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<blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 4987732" data-attributes="member: 32164">I would submit that plenty of DMs who understand the reality of combat and action actually lean away from &quot;realistic&quot; physics.For example, I took Asian martial arts when I was younger and one of my&nbsp; current hobbies is swordfighting. In addition to practicing it, I've read numerous books about the reality of it. As such, I have a very healthy respect for &quot;real&quot; combat. I also know I wouldn't enjoy it in a game. Why? Real combat is very swingy - you never know who is going to live and who is going to die. The greatest swordsman in the world can be killed - dead - by one lucky shot from a novice. Or he might live through an entire day on a battlefield, and face down hundreds of opponents. Worse still, the first can happen the day after the second. In real life, that's to be expected. As a player in a game, I would hate to lose my lovingly crafted PC to a random encounter because of one lucky hit. I want my (presumably) plot-important character to have some form of &quot;plot protection.&quot;I think some of this may be a case of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. Someone gets it in their head that the assumed rules don't jive with their concept of &quot;reality&quot; and claims to want a &quot;realistic&quot; game. In my experience, what most people really mean is &quot;more lethal,&quot; &quot;more realistic,&quot; or simply &quot;less over-the-top.&quot; The first is, I think, what players hear - and have no interest in. The second and third may be what DM's intend.But honestly, who wants to be the random extra who dies in scene 1? In a &quot;realistic&quot; game, that can happen to anyone at any time. Meaningless death is going to be the natural result of &quot;action-adventure setting&quot; and &quot;realistic physics.&quot; Nobody objects to it in principle - they just don't want their character to be the one who dies that way.Keep in mind that &quot;realism&quot; is an absurd concept in a fantasy game anyway. What's the &quot;realistic&quot; result of an armored knight (or swashbucking rogue) with a magic sword facing off against a monstrous troll or spellcasting dragon in one-on-one combat. None of us has a clue.Just some food for thought.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="JohnSnow, post: 4987732, member: 32164"] I would submit that plenty of DMs who understand the reality of combat and action actually lean away from "realistic" physics. For example, I took Asian martial arts when I was younger and one of my current hobbies is swordfighting. In addition to practicing it, I've read numerous books about the reality of it. As such, I have a [I]very[/I] healthy respect for "real" combat. I also know I wouldn't enjoy it in a game. Why? Real combat is very swingy - you never know who is going to live and who is going to die. The greatest swordsman in the world can be killed - dead - by one lucky shot from a novice. Or he might live through an entire day on a battlefield, and face down hundreds of opponents. Worse still, the first can happen the day after the second. In real life, that's to be expected. As a player in a game, I would hate to lose my lovingly crafted PC to a random encounter because of one lucky hit. I want my (presumably) plot-important character to have some form of "plot protection." I think some of this may be a case of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. Someone gets it in their head that the assumed rules don't jive with their concept of "reality" and claims to want a "realistic" game. In my experience, what most people really mean is "more lethal," "more realistic," or simply "less over-the-top." The first is, I think, what players hear - and have no interest in. The second and third may be what DM's intend. But honestly, who wants to be the random extra who dies in scene 1? In a "realistic" game, that can happen to anyone at any time. Meaningless death is going to be the natural result of "action-adventure setting" and "realistic physics." Nobody objects to it in principle - they just don't want their character to be the one who dies that way. Keep in mind that "realism" is an absurd concept in a fantasy game anyway. What's the "realistic" result of an armored knight (or swashbucking rogue) with a magic sword facing off against a monstrous troll or spellcasting dragon in one-on-one combat. None of us has a clue. Just some food for thought. [/QUOTE]

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