D&D General Playstyle vs Mechanics

[Maxperson]

No not really. Soviet is right about 5e combining mechanics to pretty much force a single playstyle. It really only does other styles "decently well" if the goal is to use them as reletively unimportant low impact fluff struggling against the OneTrueWay

What exact playstyle is 5e forcing?

 

[TwoSix]

If a piece of fiction regularly relies on extreme coincidence on a regular basis, it isn't for me. A lot of people like types of fiction I don't, it's not an insult to acknowledge that.

But it isn't relying on "extreme coincidence." It's relying on the fact that this character is established in the fiction as having the type of worldliness where they WOULD know someone in every city.

This is a very common fictional trope!

If you want to play a game where such a character background wouldn't make sense (maybe all the PCs are teenagers from the same farming village on their first adventure), then simply disallow the background.

P.S. I have never used the words "improbable nonsense".

"Groan-inducing" is also pretty negative. If I said "A game where people just play their characters, and have to wait for the DM to tell them any little detail would produce a pretty groan-inducing game, for me and my preferences", I don't think you would view that charitably.

 

[mamba]

I posted several examples in the thread we are now re-litigating

then you should have no trouble repeating one or two here, I am not going to hunt for those posts. Chances are we have different ideas about how good those examples are anyway.

 

[mamba]

But it isn't relying on "extreme coincidence." It's relying on the fact that this character is established in the fiction as having the type of worldliness where they WOULD know someone in every city.

no, it is relying on the fact that the background is worded so poorly that you can argue that it allows you to know someone wherever when that imo very clearly was not the intent, for example by comparing it to very similar backgrounds that clearly limit it to a relatively small local area

 

[soviet]

then you should have no trouble repeating one or two here, I am not going to hunt for those posts. Chances are we have different ideas about how good those examples are anyway.

Oh, I know full well you're going to reject them out of hand no matter what they say, which is why I won't be providing them

 

[Maxperson]

While I agree, that was my original point of why play style gets targeted in order to avoid discussing the merits of why a mechanic was called bad while still defending the mechanic itself in a roundabout way that cannot be discussed.

Playstyle isn't mechanic though. Take 5e. Sandbox is a playstyle that I can do well with it. Linear is a playstyle that I can do well with it. Dungeon Crawl is a playstyle that I can do well with it. Hack N Slash is a playstyle that I can do well with it. Heavy Roleplaying is a playstyle that I can do well with it. Superhero is a playstyle that I can do well with it. Many games don't go past 5th level and you can do pulp decently with 5e if you play low levels. Power Gaming is a playstyle that 5e does decently. And on and on.

There is no one true playstyle that 5e does that you have to fight against. None. It's simply a game of mechanics that does just about any playstyle decently to well, just like all the other editions.

 

[TwoSix]

no, it is relying on the fact that the background is worded so poorly that you can argue that it allows you to know someone wherever when that imo very clearly was not the intent, for example by comparing it to very similar backgrounds that clearly limit it to a relatively small local area

We just did the "backgrounds" thread a few months ago. It wasn't fun then and it hasn't improved with age.

 

[mamba]

Oh, I know full well you're going to reject them out of hand no matter what they say, which is why I won't be providing them

showing your superior skill at coming up with reasons right there…

I agree, I probably would not accept them because they all fall into this ‘not impossible coincidence’ category that some like to call ‘plausible coincidence’

 

[soviet]

Hack n slash, slash n hack, dungeon crawl, dungeon walk, dungeon run, dungeon hack n slash - all the possible playstyles

 

[TwoSix]

Hack n slash, slash n hack, dungeon crawl, dungeon walk, dungeon run, dungeon hack n slash - all the possible playstyles

Slash n' run? Hack crawl a dungeon?