Michael Morris
First Post
In a word - recombinance.
And it's not an easy problem to solve because it is the greatest strength of 3e.
Let me define the term. Recombinance is how well or poorly the rules of a game recombine to allow for options in play. Games don't have to have a lot of rules to have a high recombinance factor - chess has only a handful of rules, but thousands of opening lines. Magic the Gathering 's cards can combine and recombine in a myriad of ways.
The problem with 3e is that the game has finally moved to a state where you can combine and recombine things - in theory. You can advance monster hit dice, add templates and classes to them, and even determine their ability stats randomly like a PC. Unfortunately each layer of detail you add to a base monster creates a fair amount of calculations. 3e has been accused of having a lot more calculation to do, and it's true. 3e has a lot of recombinance, but it handles it poorly. This becomes even more painfully obvious when spells and abilities refactor - a barbarian's rage has enough effect on a character that you might as well use a 'raging' sheet (in fact my barb player does use a 'raging' character sheet
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I'm not sure there's an easy solution. AD&D's answer to this problem was simply to ignore it and not provide rules for it (which isn't much of a solution to be honest). The best solution I can think of is to come up with effective computer campaign management software. I know there's a few packages out there, and I've tried a few - but none of them strike me as particularly effective.
And it's not an easy problem to solve because it is the greatest strength of 3e.
Let me define the term. Recombinance is how well or poorly the rules of a game recombine to allow for options in play. Games don't have to have a lot of rules to have a high recombinance factor - chess has only a handful of rules, but thousands of opening lines. Magic the Gathering 's cards can combine and recombine in a myriad of ways.
The problem with 3e is that the game has finally moved to a state where you can combine and recombine things - in theory. You can advance monster hit dice, add templates and classes to them, and even determine their ability stats randomly like a PC. Unfortunately each layer of detail you add to a base monster creates a fair amount of calculations. 3e has been accused of having a lot more calculation to do, and it's true. 3e has a lot of recombinance, but it handles it poorly. This becomes even more painfully obvious when spells and abilities refactor - a barbarian's rage has enough effect on a character that you might as well use a 'raging' sheet (in fact my barb player does use a 'raging' character sheet
)I'm not sure there's an easy solution. AD&D's answer to this problem was simply to ignore it and not provide rules for it (which isn't much of a solution to be honest). The best solution I can think of is to come up with effective computer campaign management software. I know there's a few packages out there, and I've tried a few - but none of them strike me as particularly effective.
