A definitive "tabletop mode"

[hamskii]

With Magran's Fires and the advent of turn-based combat, it is now possible to customise the gameplay to create a much more simulative experience. This thread is about discussing the combination of NG+ options that come closest to providing a tabletop RPG-like gameplay experience.

 

Things I'm pretty certain about are:

• Turn-based mode: of course.
• Eothas' Challenge: creates a sense of urgency implied by the narrative but not previously reflected in gameplay, and forces players to plan and prioritise rather than swanning about every corner of the map, much like they would in a tabletop RPG.
• Abydon's Challenge: equipment maintenance is a part of many tabletop RPGs, but can be tedious for the GM to track. One of the advantage of video games is that this complexity and tedium can be handled by the game engine.
• Skaen's Challenge: makes light sources a necessary part of adventuring, as they are in many tabletop RPGs.
• Rymyrgand's Challenge: for much the same reasons as Abydon's Challenge.
• Woedica's Challenge: of course. Combined with Eothas' Challenge and Rymyrgand's Challenge, it turns resting into a careful game of resource management.
• Trial of Iron: no do-overs on the tabletop, I'm afraid.
• Classic Difficulty: enemies' stats are enemies' stats, and enemy composition is designed around a balanced gameplay experience. I think Relaxed or Veteran also probably fall into the range of difficulties allowable by this, as although they artificially change enemy composition they don't give them stat buffs or debuffs.
• No Level Scaling

Things I'm not so certain about (would be interested to hear peoples' opinions on these):

• Expert Mode: I guess it's a question of how tough your GM typically is. Do they let players sit and calculate effect radius so that they can avoid friendly fire? If not, then Expert Mode probably needs to be on as well. But given that tabletop is new, it's much more frustrating having it on.
• Berath's Challenge: This simulates the "bleeding out" mechanic of a lot of tabletop RPGs, but given that there is no way to mitigate this, it might be overly punishing, particularly when combined with Woedica's Challenge.
• Magran's Challenge: A common houserule is for players to have only a few seconds to decide their action. In practice, Magran's Challenge gives you less time than that, because you have to wait for your move action to complete before you can take another action. Also, you have to decide what to do for a whole party of characters instead of just your own, so the pace is much more frantic than it would be on the tabletop.

Has anybody else tried a playthrough in "tabletop mode"? What settings did you use? What did you think?

 

EDIT: I had meant to post this in General Discussion rather than Technical Support 

Edited February 10, 2019 by hamskii

[Wormerine]

I put my laptop on the table.

[Verde]

As it is now I'd abound Abydon's challenge. You need to repair too frequently and I think requiring gold is too steep. If you're dungeon crawling what good does using gold do? I wish you could use materials.