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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6240997" data-attributes="member: 2067"><p>D&D combat does not need to be more than a few die rolls over the course of about 5 minutes. Not every fight is fatal, when you account for the difficulty of the overall adventure -- the encounter with the two goblins who harass the party is as vital as the encounter with the Goblin King and his 12 high priests of evil, because the resource attrition in the former affects the difficulty of the latter. There is variable intensity, and encounters can be dismissed quickly if the party wants to try that (the wizard fireballs them all, or the thief finds a secret passage that bypasses the encounter, or the fighter intimidates the leader and routes the whole group). </p><p></p><p>I don't want to spend a lot of time on most combats in D&D. So if someone sucks at them for a minute or two, it's not a big deal. Because combat need not be the point, it can just be a few quick die rolls and we can all move on. It's one moment in a broader adventure. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>You can still split the party, you just need to be able to swap back and forth.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>You are expected to sit out for a while in D&D -- when other people are taking their own actions. In a group of 5 people who all take the same amount of time doing things, 4/5 of your time is spent watching other people do stuff. The issue is when you cannot take your own action in turn as well, because then you're just not really playing the game, you're watching other people play the game. Which, you know, a good game and good friends it might not be a major problem, but the game should be designed to be played more than designed to be watched. </p><p></p><p>Bench time and backstage time is fine, but if all I have is one line and all I do is touch the ball once a season, you might forgive me if I don't exactly make time every week, putting aside other activities and responsibilities, for about a year, to volunteer to mostly watch other people play D&D. No one is paid to play, there's nothing at stake, why would I sign up for that?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 6240997, member: 2067"] D&D combat does not need to be more than a few die rolls over the course of about 5 minutes. Not every fight is fatal, when you account for the difficulty of the overall adventure -- the encounter with the two goblins who harass the party is as vital as the encounter with the Goblin King and his 12 high priests of evil, because the resource attrition in the former affects the difficulty of the latter. There is variable intensity, and encounters can be dismissed quickly if the party wants to try that (the wizard fireballs them all, or the thief finds a secret passage that bypasses the encounter, or the fighter intimidates the leader and routes the whole group). I don't want to spend a lot of time on most combats in D&D. So if someone sucks at them for a minute or two, it's not a big deal. Because combat need not be the point, it can just be a few quick die rolls and we can all move on. It's one moment in a broader adventure. You can still split the party, you just need to be able to swap back and forth. You are expected to sit out for a while in D&D -- when other people are taking their own actions. In a group of 5 people who all take the same amount of time doing things, 4/5 of your time is spent watching other people do stuff. The issue is when you cannot take your own action in turn as well, because then you're just not really playing the game, you're watching other people play the game. Which, you know, a good game and good friends it might not be a major problem, but the game should be designed to be played more than designed to be watched. Bench time and backstage time is fine, but if all I have is one line and all I do is touch the ball once a season, you might forgive me if I don't exactly make time every week, putting aside other activities and responsibilities, for about a year, to volunteer to mostly watch other people play D&D. No one is paid to play, there's nothing at stake, why would I sign up for that? [/QUOTE]
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