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Message: <blockquote data-quote="aboniks" data-source="post: 6266777" data-attributes="member: 6775018">I'm playing a gnome.  He's identically slow in relation to all other  gnomes, because the numbers say he is.  The justification for this is  largely irrelevant to me, but I willfully suspend disbelief so many  times per second while gaming that it's just one more drop in the  bucket.  Because...well, he's not only slower than a fat asthmatic  peg-legged human, but he can also speak seven imaginary languages,  intimidate giants, and kill people with his mind.I from what I've seen of Next, it seems like a lot of the changes are  intended to simplify the experience, on a variety of levels.In my view, that's a grand and worthy goal, both from a business  perspective, and as a player.   Even 3.5 was, lets face it, intimidatingly complex  and confusing for a new player.  Most of my gaming experience was in  2e...which I understood well.  Then a few years later I landed in a 3.5  game and it took me three hours to make a character.  Fast forward now to Pathfinder many years later, and I find myself with a  multiclass character so complex that I have to program spreadsheets and  build 20 page word docs full of notes just to keep track of what my  character can do, what he'll be able to do next, and what I wanted him  to be able to do five levels from now.  If I left it until it was time to level up to figure out his level  progression, our gaming group would never get any time to gain XP, the  gold-standard for "realistic" gaming mechanisms (he said with eyes  a'rolling).The complexity issue is largely self inflicted, of course, both by the  developers (in the quest for eternal revenue), and by the players (in  our quest for bright shiny new things, larger numbers, and fabulous  loot).  Honestly, I won't be giving any more of my money to WoTC regardless of  the specifics of Next, because my group is already heavily invested  (financially and mentally) in Pathfinder.  But, that being said, if  Pathfinder went ahead and and equalized all PC movement rates tomorrow  it wouldn't bother me in the slightest.  Not because I want a faster  gnome (I'll have one soon anyway, he's a monk) or because I think short  imaginary critters should be as fast as tall imaginary critters, but  because trying to assert realism in regards to individual character  abilities within a game system like this is an exercise in diminishing  fun returns.  Yes, stat-based movement speeds would be more realistic.  So would  encumbrance rules.  So would distinguishing between the movement,  balance, combat and tumbling effects of wearing 60 pounds of plate  armor, or carrying 60 pounds of enchanted bananas in a sack in one hand,  while casting magic missile on a tight-rope, and drunk.  And how fast  can I move with only one shoe, a migraine, while wearing a rucksack with  an angry shadow mastiff stuffed headfirst into it?    So to wind down the ramble; for this player (and erstwhile DM), all the  books and rules, modifiers and calculations, are just a means to an  end...and that end is not a reality simulation.  The systems will never  be perfect.  When the developers make a change you don't like, just  ignore it, or change it back, or paint it purple, stick horns on it, and  turn it into something shiny for your players.  The rules in the books  will never reflect reality as accurately as they might.But that's the point of playing these games, isn't it?  Creativity,  flexibility, and most importantly, in my opinion, storytelling.  If the  rules were a perfect reflection of reality, we'd all end up sitting down  together on a Saturday night to eat pizza and itemize our tax returns.   Unless there's a prestige class for actuaries in the upcoming Low-Risk Indoor Respectable Professions of Faerun sourcebook, I don't think (m)any of us really want to do that.  If I have to count beans, they'd better damn well be magic ones.</blockquote>

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