Totally agree with not treating combat as a fail state. Combat is one of the most fun parts of the game and makes up the majority of the rules in most OSR books.
The main issue I have with combat is that it's usually the only crunchy part of a session. We're all sitting around a table telling a story, loose and free form, with a simple dice roll every so often, just focusing on what makes sense in the fictional world. But then when combat starts, everything slows to a crawl as we bust out charts for weapons and armor, repeatedly ask for target hit values. I've found it hard to keep the collective, fictional dream flowing with descriptive details when we're doing math and looking up values on sheets and charts and so on.
Totally agree with not treating combat as a fail state. Combat is one of the most fun parts of the game and makes up the majority of the rules in most OSR books.
HACK (and slash) THE PLANET!
Glad to have another individual of culture on board here.
The main issue I have with combat is that it's usually the only crunchy part of a session. We're all sitting around a table telling a story, loose and free form, with a simple dice roll every so often, just focusing on what makes sense in the fictional world. But then when combat starts, everything slows to a crawl as we bust out charts for weapons and armor, repeatedly ask for target hit values. I've found it hard to keep the collective, fictional dream flowing with descriptive details when we're doing math and looking up values on sheets and charts and so on.
I love combat and my PCs love it.