MichaelSomething
Legend
A wise man once said,
"You gotta know when to hold'em;
Know when to fold'em;
And know when to walk away"
D&D 5E Why my friends hate talking to me about 5e.
- Thread starter James Gasik
- Start date
"You gotta know when to hold'em;
Know when to fold'em;
And know when to walk away"
DND_Reborn
The High Aldwin
You realize you aren't even responding to what I was talking about, don't you?
My response was to the BOLDED comment above.
I certainly do NOT act like the only possible states are "death waits behind every corner" and have not said that it is the only state.
In fact, my "Candyland" comment did precisely what it was supposed to do--challenge the OP to think about what they do want, which was the question I asked immediately after the comment.
Then when the OP wrote this
I immediately wrote:
Which was precisely the intent--to challenge the OP. Who admitted my "bluntness" (which was my intent--not to disparage) had this affect:
So, mission accomplished.
It was challenging. Blunt? Sure! Honest? Yes. But also effective. You might feel it was "unnecessarily aggressive", to which I say...
OK. I think everyone participating in this thread is aware of this. But that doesn't tell us anything about how combat should be adjudicated, and whether or not combat in a RPG is fun and engaging only if PC death is on the line. Which was what @Micah Sweet asserted in post 157.
Who does the "you" in the second sentence refer to?
The players of a RPG are (typically) not in danger. The risks they are exposed to (from gameplay - I'm ignoring the wider social context) are boredom, frustration, anti-climax, and similar experiences that often occur when a game doesn't play as one hoped that it would.
I still don't know who your pronouns are referring to: the PCs (they're in danger, but they don't play through any rounds) or the players (they're not in danger, and they're the ones who play through rounds). You also seem to be equating "failure" with "danger" in a way that is confusing.
As I posted upthread, the reasons for playing through a combat can be many. They might be similar to the reasons for playing friendly hands of cards, or for spending time solving crosswords. It's possible to be stumped by a crossword; but that doesn't mean you can't pick up another one and try that. It's possible to lose at cards, but as I posted if playing friendly hands then the response is simply to deal another hand and keep playing.
In the context of RPGing, presumably we resolve combats to find out what happens, both during and as a result of the fighting. That is completely independent of whether or not the death of PCs is in prospect.
I personally find Prince Valiant a far more engaging RPG than 5e D&D, even though 5e D&D has extensive rules for the death of PCs, while Prince Valiant contains the statement (p 26 of the rulebook) that "Normally, death is not an important part of Prince Valiant."
I would say the same of Torchbearer 2nd ed: and in Torchbearer if the players initiate a Capture or Drive Off conflict, rather than a Kill conflict, then PC death will not be on the line.
The fun and engagement comes (in Prince Valiant) mostly from the fiction, and also (in Torchbearer) from the mechanics and the skilled play of the system. The fact that, in the fiction, defeat for PCs takes a form other than PC death doesn't make the play of the game less fun and engaging. And for the reasons that @EzekielRaiden and @James Gasik have given, it can make the game more fun and engaging, as there is not the prospect of being evicted from play for an extended period.
I hope I'm not derailing this thread by replying to this three days later, but this really struck a cord with me.
I hear this all the time: if you want an "old school" feel, go play 1e or Basic (or a retroclone like OSRIC). But if what if you want an OSR feel, but don't want to go back to those nonsensical 1e saving throws? Or to wizards being useless dart-throwers at level one, and gaining levels at a snail's pace, but then turning into gods? I could go on, but I'm not trying to start another dumb edition war. You get my point: I want some old-school sensibility without losing all the improvements we've made in the game over the last 40-ish years. There's a lot that I miss from the D&D of my youth in the early 80s, but there's also a lot that I never, ever want in my game again.
So "just use Old-School Essentials" (or whatever) isn't necessarily the answer. It isn't for me, at least. Discussions like this one serve a purpose -- some of us love 5e, but want the threat of death to be a little more toothy.
Make this game and you can have all my money.
James Gasik
We don't talk about Pun-Pun
Ok, but look at what you need to do to get that old school feel. First, you might need to go back to rolling hit points for players and monsters. The current hit point progression as levels rise gives a very generous "average result rounded up", which I feel gives characters of all levels a good, padded hit point total that they can rely on.
Then you might need to cut this hit point progression down to a slow crawl after level 10 or so.
From here, you might need to remove healing word from the game, and change cure wounds so that it can't be upcast, instead bringing back cure serious wounds as a 4th level spell, cure critical wounds as a 5th, and heal as a 6th level spell. Oh and also perhaps remove breath of life.
Bards may have to lose access to healing spells entirely.
From there, you might replace death saving throws with "death at 0", 2e "death's door" that lets you linger to -10, losing a hit point each round, or even 1e's original version, which as I recall, lets you linger to -3. And removing "heal from 0" from the equation.
Now if that's not enough for you, perhaps add a critical hit table for more fun, such as this gem from Dragon #39.
At this point, you may find your game sufficiently resembles the gritty risk of previous editions to ensure challenging play with cautious, fearful adventurers. If this does not suffice, however, perhaps you might have a copy (or precure one) of Grimtooth's Traps, an excellent series of tomes designed to make D&D (or any game, really) into an exercise truly worthy of "real gamers".
Yeah but then the bad guys just dash as well, and then reengage with you, so your eating an OA on every turn and not really getting away.
Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
Or… You know, just give a level of exhaustion at 0 hp. That sounds both much easier and much more enjoyable for everyone involved.
Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
As opposed to disengaging, in which case they don’t have to dash to reengage with you and have their action available to use multiattack, or cast a spell, or make a ranged attack, and you’ve covered less ground in the meantime, and they still have their reaction available.
seems like this boils down to bounded accuracy and limiting magic items limits the game options for Players and DM. 5e designers for the best of reasons created a far more limited version of D&D than everyone was used to playing. I also think the whole 5 ft this and f5 ft that to make the combat more tactical causes just as many problems if you want to play a heroic or high fantasy game. For me anyway flexibilty and options make a better game. And even as a DM I don't want to be worrying about who stepped 5ft this way or that way unless it's a dungeon crawl. It's just not fun.
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