Unpopular opinions go here

[Tony Vargas]

Bad is subjective.

I am willing to stipulate that those two words are synonymous, for the purposes of this discussion.

if the game can be played without any of them, you then have to assess what actually matters.

If the game presents content, the content matters, and adds to the game's "rulez weight"

Sure, you can cut away, consolidate, or add content or sub-systems, changing the game, and create a new, possibly derivative game that is heavier or lighter. It says nothing about the original - other than you didn't much care for it, since you saw a need to extensively change it.

 

[Aldarc]

If you mean "roll 1d20 + modifiers vs DC" then you're missing everything that makes it D&D and D&D 5E with that kind of reductive presentation.

I'm sure you are doing it for a reason. But you're still factually wrong. D&D 5E is not rules light. Simple as.

Yeah. It seems like it would be absurd if I claimed that basketball was a rules light sport on the basis that points are scored by shooting the ball in the basket while ignoring all other game rules.

 

[MichaelSomething]

If D&D actually tried to be rules light, there would be complaining about how's there no "support" for it. Don't we have enough of that now???

 

[Emberashh]

If the game presents content, the content matters,

Not to the game's function.

Content are not rules, even if content is sometimes made up out of rules.

Its not intuitive, but it is an important distinction.

If D&D actually tried to be rules light, there would be complaining about how's there no "support" for it. Don't we have enough of that now???

It being rules light is why theres so much complaining.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Not to the game's function.
Content are not rules, even if content is sometimes made up out of rules.

Yes, content matters to the game's function. Particularly in a game like 5e where there is no clear line between fluff and crunch, and rules can be lurking almost anywhere. (I'll acknowledge that there are games out there where adding content does not add to the weight of the rules, because the rules already cover the new content, in essence, any added content are just examples of using the existing rules. 5e is nothing like such a game, though. And, frankly, those games are also pretty heavy, they're just heavy all up-front.)

Its not intuitive, but it is an important distinction.

Y'know what is intuitive?
Games that are actually rulez lite.

 

[Aldarc]

If it all it takes is for 5e to be considered "rules light" is d20 + modifiers vs. DC, then there would still be thousands of TTRPGs out there considerably lighter than 5e D&D.

I don't think that 5e not being rules light makes 5e a bad game. Nor do I understand the desire some people have for needing 5e to be considered a rules light game. It obviously doesn't need to be rules light to be successful. It simply is successful regardless of how "heavy" its rules are. There's no need to pretend that the game is lighter than it is out of any misguided sense that rules heavy games are somehow instrinsically more worse than rules light games.

 

[Autumnal]

Mike was better than Joel.

Mike is a better performer, more comfortable on camera, quicker and snappier. And a lot of his MST work was fall-on-the-floor funny. There’s still a certain nerdy gentleness I like in Joel’s style. But the lead on Laserblast is certainly second to none.

 

[Emberashh]

Yes, content matters to the game's function

Not always, and not in 5e.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Not always, and not in 5e.

Particularly in a game like 5e where there is no clear line between fluff and crunch, and rules can be lurking almost anywhere.

 

[Hussar]

5e is as much rules light as it is fiction first simulationist.