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Time to bring back the prose?
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<blockquote data-quote="KidSnide" data-source="post: 5897110" data-attributes="member: 54710"><p>As much as I used to think that unambiguous rules relying on strong key words were a great idea, having spent the past few years with 4e books, I now seriously regret that WotC adopted that approach. I now think that a strong separation between fluff and crunch is a huge mistake (as is that terminology itself), as it promotes the mechanics over the in-game fiction.</p><p></p><p>I don't think ambiguity should be inserted into rules that don't need it, but the game should tolerate powers and abilities (e.g. illusion and divination spells) where the effects are inherently more subjective. </p><p></p><p>Likewise, the rules themselves should be embedded into the description of the spell. Yes, that makes the rule books harder to use as reference texts, but the reference book approach makes the books terrible to read and, frankly, less fun to use. If the game is to succeed, reading the rulebook has to make the reader <em>want to play the game</em>. If the rulebook reads like a text book, that will be off-putting to too many potential gamers.</p><p></p><p>-KS</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="KidSnide, post: 5897110, member: 54710"] As much as I used to think that unambiguous rules relying on strong key words were a great idea, having spent the past few years with 4e books, I now seriously regret that WotC adopted that approach. I now think that a strong separation between fluff and crunch is a huge mistake (as is that terminology itself), as it promotes the mechanics over the in-game fiction. I don't think ambiguity should be inserted into rules that don't need it, but the game should tolerate powers and abilities (e.g. illusion and divination spells) where the effects are inherently more subjective. Likewise, the rules themselves should be embedded into the description of the spell. Yes, that makes the rule books harder to use as reference texts, but the reference book approach makes the books terrible to read and, frankly, less fun to use. If the game is to succeed, reading the rulebook has to make the reader [I]want to play the game[/I]. If the rulebook reads like a text book, that will be off-putting to too many potential gamers. -KS [/QUOTE]
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Time to bring back the prose?
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