Baldur's Gate Combat encounters in IE games vs. pnp AD&D?

[Daemongar]

I disagree with you on the mechanics bit. The ruleset of a PnP game is made to facilitate that sort of thing. I mean sure you have games like D&D 4ED that play like MMOs on paper but from what I saw D&D 5ED (haven't played it just read the rulebook) goes towards much more player driven interaction. Systems and mechanics are just as much about the experience they try to create as they are about the abstract values which they use.

Well, mechanics in a game in and of themselves... are crpgs. There isn't a lot of room to do anything other than what the programmers envisioned. And they can be fun, or else we wouldn't be here But the real strength of tabletop rpgs is the group dynamics. In theory, the conflict should be players vs. world, but in our games, it was always players vs. DM or players vs. players, or players vs. their self destructive tendencies. The game world and it's mechanics kind of took a back seat to rampant drunkenness, squabbling and idiocy.

 

[Xenich]

The game world and it's mechanics kind of took a back seat to rampant drunkenness, squabbling and idiocy.

Played with a few who were like that, didn't bother going to those games very long. If I want to drink and socialize as such, I hit the bars with my friends. I don't need the excuse of a game to socialize with friends, so when we game... we game... when we drink... we drink, but we don't usually drink and game. /shrug

 

[mastroego]

I disagree with you on the mechanics bit. The ruleset of a PnP game is made to facilitate that sort of thing. I mean sure you have games like D&D 4ED that play like MMOs on paper but from what I saw D&D 5ED (haven't played it just read the rulebook) goes towards much more player driven interaction. Systems and mechanics are just as much about the experience they try to create as they are about the abstract values which they use.

Personally I prefer playing with rules-heavy systems, since in PnP you always have the freedom (which you should use) to put rules in the background when it makes sense.
My point is that just by reading through a detailed rulebook you get a sense, or an impression of how things work in the system, which "percolates" through your mind-representation of the fictional world.
Then, while you play, you will have a better judgment of the situations (almost unconsciously), even if you don't stop and apply every little tidbit of rules every time.
This is especially true for the DM, who will have to decide a lot of things by feeling ("what penalty should I apply to this weird offensive attempt?").

Of course, you always have the "anal rules" to go back to when the outcome of an encounter seems particularly dependent on a lot of fine little things and you feel it's important to get it right.

 

[Daemongar]

The game world and it's mechanics kind of took a back seat to rampant drunkenness, squabbling and idiocy.

Played with a few who were like that, didn't bother going to those games very long. If I want to drink and socialize as such, I hit the bars with my friends. I don't need the excuse of a game to socialize with friends, so when we game... we game... when we drink... we drink, but we don't usually drink and game. /shrug

It wasn't just drinking. We'd bring ladies by the game and haul out all assortment of contraband, while fighting off armies of giants with a cross section of heavens host on our heels as we rampaged through Greyhawk. At the time, it was how it was and I didn't question it. Now I know the truth: I gamed with power players who lived life to the fullest. We were so damn busy with important, earth shaking developments and activities, we didn't have time to make crisp, clean lines between our gaming, working, drinking, fighting and fucking. I used to dream of being able to stay sober and level my cleric, but that's not what life had in store for me. A quieter, simpler life of just relaxing in front of a card table, lazily rolling the dice and hitting for just enough to drop that single kobold in the encounter? The good life... I envy you, Xenich. You have something really good. Me? I'm already lost...

 

[Xenich]

The game world and it's mechanics kind of took a back seat to rampant drunkenness, squabbling and idiocy.

Played with a few who were like that, didn't bother going to those games very long. If I want to drink and socialize as such, I hit the bars with my friends. I don't need the excuse of a game to socialize with friends, so when we game... we game... when we drink... we drink, but we don't usually drink and game. /shrug

It wasn't just drinking. We'd bring ladies by the game and haul out all assortment of contraband, while fighting off armies of giants with a cross section of heavens host on our heels as we rampaged through Greyhawk. At the time, it was how it was and I didn't question it. Now I know the truth: I gamed with power players who lived life to the fullest. We were so damn busy with important, earth shaking developments and activities, we didn't have time to make crisp, clean lines between our gaming, working, drinking, fighting and fucking. I used to dream of being able to stay sober and level my cleric, but that's not what life had in store for me. A quieter, simpler life of just relaxing in front of a card table, lazily rolling the dice and hitting for just enough to drop that single kobold in the encounter? The good life... I envy you, Xenich. You have something really good. Me? I'm already lost...

NM... this is dripping with comic sarcasm. My bad. An apropriate module though to run through playing like that, though I always thought these types of scandalous games were played with Paranoid. The happiness officer keeps the party going!

 

[Daemongar]

NM... this is dripping with comic sarcasm. My bad. An apropriate module though to run through playing like that, though I always thought these types of scandalous games were played with Paranoid. The happiness officer keeps the party going!

I wish I was being sarcastic when I state that my work has a CHO team... Chief Happiness Officer... every-time I think about it, I want to throw myself into a volcano... If I'm ever CEO, I'll appoint a CMO - Chief Misery Officer, to mentally torture the peasants. Shouldn't be hard...

Also, we went out sometimes after playing. We just enjoyed the game that much. To each his own.