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General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
1e-3e vs. 4e: The inverted difficulty curve in D&D 5e design
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<blockquote data-quote="Dragonblade" data-source="post: 5785786" data-attributes="member: 2804"><p>I was going to post this in my other thread about ascending bonuses in D&D, but I think this is worthy of its own discussion.</p><p></p><p>One thing that occured to me is that in most editions of the game up to and including 3e (though 3e mitigated some of it) is that the difficulty/lethality curve in D&D is completely reversed compared to almost all other forms of gaming in our culture aside from some other TRPGs. And since most TRPGs trace their roots back to D&D, that's not surprising.</p><p></p><p>For example, in most games, particularly videogames, the game starts out easy to help new players learn how to play, but then gets harder and more lethal as you go. The increased difficulty and lethality is often offset by giving the player more options to compensate. For most of us, I think this is intuitive and makes sense.</p><p></p><p>But in 1e-3e, the game in many respects starts out harder and more difficult at the early levels, before becoming easier, albeit more complex at the higher levels. Gygax somewhat recognized this and save or die was put in to maintain some of that low level insta-kill threat at higher levels. But then save or die is somewhat offset by Raise Dead magic at higher levels.</p><p></p><p>But 4e was the first D&D to recognize this ascending difficulty issue and went the other way. It tried to start the game out easier for beginning players and then make it harder. </p><p></p><p>This is actually what I consider a more intuitive and better design approach, but that of course is my opinion. Games should be easy for beginners but get harder as you go. But, I think this also contributes to some of the so-called videogame feel that some people think that 4e has. Reversing the power curve that D&D has had since its inception was a pretty big shift.</p><p></p><p>So it will be interesting to see if the designers of 5e are cognizant of this and what they intend to do about it. For the future of the game, I vastly prefer a model that ramps up both difficulty and complexity at higher levels as opposed to how D&D played in earlier editions. But I definitely think that options for reversing the power curve and making the lower level game more difficult and lethal should be there for advanced players who enjoy that challenge.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dragonblade, post: 5785786, member: 2804"] I was going to post this in my other thread about ascending bonuses in D&D, but I think this is worthy of its own discussion. One thing that occured to me is that in most editions of the game up to and including 3e (though 3e mitigated some of it) is that the difficulty/lethality curve in D&D is completely reversed compared to almost all other forms of gaming in our culture aside from some other TRPGs. And since most TRPGs trace their roots back to D&D, that's not surprising. For example, in most games, particularly videogames, the game starts out easy to help new players learn how to play, but then gets harder and more lethal as you go. The increased difficulty and lethality is often offset by giving the player more options to compensate. For most of us, I think this is intuitive and makes sense. But in 1e-3e, the game in many respects starts out harder and more difficult at the early levels, before becoming easier, albeit more complex at the higher levels. Gygax somewhat recognized this and save or die was put in to maintain some of that low level insta-kill threat at higher levels. But then save or die is somewhat offset by Raise Dead magic at higher levels. But 4e was the first D&D to recognize this ascending difficulty issue and went the other way. It tried to start the game out easier for beginning players and then make it harder. This is actually what I consider a more intuitive and better design approach, but that of course is my opinion. Games should be easy for beginners but get harder as you go. But, I think this also contributes to some of the so-called videogame feel that some people think that 4e has. Reversing the power curve that D&D has had since its inception was a pretty big shift. So it will be interesting to see if the designers of 5e are cognizant of this and what they intend to do about it. For the future of the game, I vastly prefer a model that ramps up both difficulty and complexity at higher levels as opposed to how D&D played in earlier editions. But I definitely think that options for reversing the power curve and making the lower level game more difficult and lethal should be there for advanced players who enjoy that challenge. [/QUOTE]
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