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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 5758813" data-attributes="member: 29398"><p>Dear Mike and Monte, a few requests for 5e:</p><p></p><p><strong>Make the numbers smaller.</strong></p><p></p><p>3e was initially designed for levels 1-20, 4e for 1-30 (higher-level bolt-ons came later in both cases), and it can quite easily be argued that 1 to an open-ended 10 are enough. (i.e. look closely at 1e, designed for 1-infinity but playable from about 1-10)</p><p></p><p>Scale back hit point numbers for both PCs and monsters - make d6 damage meaningful again. While you're at it, scale back all bonuses using this rule of thumb: unless it's an exceptional case, the bonus for anything should never become larger than the die being rolled. d8+4? Fine. d8+12? Meh. d8+20? Why bother with the d8...</p><p></p><p><strong>Make combat fluid rather than strictly turn-based.</strong></p><p></p><p>This would require a large shift in philosophy away from "a rule for everything" in that it asks the players and DM to co-operatively determine how combat progresses. Re-roll initiative each round (monsters too!), on a smaller die than d-20, and make things take time to do. My initiative is 5? That's when I start moving, I'll get there on a '2' and I'm somewhere between my start and end point during that time in case anything goes off that might hit me. (in other words, a move action takes measurable time, as it should). Spells and item use should work the same way.</p><p></p><p><strong>Find inspiration wherever it may be.</strong></p><p></p><p>Gygax etc. took inspration from wherever they could find it - Arabian Nights, Tolkein, real-world myths and legends, and so on. Do the same thing now, while incorporating inspiration from more recent sources. Need a psionic system? Take a look at Kurtz' Deryni. Need some adventures? Take a look at WoW and Zelda and others of their ilk. And so on...</p><p></p><p><strong>Don't ask us all to play the same game.</strong></p><p></p><p>Others have mentioned this, but I'll repeat: we all play the game a bit differently from each other, so make the system flexible enough to handle these differences as much as practicality allows. Design for 1 and 3 and 10 year campaigns. Design for rules-light, rules-heavy, rules-be-damned. Design a few unique settings and give guidelines to build our own. Etc. But make everything a guideline rather than a rule.</p><p></p><p>While you're at it, design against system mastery giving as big an advantage as it has in 3e and (to some extent) 4e. For example, if character generation is complex enough that a char-ops board has a use, go back and rethink - and simplify.</p><p></p><p><strong>The adventures make the game.</strong></p><p></p><p>And guys, most important of all, you can design The Best RPG System Ever and if it doesn't have some good adventures right out of the gate to back it up it's going nowhere. 3e did well with Sunless Citadel and Forge of Fury while 4e struggled mightily with the less-than-brilliant H-series as their respective founding adventures. And then keep 'em coming! Don't rely on third party types to write 'em (though some surely will), instead do them in-house. If you're ever faced with a choice of whether to release an adventure or a splat book, always go with the adventure!</p><p></p><p>Lan-"the fine details, as always, I leave to those whose job it is to sort 'em out"-efan</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 5758813, member: 29398"] Dear Mike and Monte, a few requests for 5e: [B]Make the numbers smaller.[/B] 3e was initially designed for levels 1-20, 4e for 1-30 (higher-level bolt-ons came later in both cases), and it can quite easily be argued that 1 to an open-ended 10 are enough. (i.e. look closely at 1e, designed for 1-infinity but playable from about 1-10) Scale back hit point numbers for both PCs and monsters - make d6 damage meaningful again. While you're at it, scale back all bonuses using this rule of thumb: unless it's an exceptional case, the bonus for anything should never become larger than the die being rolled. d8+4? Fine. d8+12? Meh. d8+20? Why bother with the d8... [B]Make combat fluid rather than strictly turn-based.[/B] This would require a large shift in philosophy away from "a rule for everything" in that it asks the players and DM to co-operatively determine how combat progresses. Re-roll initiative each round (monsters too!), on a smaller die than d-20, and make things take time to do. My initiative is 5? That's when I start moving, I'll get there on a '2' and I'm somewhere between my start and end point during that time in case anything goes off that might hit me. (in other words, a move action takes measurable time, as it should). Spells and item use should work the same way. [B]Find inspiration wherever it may be.[/B] Gygax etc. took inspration from wherever they could find it - Arabian Nights, Tolkein, real-world myths and legends, and so on. Do the same thing now, while incorporating inspiration from more recent sources. Need a psionic system? Take a look at Kurtz' Deryni. Need some adventures? Take a look at WoW and Zelda and others of their ilk. And so on... [B]Don't ask us all to play the same game.[/B] Others have mentioned this, but I'll repeat: we all play the game a bit differently from each other, so make the system flexible enough to handle these differences as much as practicality allows. Design for 1 and 3 and 10 year campaigns. Design for rules-light, rules-heavy, rules-be-damned. Design a few unique settings and give guidelines to build our own. Etc. But make everything a guideline rather than a rule. While you're at it, design against system mastery giving as big an advantage as it has in 3e and (to some extent) 4e. For example, if character generation is complex enough that a char-ops board has a use, go back and rethink - and simplify. [B]The adventures make the game.[/B] And guys, most important of all, you can design The Best RPG System Ever and if it doesn't have some good adventures right out of the gate to back it up it's going nowhere. 3e did well with Sunless Citadel and Forge of Fury while 4e struggled mightily with the less-than-brilliant H-series as their respective founding adventures. And then keep 'em coming! Don't rely on third party types to write 'em (though some surely will), instead do them in-house. If you're ever faced with a choice of whether to release an adventure or a splat book, always go with the adventure! Lan-"the fine details, as always, I leave to those whose job it is to sort 'em out"-efan [/QUOTE]
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