Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Why are we fighting?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="overgeeked" data-source="post: 8863949" data-attributes="member: 86653"><p>Matt Colville just released a video titled...wait for it..."Why Are We Fighting?" and in it he asks the simple question: why is D&D-style combat so boring? It's worth the watch because it's a good video, but I'll save you the suspense. Combat in D&D is a slog because of two reasons. First, after a certain point in the combat victory is a foregone conclusion and yet we generally insist on continuing the combat until all the enemy HP bars read zero. Second, simply wiping out all the enemies on the map is an inherently boring goal. </p><p></p><p>He says he doesn't have a solution, but he does. First, stop forcing combat to continue past the point of victory, i.e. once you know who's won the fight, end the fight. Second, stop using boring goals in combat, like murdering all of the other team.</p><p></p><p>[MEDIA=youtube]sAfPoOxIVm0[/MEDIA]</p><p></p><p>If you're of a more writerly bent, here's an article saying basically the same thing from the creator and head writer of Leverage. </p><p></p><p>[URL unfurl="true"]https://gizmodo.com/why-you-should-never-write-action-scenes-into-your-tent-511712234[/URL]</p><p></p><p>Games that aren't as focused on combat as D&D don't seem to have this issue nor do games with robust non-combat subsystems for handling obstacles, like clocks, timers, challenges, extended tests, contests, etc. </p><p></p><p>What are some of your favorite goals to see in D&D that don't involve slaughtering all the opposition? </p><p></p><p>And what are some other games we can lift subsystems from to use in D&D to achieve better results in this regard?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="overgeeked, post: 8863949, member: 86653"] Matt Colville just released a video titled...wait for it..."Why Are We Fighting?" and in it he asks the simple question: why is D&D-style combat so boring? It's worth the watch because it's a good video, but I'll save you the suspense. Combat in D&D is a slog because of two reasons. First, after a certain point in the combat victory is a foregone conclusion and yet we generally insist on continuing the combat until all the enemy HP bars read zero. Second, simply wiping out all the enemies on the map is an inherently boring goal. He says he doesn't have a solution, but he does. First, stop forcing combat to continue past the point of victory, i.e. once you know who's won the fight, end the fight. Second, stop using boring goals in combat, like murdering all of the other team. [MEDIA=youtube]sAfPoOxIVm0[/MEDIA] If you're of a more writerly bent, here's an article saying basically the same thing from the creator and head writer of Leverage. [URL unfurl="true"]https://gizmodo.com/why-you-should-never-write-action-scenes-into-your-tent-511712234[/URL] Games that aren't as focused on combat as D&D don't seem to have this issue nor do games with robust non-combat subsystems for handling obstacles, like clocks, timers, challenges, extended tests, contests, etc. What are some of your favorite goals to see in D&D that don't involve slaughtering all the opposition? And what are some other games we can lift subsystems from to use in D&D to achieve better results in this regard? [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Why are we fighting?
Top