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The One Hour Game, continued (BD&D as a baseline)
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<blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5860075" data-attributes="member: 54877"><p>I'd start with BECMI as the base, but rather than pick certain things that other versions did well, I'd go for a "lessons learned" approach on every version--good and bad. Then with that set of lessons, I'd set out to modify that BECMI base to get a better game.</p><p> </p><p>For example, an easy one is that races as classes is very restrictive. There are some positive aspects to races as classes, but it is highly unlikely that the positives overcome the negatives. However, one could get too bogged down into "race as classes" or not, and fail to see what I think is the larger lesson there--a few set of key, clear elements that you can mix and match is a powerful way to introduce variety. If you find yourself making race and/or class lists a mile long, that is an <strong>immense</strong> signal that you need at least a third element (like "theme" or "culture" or something). Contrawise, if you find that third element is making the game too complex, then those long lists are a signal that you are letting it creep out of scope. Race as class does sort of work, after all, when you only have as many as BECMI has.</p><p> </p><p>Whether I'd go with a third (or even fourth and fifth) element in my hypothetical game, I don't know. I might find it better to keep it simple enough that race and class could handle it. But I do know that I wouldn't have more than 10-12 classes or 10-12 races. Either more variety is important enough to include theme or culture or something similar, or the variety isn't that important. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite8" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":D" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Crazy Jerome, post: 5860075, member: 54877"] I'd start with BECMI as the base, but rather than pick certain things that other versions did well, I'd go for a "lessons learned" approach on every version--good and bad. Then with that set of lessons, I'd set out to modify that BECMI base to get a better game. For example, an easy one is that races as classes is very restrictive. There are some positive aspects to races as classes, but it is highly unlikely that the positives overcome the negatives. However, one could get too bogged down into "race as classes" or not, and fail to see what I think is the larger lesson there--a few set of key, clear elements that you can mix and match is a powerful way to introduce variety. If you find yourself making race and/or class lists a mile long, that is an [B]immense[/B] signal that you need at least a third element (like "theme" or "culture" or something). Contrawise, if you find that third element is making the game too complex, then those long lists are a signal that you are letting it creep out of scope. Race as class does sort of work, after all, when you only have as many as BECMI has. Whether I'd go with a third (or even fourth and fifth) element in my hypothetical game, I don't know. I might find it better to keep it simple enough that race and class could handle it. But I do know that I wouldn't have more than 10-12 classes or 10-12 races. Either more variety is important enough to include theme or culture or something similar, or the variety isn't that important. :D [/QUOTE]
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