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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6551106" data-attributes="member: 6787650">Yep. I agree with what you're saying now that I understand your meaning[1].To expand a little bit on your kobold scenario, I feel that encounters should end whenever the dramatic question is answered, or when the players lose interest, whichever comes latest. (If the players enjoy hunting down every last little kobold, well, I live to serve.) In some cases, that requires combat rules and die-rolling, but I can certainly imagine scenarios where the players manage to stack the odds in their favor (e.g. catch the hobgoblin company in close quarters where numbers can't be brought to bear) and in such a case I'd be perfectly willing to say, "Okay, we can play this out or you can each expend 3d6 HP or two spell slots of any level and just narrate to me how you defeated them". Or they could do the in-between course like your DM did: play out a couple of rounds and then extrapolate from there. But there does come a point where the encounter has been trivialized and I'd rather just skip to the resolution.There will be other cases where the deck isn't stacked quite so thoroughly, and even cases where the PCs think they've got the deck stacked but the principle of surprise comes into play. ("Surprise is what happens when something you've seen all along turns out to be something different than you thought.") If the kobolds are really just trying to get the players to chase them into a dragon's lair so they can turn the tables, then the real dramatic question isn't "will the kobolds stop the PCs from entering the caves?" but "will the cunning kobolds draw the PCs into a trap?" In this case you'd want to play out the encounter past the point where it appears to have been trivialized. Personally I don't find die-rolling to be nearly as fun as strategy--I could play a completely diceless game of D&D where all random events are converted to expected-value occurences and still have fun, because to me the fun part is managing partial information. "Did we really kill that lich and take his treasure, or is it a trap? He went down suspiciously easy, not at all like someone who can cast 10th level invisible Prismatic Wall spells like we've been encountering in every room of this dungeon. I bet that magic staff is actually his phylactery!" That kind of thing.TLDR; I think I basically agree with you, and apparently it's mutual.-Max[1] News flash! "Internet argument resolved amicably and productively! More at eleven!" This is why I like Enworld.</blockquote>

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