tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111427000351828107.post8772055871241886302..comments2024-03-27T23:06:18.364-05:00Comments on A Knight at the Opera: Not All Balance is the SameDwizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17255968459773708115noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111427000351828107.post-41698464668259230022023-02-08T16:11:13.582-05:002023-02-08T16:11:13.582-05:00Showing up very late to the party, but whenever pe...Showing up very late to the party, but whenever people talk about random tables and how they can suck (your description is spot on, by the way; I see those constantly), I always think of Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, for GameCube. Did anyone here play that?<br /><br />Occasionally, while you were traveling on the overworld map with your little caravan, you would trigger their version of random encounters -- except instead of fights, they could be one-off meetings with named NPCs that would show up again later, or quick conversations where you were given agency in a dialogue box only once to make an impression on someone, or rumblings of things that might happen later, or, or, etc.<br /><br />They were great for worldbuilding, flavor, and for instilling a sort of "Will this choice I made here come back later, in some fashion?" mystique, that kept you guessing as a player as to what the game was choosing to remember and when. I encourage all DMs/GMs to make their random encounters more like that -- quick portraits of the world, conversations with passing merchants where you get to learn something or impress someone, a gambling match where you win a cool, but unmagical trinket that might come up again later. And if you ARE going to make it combat, make it a quick scrap with a tiny story to tell.<br /><br />But yeah, all D&D sourcebooks have them looking like "1. A scorpion. 2. A big scorpion. 3. I dunno, a weird plant. 4. A scorpion plant."Entelechyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11823535477660672503noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111427000351828107.post-36873029942570931252023-01-03T13:28:02.007-05:002023-01-03T13:28:02.007-05:00Encounter variance is at least _suggested_ on page...Encounter variance is at least _suggested_ on page 84 of the 5E DMG, but I think the failure mode is this:<br /><br />- more detailed combats from 3E/4E/5E are slower<br />- at-EL or below-EL combats are less challenging<br />- slow combats without much risk are unrewarding<br /><br />... so there's a gradient towards fewer tougher fights. 6-8 equal-CR fights in 5e will take a lot of table time, not provide a lot of excitement, and so be perceived as boring. Cue our host's mention of pacing.Tom Hudsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14295247089905712338noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111427000351828107.post-11358967327059274142023-01-03T09:28:02.809-05:002023-01-03T09:28:02.809-05:00A good and interesting read. One small bit of meta...A good and interesting read. One small bit of meta feedback: I've followed your blog for about a year now, but I find I get intimidated out of reading your longer posts more often than not. I feel like this article (and several others) could have been posted as a series of shorter posts, and this would have made me more likely to read and digest them.Martin Edenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00876386955351511012noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111427000351828107.post-59264506122075379112022-12-28T00:07:06.155-05:002022-12-28T00:07:06.155-05:00Yeah, I'd be happy to. For further reading, I&...Yeah, I'd be happy to. For further reading, I'd like to recommend Prismatic Wasteland's recent series about hexcrawling, where he covered random encounter tables at the beginning of part 2 (https://www.prismaticwasteland.com/blog/hexcrawl-checklist-part-two). This also includes even MORE reading links for you, if you'd like.<br /><br />But my short take is that the most common way that random encounter tables get designed, and one of the worst ways, is that they'll just have a bland set of monsters or wildlife that just "appear" before the PCs, and then... a fun encounter is expected to follow from there. Maybe one side is ambushing the other, but even an encounter that's just, "and then you get attacked by a squad of bandits, go kill 'em" doesn't have much going for it. They're often lacking in motives, an activity they're currently engaged in, a role within the context of the greater area that they're wandering in, and basically just anything that could elevate them to more than mere combat filler. I have had the misfortune of both playing in AND running a few too many hexcrawls where the main "adventure activity" that broke up the logistical gameplay was pretty much just, "alright, you get attacked by wolves. Fight some wildlife now."Dwizhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17255968459773708115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111427000351828107.post-72814835843449251612022-12-26T18:15:22.024-05:002022-12-26T18:15:22.024-05:00"One thing that 3E D&D did change regardi..."One thing that 3E D&D did change regarding balance is the fixation on individual combat encounters." This is undeniably true with regards to the effect 3e had, which is why I think it's interesting that the 3.0 DMG's advice on CR was that about 50% of encounters should be equal to party's EL, some should be slightly higher, some slightly lower, and a small number very easy or very difficult. They had the old school encounter variance baked in as a principle, but it got lost somewhere.<br /><br />RE: the damage-or-maneuver mechanic, it seems to me that it only works if that's just how every attack roll functions. Assuming two parties at full health, the start of the battle will be basic attacks all around and then descend into mostly maneuvers as people get low on HP. Over the course a session the players would probably take a lot of maneuvers to not die, which could showcase lots of fun monster abilities if the DM was prepared for it. I'm still not convinced that that's *good* though.Tom Kilianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17086235205146158319noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111427000351828107.post-25528305025938300162022-12-26T16:56:00.173-05:002022-12-26T16:56:00.173-05:00I would love to see you elaborate on your hex craw...I would love to see you elaborate on your hex crawl section. You mention that random tables make a good starting point but they require a little TLC. Do you have any good examples or previous posts that might be worth reading on the subject?PolarFrostyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00591806633786329722noreply@blogger.com