D&D 4E 4e easier to design for?

[Gundark]

I'm wondering with what we have heard about 4e if it'll be easier for 3rd parties to develop for? I say this based on what little we've heard about the monster rules. Sound like there will be less "mechanics" .

What do you think

 

[Greatwyrm]

Its one of the things I really hope they deliver on for being easier. Homebrew monsters was my pet project, well, aside from DMing anyway. I liked it in 2e more than 3e. Assigning a CR was always such a voodooish endeavor.

 

[pawsplay]

Essentially, it pushes the design burden on the person creating the monster. With less to fiddle with, less "rules," you necessarily have more eyeballing, more lumping monsters into "close enough" levels, less structure (and hence more room to get into trouble).

 

[JVisgaitis]

It sure sounds like it will be, but then also seems like there is a lot of new tricky stuff to balance out. My bet is that creating monsters and magic items and stuff will be easier, but trying to do something like a class will be a lot trickier.

 

[The Grackle]

Essentially, it pushes the design burden on the person creating the monster. With less to fiddle with, less "rules," you necessarily have more eyeballing, more lumping monsters into "close enough" levels, less structure (and hence more room to get into trouble).

Maybe. The flip too that is with stricter rules, a designer can follow the formula and get a set number, but in actual play, the monster comes out to a different CR or level or whatever. Rules can make people lazy about the eyeballing, which should always be part of the process.

So the burden is on the person making the monster either way.

 

[Logan_Bonner]

IMO, monsters will be easier. I'm not sure about classes, powers, etc.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Either way, I suspect early design will appear much like it did in 3.0. Everyone jumps into the fray, putting out rushed supplements with little awareness of the way things work or are designed to work. There will be some real gems in there of course. A couple of years into it, everyone will be better at design, just in time for another market glut to be building up.

 

[pawsplay]

Maybe. The flip too that is with stricter rules, a designer can follow the formula and get a set number, but in actual play, the monster comes out to a different CR or level or whatever. Rules can make people lazy about the eyeballing, which should always be part of the process.

So the burden is on the person making the monster either way.

I'm betting that a good system, like a good automatic transmission, will perform better for the average user.

Or to look at it another way... if the rules are there, you can use them. Whether they are or are not, you can always eyeball it. So you are better off with the opportunity to consult a rule, particularly a well-made, clear one, even if you then with your expert eyeballing choose to discard a particular result.

A mechanical CR system might be terrible, but if some care was taken, I think it would just about always come up with the right ballpark. I know in Basic D&D, XP was strictly formulaic... HD and asterisks, although asterisks had some subjectivity to it.