Would you use or allow average damage to speed up gameplay?

[Lord Zardoz]

Minor Addendum

Using averages also makes for crappier stories.

I am sure everyone can recall in game events where the Dice Gods took over and turned what should have been a typical encounter into something memorable.

In a game I ran, I was using mounted warrors with lances, using the Players Option: Combat and Tactics rules in 2nd Ed. for Critical Hits. First attack in the fight, I hit one of the players, and got a natural 20. I rolled out the critical hit, and dropped him from 30 odd Hp to below -10. I had also rolled up the critical hits on the chart, and got 'chest destroyed, target dead'. The character was later raised. If we were using averages, this would have just been a damaging attack.

I also recall reading on this forum a story where a bunch of Orc commandos got an ambush on the players. They were tough opponents, having a few class levels, but certaintly within reason for the party. However, the Orcs started scoring crits, and the players who were many levels higher then the Orcs were getting slaugtered. Behind the curtain, the DM who posted the story said he internally nerfed them, quietly diverting the Orcs stats back to standard issue. But they were still scoring criticals. In the end, all but 1 or 2 of the party were dead, and the orcs were defeated.

Anyone who uses dice can relate stories where the laws of probability took a vacation and turned an ordinary encounter into something memorable. Without dice, this just wont happen.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Personally, I consider the absolute knowledge of enemy damage (or rather, the ILLUSION of absolute knowledge) a strong argument in FAVOR of average damage. It is, IMO, more tactical. Chess uses 'average damage;' so do most older wargames, although the modern tactical-scale wargames generally do use dice.

Of course, a smart opponent may hide the fact that he has a 1/encounter special attack that can actually deal 40 damage instead of 20 until the last minute to catch his foe off guard.

 

[Abraxas]

Thanks. Don't include this, don't include that. No reasoning at all, just don't include it. Got it. Thanks for the input.

Hmm, I thought it was apparent why I listed those items and am surprised you need my reasoning.
I find that pretty funny given your complaint about how people have misconstrued the focus of your poll.

 

[Simm]

The only time I could ever see myself using average damage is for that epic spell which causes 306d6 damage to the enemy. Remembering that I entered the hobby through Warhammer the joy of watching 20 or 30 d6 roll across the table is music to my ears and destruction to my enemy.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Something to bear in mind, Takasi, is that clarity and balance in the polls is more important than humor, and when people critisize a thread or a poll there is generally a reason for it. (Gods knows that some of my polls have wilted under the harsh glare of necessary criticism. ) Try not to be so defensive when people critisize the thread, or disagree with it.

The Auld Grump