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Essentials: More like 3.9e than 4.5e (link inside)
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<blockquote data-quote="Jeremy Ackerman-Yost" data-source="post: 5256113" data-attributes="member: 4720"><p>Is it just me, or does that fail at the explicit design goal of being simpler for new players? Or, at the very least, I think it's more akin to old school games, but likely less intelligible to the non-PnP gamer.</p><p></p><p>A set of conditionals seems far less intuitive and more complex than executing discrete powers. "I use this power" vs. "I use this other more powerful but limited power" makes intuitive sense and maps onto how lots of board games and video games work, so you can expect a certain level of pre-exposure to like concepts in most young people. "I make a basic attack" is actually more jargon-y in the first place, and then you have to consider which of several modifiers are in place, and also make a separate decision of whether to apply additional options like "Power Strike." I'm not sure having fewer options for each action but making a larger number of choices and condition tracking to execute each action is going to work out as a net positive with a naive player.</p><p></p><p>Heck, I'm not sure it would be simpler <em>for me</em>. It sounds irksome and awkward.</p><p></p><p>So, they streamlined character creation, but made using it at the table more obtuse. It's an old school flavored brand of obtuse, so it has a certain charm, but it's still obtuse.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jeremy Ackerman-Yost, post: 5256113, member: 4720"] Is it just me, or does that fail at the explicit design goal of being simpler for new players? Or, at the very least, I think it's more akin to old school games, but likely less intelligible to the non-PnP gamer. A set of conditionals seems far less intuitive and more complex than executing discrete powers. "I use this power" vs. "I use this other more powerful but limited power" makes intuitive sense and maps onto how lots of board games and video games work, so you can expect a certain level of pre-exposure to like concepts in most young people. "I make a basic attack" is actually more jargon-y in the first place, and then you have to consider which of several modifiers are in place, and also make a separate decision of whether to apply additional options like "Power Strike." I'm not sure having fewer options for each action but making a larger number of choices and condition tracking to execute each action is going to work out as a net positive with a naive player. Heck, I'm not sure it would be simpler [I]for me[/I]. It sounds irksome and awkward. So, they streamlined character creation, but made using it at the table more obtuse. It's an old school flavored brand of obtuse, so it has a certain charm, but it's still obtuse. [/QUOTE]
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