Do people really enjoy close battles?

[BRC]

Last night was a case in point. (D&D 5e).

Very hard fight, very close to losing a PC to PC death (he was at two failed death saves, 1 success, when someone got a healing word to him). Lots of conditions imposed on players, opposing casters casting spells like fireball, darkness, hold person ...

Some key tactical decisions made by the players made a substantial difference in the outcome.
Dice weren't particularly cruel to either side, a few crits here and there, nothing out of the ordinary.

As they explored after the big fight another pocket of enemies cropped up when they went down stairs - near the session's end - three of the party had single digit HP before they left the temple behind them, on fire from the fires they'd set before they headed back to town.

To a man, the players were exultant and gave me the old "great session!" feedback.

Do we have one of these in every session?
No.

And most notably, at the end of the session, the PC's went home.

Which means they recovered the resources (Health ect) that they spent.

Which means that being forced to SPEND those resources becomes a sign of how much they Triumphed Over Great Odds, rather than a Cost They Were Forced To Pay.

Because if you're going to full heal anyway, having taken damage doesn't feel bad.

Spending spell slots doesn't feel bad if you are just going to get them back.


If you follow the pattern of a few "Resource Drain" encounters (PC victory is basically guaranteed, the question is what it will COST the PC's to win), followed by the Big Fight, then the big fight makes the resource drainers feel better.

IF you end the Big Fight having spent every spell slot you had, it meant you needed them, which means you made good decisions in the Resource Drainer fights earlier (since you clearly emerged from those with enough resources to Win The Big Fight).


When people say they want "Close Fights" what they mean is "I want to feel like I, the Player, can take credit for the victory, rather than just winning by virtue of having good enough stats". A Close Fight Demonstrates that something the Player did was integral to the victory. That is the feeling of Triumph that doesn't come from a cakewalk fight.


But players are paranoid, which means that feeling of Triumph can only come if the Victory was complete. If you know you have more fights ahead of you, then a fight in which you expended ANY resources is not a complete victory, since you might have won that fight at the cost of losing one down the line.