Key Our Cars

I found this post, actually from Mike Mearl’s Twits, and really wanted to make sure it gets as broadspread an audience as possible so I’m reposting it in part here and if you want to read the whole thing please follow the link.

It’s a good read for most people I think, especially for those who say roleplaying is dead.  It’s only as dead as you let it be.

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Here’s why minatures fuck up our roleplaying. Actually, let’s be precise: here’s why strongly tactical combat systems mess up our roleplaying. If you’re anything like me, and if a tactical combat system appeals to you, you’re going to get into the tactics. You’re going to want to think about the optimal choice, and you’re going to want to use your resources effectively, and you’re going to want to do the right things to win the fight.

Thus, a combat becomes an exercise in what you the player think you the character should do at any given point. The question of the character’s desires tends to fall by the wayside, since those desires do not affect the tactical situation in any way.

Making the right tactical decision improves the chances of survival for both your character and the other characters in the game. That makes the other players happy. You get the satisfaction of beating the GM, which is also kind of fun. The frame changes from whatever it was before (telling a story, exploring the world, whatever) to winning the fight.

Yup. Miniatures fuck up roleplaying.

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Step four: make your character do whatever your character would do. Fuck tactics. If your character wants to blow off the big bad because the guy he loves is at the other side of the room getting eaten by a basilisk, charge across the room and take opportunity attacks and save his lover’s ass. When in doubt, do the less tactically advantageous thing. Get used to screwing up, you big damn hero. Heros screw up all the time!