cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/72779747

Maybe it’s not the best term for it, but it’s the one I’m most familiar with. It’s generally used in contrast to combat-as-sport. Combat-as-sport is when combat is treated as a fair and balanced contest of skills and abilities. The DM provided the fight, therefore the fight must be viable, therefore if we play it smart, we should be able to win. Combat-as-war is when you may not know if the DM gave you a fair fight, and even if they did, fuck fair, we want to wake up tomorrow, and the 50/50 odds of that from fair aren’t what we’re after, so lay traps and ambushes, weaponize every aspect of the terrain, and overall make sure you could smite anything short of the gods themselves in spite of your level, not because of it. Tucker’s Kobolds are a classic case of combat-as-war, but waged by the enemy instead of the players. They’re deeply entrenched, they’ve weaponized the terrain to the best of their abilities, and despite their pitiful HD, their tactics and coordination can strike fear into the hearts of mid-to-high level PCs.

I’m trying to get some friends to embrace the OSR style, and I think this is something they could use a new perspective on. They’re used to playing the latest edition of D&D, and they get creative sometimes, but they focus so much on their character’s skills and abilities, they overlook what the scenario provides them. So what has your group done? How’d you pull the BBEG down several levels earlier than the DM planned? How did you rapidly convert that random encounter into a random loot roll?