of an action are much more in-line with the potential positive outcomes. For that matter, DW has fewer numbers overall, and they don't scale in the ways that D&D numbers do. It uses 2d6 instead of 1d20, and in general, the results of any given interaction of combat numbers in DW is far more predictable than the results of any given interaction in D&D. I'll admit to being more familiar with Cortex Drama than with Cortex heroic, but at least in Drama, Lois Lane's d10 fast-talker is just about as powerful as Superman's d10 heat vision in terms of how they can shape the narrative--the fact that some skills would be inherently more useful in a combat situation isn't very important because the characters have the narrative control necessary to put themselves in situations where whatever their abilities are, those abilities are what's needed. [/QUOTE]
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What makes us care about combat balance in D&D?
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