Yes. Seriously go grab your phb, and read the rules that aren’t in the class chapter or spells list (two sections that will very obviously be removed wholesale and replaced with something genre and theme appropriate) Just looking at the ability checks section and the backgrounds and such (and the downtime and tools mechanics in Xanathar’s bc they expanded the game in really interesting ways), it’s very easy to see that it can support pretty much any genre and theme.
It would, in my estimation, be an unsatisfactory game. Removing all the bits related to combat, what remains is a bare bones skill system, a list of backgrounds that offer access to those skills along with a specific social/exploration ability, and non-combat spells and feats.
You think that's satisfying? You don't think that Cubicle 7 is going to attempt to replace all the stuff they have to take out with new rules? New classes, different backgrounds, new feats....and so on? I expect they will and that's because the 5e system without combat is barely anything.
Prove it. Others have challenged this claim, and no one has tangibly supported it in response.
I don't know what more can be offered that hasn't already come up in this thread, but I'll try one more take. Character sheets.
Look at a 5e character sheet and tell me if you see more combat relevant information or less. Tell me if most of the information on the character sheet comes into play during combat or outside of it. Now, go beyond just what appears in the character sheet.... consider the frequency with which the bits of info here are used.
Look at character sheets from other games. Look at the sheet for the Dr. Who game that Cubicle 7 is already publishing. There is almost nothing that seems to be specifically combat related.
Look at the character sheet for Tales From the Loop. Look at the sheet for the Alien RPG. Compare them. They use the same basic system....and yet, looking at the character sheets, you can clearly tell which one is more combat focused.
Doesn't mean Alien is a bad game. Why would it mean that? It just means that in that game, combat is a bigger focus.
It also doesn't mean that Tales From the Loop can't do combat if you wanted it to. But of the two, if you want a game that's going to focus on combat or one that won't, the choice is clear from the mechanics of the game.
But it isn’t. This is only true if you insist on viewing the question through the lense of “complexity = weight/importance”, or a similar lense. The ability checks section is much more the core of the game. Combat is literally designed to be quick and let you get back to the important stuff.
You could easily build a whole 5e based game without the combat section, and with no classes getting any combat abilities (though DW should have room for a Jack Harkness), and some added proficiencies to leverage with the ability check rules.
It's not necessarily about complexity equaling importance. It's about the mechanics of the game telling you what the game is about. There are plenty of games that have complex social rules that still focus on combat, there are plenty of games that have combat light rules that are still about combat.
The common claim for the strength of D&D's social game is that "the rules get out of the way and allow improvisational roleplay". This claim is weak because improvisational roleplay is a part of pretty much every RPG I've ever played... that's not a strength specific to D&D. The idea that the rules allow this to happen by "getting out of the way" simply means that people are happy not to have rules in this area. They're largely making things up and allowing the GM to dictate the results after considering the quality of the player's performance and/or the relevance of the argument that they make. Perhaps.... though many have pointed out this is not necessary.... a roll will be made to determine the outcome.
That ain't much of a game. The rules don't have to be complex, but they need to work with the fiction of the game to be both fun and carry the weight of the fiction.
Bringing it back to the thread topic’s origin, if you look at where most of the combat rules are, it’s in stuff that a genre-changing 5e based game is never going to keep anyway. No way a weird sci-fi 5e-powered game is going to have rogues and paladins and zone of truth.
Right. The first thing they need to do is jettison most of the mechanics. Because why? Because most of them pertain to combat.
I have no doubt that you are right about them getting rid of all that. I think it'll be interesting to see what they replace those things with to try and rebuild a satisfying game. My guess is that they'll need to really lean into social mechanics, very likely the sort that don't "get out of the way". It'll be a challenge to do it, and I'm actually curious what will happen.
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