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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 3767797" data-attributes="member: 42582">You asserted at your post #502 that &quot;If a battle does not use up per-day resources, nothing is lost in engaging in that battle. This means . . . [t]he only significant impact of these battles can be the opportunity to give the PCs stuff.&quot;I deny this. There can be other significant impacts, namely thematic ones.Jackelope King also denies it, though he has referred to story/plot impacts rather than thematic ones (not that these two categories are mutually exclusive):As for the following:This is true. But it doesn't show that every encounter in a per-encounter model will not be signficant, because it doesn't show that resource-consumption is that only dimension of significance.It is correct that a per-encounter model discourages &quot;encounters-for-the-sake-of-encounters&quot; which do nothing but soak resources. But it is quite arguable that this is a sensible design goal (although to an extent it does push D&amp;D away from its roots).There is a style of play which has nothing to do with railroading, and has everything to do with thematic exploration. This is a style in which the players determine the thematic priorities of play, and pursue those themes through their in-play choices. Many RPG systems have mechanics to support the players in doing these (eg TRoS's Spiritual Attributes). Gizmo33 and I discussed these above in a number of posts. He concluded that he does not enjoy this sort of &quot;storyteller&quot; game. That is fine - I get the sense that you don't either - but it has nothing to do with railroading. And it is a style of play which per-encounter abilities may better suppot.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 3767797, member: 42582"] You asserted at your post #502 that "If a battle does not use up per-day resources, nothing is lost in engaging in that battle. This means . . . [t]he only significant impact of these battles can be the opportunity to give the PCs stuff." I deny this. There can be other significant impacts, namely thematic ones. Jackelope King also denies it, though he has referred to story/plot impacts rather than thematic ones (not that these two categories are mutually exclusive): As for the following: This is true. But it doesn't show that every encounter in a per-encounter model will not be signficant, because it doesn't show that resource-consumption is that only dimension of significance. It is correct that a per-encounter model discourages "encounters-for-the-sake-of-encounters" which do nothing but soak resources. But it is quite arguable that this is a sensible design goal (although to an extent it does push D&D away from its roots). There is a style of play which has [i]nothing[/i] to do with railroading, and has everything to do with thematic exploration. This is a style in which the [i]players[/i] determine the thematic priorities of play, and pursue those themes through their in-play choices. Many RPG systems have mechanics to support the players in doing these (eg TRoS's Spiritual Attributes). Gizmo33 and I discussed these above in a number of posts. He concluded that he does not enjoy this sort of "storyteller" game. That is fine - I get the sense that you don't either - but it has [i]nothing[/i] to do with railroading. And it is a style of play which per-encounter abilities may better suppot. [/QUOTE]

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