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Author Topic: ". . . you will end up killing things 95% of the time."  (Read 9329 times)

Black Vulmea

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". . . you will end up killing things 95% of the time."
« on: June 05, 2013, 01:39:48 AM »
Quote
Don't play D&D. Seriously. D&D's mechanics point you so hard at killing things, you will end up killing things 95% of the time.

Something like DungeonWorld, or Iron Heroes (a D&D 3.5 variant), will give you far better options towards NOT killing people and instead interacting with them beyond the sword. (source

Poor Dr Rotwang was beside himself over this, though he did manage to sum it up pretty concisely: "THIS IS BULLSHIT."

The pink-tie'd one is correct. I have to wonder, were these people dropped on their heads in the baby ward or something?

So, how 'bout it, gamers? Is 95% of your time spent playing D&D devoted to killing things? How 'bout other roleplaying games? Which ones offer you far better options to killing things?
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Planet Algol

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". . . you will end up killing things 95% of the time."
« Reply #1 on: June 05, 2013, 01:59:10 AM »
Iron Heroes is less about killing things than D&D?
:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
Yeah, but who gives a fuck? You? Jibba?

Well congrats. No one else gives a shit, so your arguments are a waste of breath.

Soylent Green

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". . . you will end up killing things 95% of the time."
« Reply #2 on: June 05, 2013, 02:18:56 AM »
Well let's see.

In a supehero game you spend 95% of your time fighting, but no one ever dies.

In Call of Cthulhu you spend 95% of your time in a library only to go insane. Score!

In Ghostbusters you are more likely to get slimed than bloody.
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Ratman_tf

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". . . you will end up killing things 95% of the time."
« Reply #3 on: June 05, 2013, 02:25:27 AM »
It's 100% killing things at my table! Otherwise I start throwing dice at my players and calling them pussies.
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The Traveller

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". . . you will end up killing things 95% of the time."
« Reply #4 on: June 05, 2013, 03:43:04 AM »
What does he have against killing things? Now if he was talking about brazen displays of nipples that would be a different story...
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crkrueger

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". . . you will end up killing things 95% of the time."
« Reply #5 on: June 05, 2013, 04:10:11 AM »
It's really ironic that someone suggested a 3.5 variant as a replacement.  The OP in that reddit thread was talking about his Pathfinder players always shitting on NPCs and provoking combat.

In other words, this OP guy is blaming bad behavior at the gaming table on the game system and is looking to fix it via the game system.  His characters are CharOp whackjobs who like stroking themselves to the sounds of dice propelling their character builds through the opposition with no consequence whatsoever.  He's running the kind of adolescent powertrip game most of us got out of our system at 13.

This guy is a shit GM so he needs a safe hugbox where his players can't hurt him, a new school game is definitely in order.  One more for Dungeon World.
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JamesV

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". . . you will end up killing things 95% of the time."
« Reply #6 on: June 05, 2013, 05:38:57 AM »
I would recommend RIFTS. That way the GM will be sure that no more than 98% of the game will be about combat. D&D has no such limit.
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Kyle Aaron

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". . . you will end up killing things 95% of the time."
« Reply #7 on: June 05, 2013, 06:17:09 AM »
He could play GURPS. With one second combat rounds and enough books to consult for optional rules, nobody will enter combat because by the time you find out if your character lived or died, you don't care anymore.
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Shawn Driscoll

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". . . you will end up killing things 95% of the time."
« Reply #8 on: June 05, 2013, 06:30:02 AM »
In Mongoose Traveller, fighting to the death means, "Ref, print me up another character sheet!  I'm going to need one!"
« Last Edit: June 05, 2013, 08:09:13 AM by Shawn Driscoll »

Melan

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". . . you will end up killing things 95% of the time."
« Reply #9 on: June 05, 2013, 07:53:51 AM »
Quote from: Kyle Aaron;660080
He could play GURPS. With one second combat rounds and enough books to consult for optional rules, nobody will enter combat because by the time you find out if your character lived or died, you don't care anymore.

Spending an hour simulating the outcome of a one-second round is the height of realism.

On the other hand, I have filled out a Shadowrun character exactly once, and since a simple character idea like an electronics/demo specialist took about three times as much as my taxes, I was very-very careful not to get him killed.
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Kyle Aaron

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". . . you will end up killing things 95% of the time."
« Reply #10 on: June 05, 2013, 08:07:32 AM »
Options beg decisions. Many options lead to slower decisions. I recall reading Arneson claiming that he designed the dungeon simply because the players kept arguing about what direction to go, and wandering off the fucking map. How to ensure they had only a few choices of direction and had to stay on the map? Put HUGE CHUNKS OF STONE IN THE WAY.

That way you can get on with the important stuff, like killing.

I'm happy for players to parley, it's just that they're so fucking bad at it. Just last night they were interrogating a captured bandit.
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Silverlion

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". . . you will end up killing things 95% of the time."
« Reply #11 on: June 05, 2013, 08:10:23 AM »
Well, amazingly enough, I've found that D&D can indeed be played without fighting and killing all the time. The same as any other game. Its called role-playing, and people do it quite well without needing explicit and detailed rules for it. (If only combat was as workable and fair that way...)
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RandallS

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". . . you will end up killing things 95% of the time."
« Reply #12 on: June 05, 2013, 08:21:00 AM »
Quote from: Black Vulmea;660031
So, how 'bout it, gamers? Is 95% of your time spent playing D&D devoted to killing things? How 'bout other roleplaying games? Which ones offer you far better options to killing things?

Even in dungeon adventures (selected because they are the only thing likely to be a combat fest I run) , my groups seldom have anything like a 95% kill rate. Opponents generally run away, surrender, make a deal, are worked around because they appear to be too powerful, etc. at least as often as they get killed. Timewise, far less than 95% of play time in dungeon adventure is spent "killing things." Even in a combat-heavy dungeon session, I imagine my players would rebel if more than 50% of play time was combat.
« Last Edit: June 05, 2013, 08:53:50 AM by RandallS »
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Bill

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". . . you will end up killing things 95% of the time."
« Reply #13 on: June 05, 2013, 08:33:56 AM »
95% ????

Ok, I suppose some game groups might enjoy non stop combat.

But not me.

Personally I prefer a rough estimate of 10% combat, 90% everything else that makes a campaign come to life.

Combat can be quite fun but 95% is way too much for me.

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". . . you will end up killing things 95% of the time."
« Reply #14 on: June 05, 2013, 08:45:21 AM »
Some people seem to be unaware of the fact that D&D existed prior to WOTC. These people should either do a little research or keep thier mouth shut to stem the tide of shit spewing forth.

I would invite these buttmunchers to attempt killing things 95% of the time in an OD&D game. They would spend way more time rolling stats for new characters than playing the game.
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