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<blockquote data-quote="Oligopsony" data-source="post: 9082269" data-attributes="member: 56314">I see where you get the impression but that's not quite accurate.(Insofar as it's close to accurate, it also is for a lot of other games, maybe even most 5e tables, where d20+bonus is invoked and adjudicated in pretty ad hoc ways.)Combat is a sort of rules wrapper, right? (The term of art is &quot;procedures&quot; in the subculture.) You have these known increments of time, people are doing things in that time, sometimes those things are known like &quot;I swing my sword at him,&quot; sometimes they're improvised, like &quot;I kick the rickety pillar to cause a distraction,&quot; or whatever.Systems favored by the OSR include ways of putting a rules wrapper like that into dungeon and wilderness exploration. The wrapper is something like: &quot;In ten minutes, you can move methodically and carefully through one room, or quickly and carelessly through three. At the end of the ten, GM rolls for random encounters&quot; for the dungeon, for instance. Torches deplete after an hour, or according to die rolls. In the wildnerness, you have longer time increments, but rations are depleting, and you're trading off thorough exploration against time, and against random encounters.Random encounters don't mean combat. They might be friendly (their disposition is random too) and overmatched or intimidated opponents will flee. They might be both unfriendly and stronger than you, in which case the correct decision is to find a way to not fight them - flee or bluster or bargain or beg or sneak around.The GM is a neutral referee. She prepares locations, not stories. Concrete time and random rolls mean that the GM really can't preplan a story, though she will put thought into factions, worldbuilding, adventure hooks, all the rest.The interesting decisions are meant to be outside of combat. (Which may not be what you're looking for! That's fine too.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Oligopsony, post: 9082269, member: 56314"] I see where you get the impression but that's not [I]quite [/I]accurate. (Insofar as it's [I]close to[/I] accurate, it also is for a lot of other games, maybe even most 5e tables, where d20+bonus is invoked and adjudicated in pretty ad hoc ways.) Combat is a sort of rules wrapper, right? (The term of art is "procedures" in the subculture.) You have these known increments of time, people are doing things in that time, sometimes those things are known like "I swing my sword at him," sometimes they're improvised, like "I kick the rickety pillar to cause a distraction," or whatever. Systems favored by the OSR include ways of putting a rules wrapper like that into dungeon and wilderness exploration. The wrapper is something like: "In ten minutes, you can move methodically and carefully through one room, or quickly and carelessly through three. At the end of the ten, GM rolls for random encounters" for the dungeon, for instance. Torches deplete after an hour, or according to die rolls. In the wildnerness, you have longer time increments, but rations are depleting, and you're trading off thorough exploration against time, and against random encounters. Random encounters don't mean combat. They might be friendly (their disposition is random too) and overmatched or intimidated opponents will flee. They might be both unfriendly and stronger than you, in which case the correct decision is to find a way to not fight them - flee or bluster or bargain or beg or sneak around. The GM is a neutral referee. She prepares locations, not stories. Concrete time and random rolls mean that the GM really [I]can't[/I] preplan a story, though she will put thought into factions, worldbuilding, adventure hooks, all the rest. The interesting decisions are meant to be outside of combat. (Which may not be what you're looking for! That's fine too.) [/QUOTE]

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