Re: Re: [DL] Re: deadlands D20

[Allan Seyberth <darious@darious.com>]

>D&D combat is an abstraction. Each round does not represent a single 
>attack, but all of you maneuvering, parrying etc and the roll represents 
>whether or not all of that was good enough to actually hurt your 
>opponent.. In those 6 seconds you can only decide a very small portion of 
>what to do: Move, try to attack, defend, etc. Combat is supposed to be 
>epic and full of non lethal hits...

The problem is that D20 is both abstract AND complex.  The worse of both 
possible design choices.  Normally the choice is realism vs. complexity.

And the "abstraction" rule breaks down when you actually look at the system 
- for example - Magic Missile never misses, yet my 4th level fighter still 
has to be hit by 22 of them on average before he goes unconscious.  Time 
and time again the rules use hit points as flat out "damage capacity".

-------------------
Allan Seyberth
darious@darious.com
Deadlands fan site - http://www.darious.com/

Everybody wants to save the earth; nobody wants to help Mom do the dishes.
                 -P.J. O'Rourke