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Anyone can make up fluff. It isn't as easy to pull together crunch. Fluff is more interpretative, crunch is not. Crunch makes for better game systems. Fluff.. well add all you want as long as its got the crunch.

Skills were around in 2e and 1e (via the two survival guides)... but really it goes more to the core of the game, skills is just one example. With attacking or magic use, etc. you end up with the same thing. Personally I prefer a more detail oriented system like 3X (and others of its ilk, i.e...

Nah I understood thats what you were saying. However, I have always thought the designers made a mistake with making the Charisma Stat being the "inner strength" of the character, which it always had seemed to be due to its use in turning undead, bard and sorcerer magic, etc. This flies in the...

Not really, "inner-strength" would be Wisdom, i.e. the d20 definition of Wisdom describes a character’s willpower, common sense, perception, and intuition. While Intelligence represents one’s ability to analyze information, Wisdom represents being in tune with and aware of one’s surroundings...

Just because they are some examples of charismatic and brave, doesn't mean there aren't as many examples of charismatic and craven. Not really, no. Personality is subjective. Charisma seems to be the "measurement", and I use that loosely, of how effective a character can be, stat-wise, in...

I would definitively agree with that.

Not exactly what I said... I personally like the die rolling, because I've been doing it in D&D for eons. But the point-buy abilities has been in the game for quite some time too. Its just as viable for the game too, even if its not a true point-buy system (ala True20, Hero, GURPs, etc). And...

Ding ding ding, we have a winner winner chicken dinner.

Well rolling for stats has been in D&D since day one! So I don't quite understand the beef about it. You can always use the other options, but really D&D isn't a point-buy system. And all they can do is give it their best shot at balance. As we saw in 3.X, it was like chasing your own tail...

I gotta agree with what you said catsclaw in your entire post. For myself I'm not really a fan of the Devas, Dragonborn, etc. but hey if they fit in your world, great. That being said, if they were an integral part of 4E, then they should probably end up in some manner in the next edition...

Perhaps its because I played a lot of M&M with it this way; now granted M&M doesn't have the iterative attacks either. I have used in it Conan though, replacing the static 10 in defense with a d20 and it worked out ok. But again while there are iterative attacks going on, there is a lot less...

Actually it's called "Survival', at least in 3E, 2E and 1E (via the wilderness survival guide), although 1E did break it down into fishing, foraging, and a few other skills too. And no, not all "adventurers" may have it. City based adventurers probably don't have it or at least their...

Yeah, right. I've been rolling them since the early-1980s. :| Just because you don't roll for stats doesn't mean others don't. And really I have never met many GMs that just let you pick the stats; at very least they give you point-buys. This isn't a my way or the highway type of thing.

Not really, its just as relevant whether it be fantasy or sci-fi or adventure genre. And yes, even that wizard pal of the fighter has to cross the raging river and generally he's going to fail at it, unless he gets lots of help or has a fly spell or other magical device that circumvents the...

Not everyone can, which is somewhat the point to 5e, to allow more choice on how much detail you want. The point was so does the vast majority of RPG systems out there (non-rules light mind you). It's the same thing. Either its been pre-defined for you, or you do it yourself. Either way...

Thanks for the correction. Nevertheless, the point still stands, i.e. just because someone is an Olympic long jumper doesn't mean they are also an Olympic swimmer. Personally I'd like to see something I've seen in systems from eons ago... Athletics would be a generic skill, with subskills (or...

And in 1e (yes, it had skills), 2e, 3e. Not to mention any number of other skill based systems. But using your argument, 4e is "flawed" because some people are better swimmers than they are acrobats, but 4e lumps them both together. All game systems are abstractions, so there has to be a...

That is the nature of the beast when there aren't specifics. Heck, even when there are specifics, things still get extrapolated out. With all these "optional modules" that are being bandied about, sure hope they allow use to do a "publish-on-the-fly" version of the books so that we can get a...

I really dislike the idea of yet another implementation of a skills system, as of course it helps break the crunch from previous versions. But I guess there is enough issues with the current systems... too simplistic (4E, or at least for me), and too open-ended (3E). One which really just is a...

You make some good points. I suppose that maybe I have just never saw the additional "codified" (although as a software engineer that word in reference to 3e makes me cringe) rules as real hindrance to DM fiat, rather except for more outlier cases I didn't have to use as much DM fiat to keep...