Pramas: D&D his way??

[Mephistopheles]

One thing that impressed me about WotC is that they seemed to be prepared to sacrifice sacred cows to make a better game, it seemed (to me at least) that they were prepared to strip the vehicle down and rebuild from the ground up to make a better game.

This hasn't impressed me so much as it has me regarding 4E D&D as something other than 4E D&D, if you know what I mean. Once you strip away enough of the identity of a game you're making a different game. In my opinion they've pushed this too far with 4E based on what we know, but as always mileage varies. It remains to be seen whether it will result in a better game.

 

[philreed]

Ransom, Chris! Ransom!

If Chris ransoms this I'll put in $100.

 

[Tenbones]

Well two things:
These new "3.75's" are attempting to fix fundamental flaws as perceived by the authors with the classic underlying premise of 3.5, and no one can agree 100% as to what those flaws actually were, so I don't see them as playing very well together. I could be wrong of course, which is what makes things interesting.

--Steve

Not pickin a fight - I definitely accept your point. BUT I can easily point out some 3.5 specific flaws:

1) AC System - It doesn't scale *AT ALL* with the power-progression (without even factoring in piss-poor itemization.) Not getting into the AC/DR argument - just saying, this sacred cow need to be carved up into steaks.

2) Magic System - Clunky and outdated. Fire/Forget - BLEH. Needs a Spellpoint system or something more dynamic. I'm not sold yet on 4e, but I'll reserve final judgement after I've given it a go.

3) Specific Combat Manuevers - What one can do with/without Feats. Grappling - UGH. Among other things.

4) Iterative Attacks - Break out Excel Spreadsheet with your attack routine matrixes everyone. Looked good on paper... totally bogged down every game.

5) Feat/Skill Balance - Why have a Feat listed if it offers no real meaningful benefit that no one will take? +2 to a skill... for the cost of a FEAT? C'mon. Trim the FAT. Skills need to be balanced in order to be useful as well. Not to mention AVAILABLE. Fighters are highly trained and apparently almost completely unskilled... "Yeah Mr. Fighter - this is a social encounter - keep your yap shut.".

6) Skill System - the whole skill system needs re-tuning. Not scrapping - but re-tuning. Combined with rebalancing skills - this system is salvageable.

I think those are the big issues that come to mind. Your mileage may vary.

 

[Steely Dan]

Dragon Fist would have been an awesome 3rd edition D&D.

Stunts were nifty.

 

[Banshee16]

There's also the problem that honest to god, I'd rather have had the civic in the first place.

No accounting for taste, I guess...

I love my car

Banshee

P.S. I'm being somewhat facetious....everyone has different tastes. I wouldn't be caught dead in most Hondas or Toyotas, for that matter. Mitsubishi, maybe, though they aren't exactly quality products.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

I'm sure that there's some sort of twelve step program that Pramas (and others) could join. Something like Game Designer's Anonymous. It's good to see that he's already taken the first step, admitting that he has a problem.

Later
silver

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Only game designers?

Only game designers with some recognition like Mr. Pramas or Mr. Cook get paid (occasionally) to put out new rulesets. However, every game sees tinkering. Why else would everyone understand the notion of houserule instantly?