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Good stuff - thanks guys! :) I don't suppose there is also any way to generalize the formulae to a greater number of dice?

RPGs do you one better - they give you almost their entire workings (though not necessarily the decisions behind them) in the book! You are correct that you will never 'know' with absolute certainty whether you like the game until you play it, but you can know with a very large degree of...

That's a pretty good analogy on your part. You can tell a great deal about a car by looking at it and reading about it - you don't need to buy it to test it out for a few months. This is all the more the case if you know a good amount about car mechanics and have been driving and modifying cars...

I guess I am saying that liking or disliking a system is arational - neither rational nor irrational. ;) If you use a strict definition of rationality, it is a decision-making process. Preferences as such cannot be rational or not - these are apriori goals. Rationality can be used as a process...

Yes, certainly levels 15-20 would fit the epic moniker by almost any definition based on what the characters can do, but when one says 'epic' in a D&D/d20/OGL/Pathfinder context, these days it is inherently associated with levels beyond 20. I completely agree with everything you said in this...

D&D is perhaps not the most simulationist system, but I still want to play D&D with simulationism and not some other fantasy game - I like the D&D magic-wielding dragons, I like D&D's take on planar beings, etcetera. Besides, I think some editions are clearly more simulationist than others - the...

Color me confused. I say that liking or disliking a game is not a matter of rationality, but rather of preferences and you essentially ask me for a rational rationale (pun intended) as to why you should like 4E? There isn't any! As I said, rationality in terms of liking a game or not can only...

I am also in the third category you mention. I love the concept of Epic levels, but despise the 3E mechanics for it and thus refuse to use standard 3E Epic levels in my campaigns. I also like the concept of Psionics and am more open to the 3E ruleset for them than to the Epic one, but I wouldn't...

I don't think liking or disliking a game is a matter of rationality. It is a matter of preference and preferences are inherently not rational (apart from perhaps their interrelation with other preferences). If you love Tieflings, that is not a rational preference. If you hate Tieflings, that is...

Would it be possible to show your method of calculation? Don't worry, I trust you on the result, but it has been a long time since I have done probability, so I want to re-learn how to do this kind of thing on my own by following your working. Thanks! Also, if you have the time, would it be...

Although I am generally the DM/GM and like the idea of having all rules in one book, I cannot agree that magic items should be made available to PCs. Well yes, but 'Industrial Magic' (TM) is not something I am partial towards at all. Magic creation is fine, but I hate the idea of PCs churning...

They are no longer pro or anti 4E that is true. But in the immediate aftermath of 4E's release (or perhaps it was just before 4E's release - I no longer remember) I do recall a bias. I was reading several nasty threads and it was generally the pro-3E people that got banned/reprimanded/whatever...

Fair enough and thanks for the answer!

Yes, it seems to be working just fine now. What was the source of the slowdown?

I like the new (or revived ;) ) XP system. Even though I know the reasons for it (to prevent people giving XP to each other repeatedly for nothing), the one thing I think is too draconian about it is the number of people (50) one must give reputation to before giving it to the same person again.

There was a very strong pro 4E/anti 3.xE bias on ENWorld some months back and I felt the moderation was also biased. It got so bad, I was essentially driven away from the site coming back only occassionally and not posting anything. Moderation improved dramatically pretty fast though and pretty...

That's good news Morrus! Any hints as to what might be causing the problems? (Yes, I too am suffering the same problems - 5+ minute load times for threads and often they fail to load at all.)

Well, your categories basically relabel the 'simulationist versus gamist' notions, but in many more words. Still, it was a good read. I disagree, however, that what you call the nerd mind is more systemic than the geek one (failure to see the forest for the trees and so on), but otherwise sure...

There is certainly evidence that the "on high" sees those other games as either posing a credible competition to D&D or at least potential credible competition to D&D. If that weren't the case, we would have seen the OGL extend to the 4th edition.

It is too late - the damage has been done. The GSL fiasco has had a liquidating effect on the third party market - even if it comes later today third party companies have already been forgotten by many consumers in the interim. I am not generally one to attribute malice where incopetence can be...