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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 4706107" data-attributes="member: 4937">In D&amp;D, player characters have hit points - usually, a lot of them to give ablative protection against such things.&nbsp; They are also walking engines of destruction.&nbsp; They are 'Conan'.&nbsp; They are 'Gandalf' (who was arguably 6th level, remember?).&nbsp; That provides plenty of protection against realistic ordinary hazards.&nbsp; They can randomly walk into the middle of a robbery, but the outcome is likely to be alot different than me or you walking into a robbery.&nbsp; Random scrub NPC's are highly unlikely to be more than 4th level (and probably less) if I'm running the game.&nbsp; The PC's walking randomly into a robbery, however realistic that may be, is more than likely an oppurtunity to play golden age superheroes for a scene than a TPK.&nbsp; It'll be the robbers, not the PC's, at the wrong place at the wrong time in all liklihood.&nbsp; The real interesting part of that scene for me won't be providing a 'level appropriate challenge' which it will only be in a very narrow band, but how do the PC's excercise their power.&nbsp; At first level, it probably means cowering with the other customers, and perhaps not even responding to attacks against them and hoping to appear as non-threatening as possible.&nbsp; At 10th level, it probably means the lives of the robbers are in their hands to do with as they please.&nbsp; And the thing is, it could be the very same robbers.&nbsp; That might be an interesting coincidence where I'd put my thumb on the 'dice' as it were. Still, whatever style of play you use, there is always a chance that the ogre scores a crtical with his battle axe and drops the PC instantly or provokes save vs. massive damage that drops the PC instantly.&nbsp; The random unfair death can occur even in an 'level appropriate encounter'.&nbsp; So, I don't see a point in complaining too much about real or simulated randomness.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 4706107, member: 4937"] In D&D, player characters have hit points - usually, a lot of them to give ablative protection against such things. They are also walking engines of destruction. They are 'Conan'. They are 'Gandalf' (who was arguably 6th level, remember?). That provides plenty of protection against realistic ordinary hazards. They can randomly walk into the middle of a robbery, but the outcome is likely to be alot different than me or you walking into a robbery. Random scrub NPC's are highly unlikely to be more than 4th level (and probably less) if I'm running the game. The PC's walking randomly into a robbery, however realistic that may be, is more than likely an oppurtunity to play golden age superheroes for a scene than a TPK. It'll be the robbers, not the PC's, at the wrong place at the wrong time in all liklihood. The real interesting part of that scene for me won't be providing a 'level appropriate challenge' which it will only be in a very narrow band, but how do the PC's excercise their power. At first level, it probably means cowering with the other customers, and perhaps not even responding to attacks against them and hoping to appear as non-threatening as possible. At 10th level, it probably means the lives of the robbers are in their hands to do with as they please. And the thing is, it could be the very same robbers. That might be an interesting coincidence where I'd put my thumb on the 'dice' as it were. Still, whatever style of play you use, there is always a chance that the ogre scores a crtical with his battle axe and drops the PC instantly or provokes save vs. massive damage that drops the PC instantly. The random unfair death can occur even in an 'level appropriate encounter'. So, I don't see a point in complaining too much about real or simulated randomness. [/QUOTE]

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