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Is there beef between Mearls and Cook?
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<blockquote data-quote="Bacon Bits" data-source="post: 7247448" data-attributes="member: 6777737"><p>I think it did a brilliant job with it. 3e was the first edition of D&D that felt like it had consistent, understandable rules. Rules with an actual <em>system</em> behind it that you could understand the application of rather than, "find the chart that tells you how to resolve it," being the answer for everything with a million little independent systems all of which were mechanically unique for no good reason.</p><p></p><p>Prior to 3e's release, AD&D had a significant cultural problem that the DM could make arbitrary and even capricious rulings, and the players just had to accept that. That's... not a fun way to play if you don't have a good DM, and the early game did very little to teach you how to DM well. I played under a couple DMs that ascribed to the "DM vs player" way of thinking, or with a, "it's my job to make it unfair for the PCs," line of thinking. Those can be fine when taken reasonably, but some DMs genuinely seemed to feel like it was their job to make the game as miserable as possible. Whether it's because everybody was a teenager at the time or whether it was because people took Tomb of Horrors to be a model rather than understanding the module to be an intentionally unfair challenge for tournament play I can't really say. If you played during the 1e/2e era, I wouldn't be surprised if you never played with one of these types of DMs, but I would be very skeptical if you said you had no idea that culture existed unless you were under 10 when 3e released.</p><p></p><p>In a historical sense, I think 1e mechanical morass, 2e's unhealthy DM culture and fluff bloat, 3e's standardized rules and balance problems, 3.5e's splat-mania, 4e's unhealthy player culture (which has it's origins in 3.5e) and misguided balance obsession all led to what 5e is today. You can see how the culture of D&D has evolved as the different editions came out. When it was released, each edition had the salient features that the community felt were important. Each iteration gets a little better, though each edition (even 5e) has introduced new problems.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bacon Bits, post: 7247448, member: 6777737"] I think it did a brilliant job with it. 3e was the first edition of D&D that felt like it had consistent, understandable rules. Rules with an actual [I]system[/I] behind it that you could understand the application of rather than, "find the chart that tells you how to resolve it," being the answer for everything with a million little independent systems all of which were mechanically unique for no good reason. Prior to 3e's release, AD&D had a significant cultural problem that the DM could make arbitrary and even capricious rulings, and the players just had to accept that. That's... not a fun way to play if you don't have a good DM, and the early game did very little to teach you how to DM well. I played under a couple DMs that ascribed to the "DM vs player" way of thinking, or with a, "it's my job to make it unfair for the PCs," line of thinking. Those can be fine when taken reasonably, but some DMs genuinely seemed to feel like it was their job to make the game as miserable as possible. Whether it's because everybody was a teenager at the time or whether it was because people took Tomb of Horrors to be a model rather than understanding the module to be an intentionally unfair challenge for tournament play I can't really say. If you played during the 1e/2e era, I wouldn't be surprised if you never played with one of these types of DMs, but I would be very skeptical if you said you had no idea that culture existed unless you were under 10 when 3e released. In a historical sense, I think 1e mechanical morass, 2e's unhealthy DM culture and fluff bloat, 3e's standardized rules and balance problems, 3.5e's splat-mania, 4e's unhealthy player culture (which has it's origins in 3.5e) and misguided balance obsession all led to what 5e is today. You can see how the culture of D&D has evolved as the different editions came out. When it was released, each edition had the salient features that the community felt were important. Each iteration gets a little better, though each edition (even 5e) has introduced new problems. [/QUOTE]
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