How happy are you with your regular ruleset?

[prabe]

Sounds like your main problem is that 5e isn't enough of a narrative game for your tastes, is that correct.

It is not correct. D&D works just fine as a narrative game, but it's not a particularly Narrativist one--which is OK with me, as I haven't read or played a Narrativist game that I'd want to play (or play again). It comes across to me as a game that was written with the idea that the DM would be either running a published adventure (and all the published adventures--even that one you love that's a riff on a classic--suck) or running a long adventure they'd written themselves (and GMs who write their own long adventures often end up exhibiting Pygmalion Syndrome).

 

[payn]

In my experience and opinion--I'm not looking for any fights, here:

The problems with 5e are ... well, apart from some features/spells/rules that don't seem to have been super well-considered, mostly about A) the Bonds/Ideals/Flaws/Traits not being super well-implemented, B) Inspiration not being particularly well-implemented (and really being the weak carrot for BIFTs) (and there not really being a stick isn't great, either), and C) the game as written not having any way for the PCs to grab mechanics and push the story in their preferred direction. Better advice for DMs who aren't running published adventures (or trying to imitate them) would have been nice.

BIFTs I believe were purposely left as very optional on purpose. Folks hated alignment, and if you look at any social mechanic thread, dont want a social system mechanics in their D&D. My theory is that "modules" would have been added at a later date to expand on the social aspect, but we know that modules ended up being dropped like their hot.

 

[Tonguez]

BIFTs I believe were purposely left as very optional on purpose. Folks hated alignment, and if you look at any social mechanic thread, dont want a social system mechanics in their D&D. My theory is that "modules" would have been added at a later date to expand on the social aspect, but we know that modules ended up being dropped like their hot.

BIFTs should have been used like Aspects to define how a characters ideals and bonds might affect the world, then it could have been linked to inspiration as a means to gain advantage when invoking things that character cares about

 

[prabe]

BIFTs I believe were purposely left as very optional on purpose. Folks hated alignment, and if you look at any social mechanic thread, dont want a social system mechanics in their D&D. My theory is that "modules" would have been added at a later date to expand on the social aspect, but we know that modules ended up being dropped like their hot.

Thing is, it's relatively easy to re-write the social mechanics in the DMG without having BIFTs to hang them on--and they work better, that way. I did that and then gave my players the rules. They can now play social mechanics as a game, which is fine, because, y'know, we're playing a game.

 

[overgeeked]

BIFTs should have been used like Aspects to define how a characters ideals and bonds might affect the world, then it could have been linked to inspiration as a means to gain advantage when invoking things that character cares about

Or just straight gain dis/advantage on things related to your beliefs, ideals, flaws, and traits. That change alone would skyrocket roleplaying. Inspiration is such a terrible mechanic as is.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Or just straight gain dis/advantage on things related to your beliefs, ideals, flaws, and traits. That change alone would skyrocket roleplaying. Inspiration is such a terrible mechanic as is.

It's amazing to me that World of Darkness 1.0 more or less solved this, IMO, with nature/demeanor, which rewards tokens to players when characters act on their nature when it's to their disadvantage. Mechanical carrots to get folks to at least lightly roleplay and a system that actually models how people behave in the real world a lot more realistically than alignment ever did.

Thirty years later, the rest of the game industry is till very "meh" on the system. Other than the whole sacred cows thing, I just don't get the resistance to this system.

 

[overgeeked]

It's amazing to me that World of Darkness 1.0 more or less solved this, IMO, with nature/demeanor, which rewards tokens to players when characters act on their nature when it's to their disadvantage. Mechanical carrots to get folks to at least lightly roleplay and a system that actually models how people behave in the real world a lot more realistically than alignment ever did.

Thirty years later, the rest of the game industry is till very "meh" on the system. Other than the whole sacred cows thing, I just don't get the resistance to this system.

Some people resist it, some don't. Entire games have been built around similar ideas. You could make a case that Fate's Aspects are basically this mechanic writ large.

Maybe people need a double carrot. Advantage on any relevant rolls plus gaining a token you can spend to get advantage to any roll. But not limited to a binary yes/no like Inspiration. You can hoard them. You get the token for accepting things going bad, wrong, worse, etc related to your BIFTs. That way the players who hate the idea aren't penalized but the players who are into it are rewarded.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Some people resist it, some don't. Entire games have been built around similar ideas. You could make a case that Fate's Aspects are basically this mechanic writ large.

It's in Burning Wheel, too, in the way artha interacts with BITs.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I dunno if I'd say that. I just wish Pathfinder had Beholders and the Warlock class, as an example.

It has a Warlock (Witch) it just may be too different from the one you're familiar with from elsewhere to help.

 

[SableWyvern]

I have refrained from answering, as I don't have a regular or traditional ruleset I use, I move from one to the other from campaign to campaign. In the majority of cases, I will run a single campaign, and then not use that particular ruleset again.

A long time ago, Rolemaster was my system of choice, but it's been more than twenty years since that was the case.