What Do You Think Of As "Modern TTRPG Mechanics"?

[soviet]

This is more about D&D being behind the times than a modern game and 5e is the easiest D&D edition to make a character for. (Having recently tried I'd argue that 5e is probably easier than 2e as well). But one of the things I wanted to do when I wrote my 4e retroclone was make character creation easy and fast rather than a chore while keeping significant variety.

Uhh, what? All the TSR editions are much simpler to build characters for than all the WotC editions.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Uhh, what? All the TSR editions are much simpler to build characters for than all the WotC editions.

I don't know if you've tried looking at 2e with fresh eyes, but there's a lot of faff to it. For example with things you don't have to worry about like weapon proficiencies, and especially the 50+ Non Weapon Proficiencies. And there are a lot of numbers attached to each stat.

 

[soviet]

I don't know if you've tried looking at 2e with fresh eyes, but there's a lot of faff to it. For example with things you don't have to worry about like weapon proficiencies, and especially the 50+ Non Weapon Proficiencies. And there are a lot of numbers attached to each stat.

Most characters choose from less than half of that list, and they are generally self-explanatory skills without exception-based rules attached to them. The numbers attached to the stats aren't selected by the player and generally don't need to be referenced that often.

 

[mamba]

I generally give my money to small companies and independent creators, because they're more likely to prioritize the product over the profit, and I believe that leads to better material.

I am pretty sure even those creators keep an eye on the market and do not just create something of which they have no idea whether it will sell or not (there will always be a risk, obviously).

I am not convinced that it leads to better products either, in part because I do not think that creators ignore the market in the first place. That not everyone is creating a 5e clone is also due to the market. Not everyone can exist and successfully compete in that environment, so eventually someone will be better off creating something farther afield in search of an audience for their product.

That those branching out do so in the direction of their own preferences is only natural, and that some have preferences that better align with yours than WotC's do is pretty much a given too, based on how much variety is out there.

 

[mamba]

5e is the easiest D&D edition to make a character for. (Having recently tried I'd argue that 5e is probably easier than 2e as well).

Really? I would have said 1e and 2e are easier, what makes you think 5e is the easiest?

 

[mamba]

Not sure about turning undead

I always thought that came from vampires / using crosses and holy water

 

[Neonchameleon]

Most characters choose from less than half of that list, and they are generally self-explanatory skills without exception-based rules attached to them.

A lot of them are not. And when more than about three are not anyone like me needs to read the lot of them to know which aren't.

The numbers attached to the stats aren't selected by the player and generally don't need to be referenced that often.

"Don't have to be referenced that often" != never. They are a confusing mess that need referencing and their very obscureness and opacity leads me to feeling I don't understand my character without understanding what they do. Which means I need a significant amount of prep because there are all these numbers there doing different things.

 

[zakael19]

So there's no ranger 'trope' in same way at the time that there will be later as more and more fantasy authors include 'rangers' with a wink and guns to JRR.

(totally tangential) Where do we get the "ranger has a beast companion" trope from that seems to have become core to the class? Aragorn and the Rangers of the North are hardy survivalist warriors.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Sure. But it's not as if that book was produced ex nihilo, in a cultural and historical vacuum.

No, but not all the characters in that cultural matrix had those exact traits. I'm at least slightly familiar with that character's legendary companions.

 

[Thomas Shey]

What people? What publishers are we discussing?

Bluntly, most of them? Look at Fenris' post upthread if you want just an example in this thread. I've got at least a dozen I could name I'm pretty confident it would apply to however, and most of them are pretty well known.