Re: bolded (emphasis mine);
We felt those rules caused players to think in ways inherent to that setting and caused different play, with interesting choices and decisions emerging.
All how you look at it I guess.
Sometimes "a little more explicitly abstract" is the little more that tips things over into discontent.
Everyone usually has a line or spectrum of these feels, and everyone's tolerance level is different and valid.
I hear you and agree, but as always it varies; just last night....
Noob characters for a christmas oneshot with DM in training.
1st level bard player accidently makes 2024 character, the rest are 2014. Bard casts Truestrike and talks their way through the attack. Player of the Ranger (who...
I was going to say, I kinda agreed with them about the 21 strength for an NPC guard. Most of my npcs are low level, rarely reaching higher than 3rd.
But then I did my research and saw it was a CR 10 creature...and well, I could use that for a unique NPC champion of the army, so in that context...