Cuddling with the 800 lbs. Gorilla

There is a big bad monkey in my lawn and he is certainly not going away! I recently wrote an entry titled “There is a Gap Between Us”, and I’ve realized that people have mostly gotten the wrong impression from it; the “screaming maniac who thinks that the mere mention of D&D is worse than killing puppies” kind of impression.

That is simply wrong, and you might be rejoiced to know that I harbor a certain affection for that bulky primate. In fact, our bond is so strong that I have set my sights on a fabulous journey of RPG goodness that will take me through all the core books of its latest incarnation as I madly chop and cut to take D&D to its true unD&D potential (hint: that was sarcasm.)

Kick Combat Back Into Shape! -part 2-

Physical combat has been a part of roleplaying games for as long as I can remember. While this focus on combat might not be true for every roleplaying system out there, most rpg products have at least a section devoted to it and some might have as little as a section devoted to anything else.

This time, we’ll be putting conflict resolution on turbo wheels and hope it doesn’t crash. We’ll have a deeper look at some other ways we can treat combat resolution that are geared towards more efficiently creating a narrative that stands of top of meaningful choice, instead of tactical detail.

Kick Combat Back Into Shape! -part 1-

Physical combat has been a part of roleplaying games for as long as I can remember. While this focus on combat might not be true for every roleplaying system out there, most rpg products have at least a section devoted to it and some might have as little as a section devoted to anything else. Among people who have played RPGs for some time, this is standard knowledge.

What interests me is that, while a lot of games set a pretty comprehensive framework to resolve physical combat, I have seen very little in terms of actually making an interesting combat scene. This can be very problematic and can turn a supposedly exciting part of the story into 3 hour long boardgames. Let’s get to the roleplaying gym and see if we can kick combat back into shape!