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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 4286294" data-attributes="member: 42582">OK, so you don't like games with metagame mechanics yielding player control over the narration. (And, by the way, you still haven't told me whether you regard games that are metagame heavy, like HeroWars and The Dying Earth, as RPGs.)Ah, so Rolemaster and Runequest are not RPGs either (or at least not very good ones) because they have always had unified XP tables, unified skill lists, unified rules for magic use, etc.And, by the way, there is a pretty signficant mechanical difference between Sleep and Force Orb (just to pick two 1st level Wizard powers).OK, so you also prefer a game in which one of the main rewards of play - earning loot - is thwarted by the unidentifiability or unobtainability of that loot.The 1st ed DMG is much better design, obviously, devoting page after page to magic items that the rules tell you not to let the PCs have, or not to let them use if they do get hold of them. In AD&D nearly all poisons are the same (dead) and all petrification is the same (turned to stone - it's kind of definitional in this case). But not all 4e conditions have an identical effect - that's just nonsense.I don't understand, for two reasons: you can't perform a Ritual of higher than your level (unless it's on a scroll, as is traditional for D&D); the difference between 1st level PCs having Raise Dead and Teleport or not is nothing to do with setting and all about play experience.This is one of the more bizarre items on your list. The amount of loving mechanical detail given to the class attack powers, the class utility powers, the healing mechanics and all the related paraphenalia of combat mean that the game more than ever focuses on the thematic signficance and consequences of fighting.And just think, Rolemaster has only a handful of conditions: must parry, stunned, stunned no parry and down. And it has 50' movement per round (only 5 squares on a 10' grid). And it has never had any decent multi-classing rules, only rather expensive dabbling or new base classes. It's a conspiracy!Ah, 2nd ed AD&D - I miss that pinnacle of skill-based RPGs.So just to be clear - what really makes a great fantasy RPG are it's equipment and transportation rules.</blockquote>

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