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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ComradeGnull" data-source="post: 5986444" data-attributes="member: 6685694">I'll definitely say that the presentation has changed over the years.  I would say that was what initially put me off 4e- the presentation has emphasized the RAW, combat, etc., a bit more than before.  I would chalk that up both to the formalization of things that used to be at loose ends- earlier versions of the game often just had never bothered to create rules for certain things, or had never really even given any guidance for them- and to a growing perception as D&D became part of a bigger corporation that there was a need to explicitly target new players.  "Here are some things you can ignore and play the game how YOU want!" isn't actually a great way to appeal to new players, since they don't really know what the game is, much less how they want to play it.  I think writers were probably thinking: new players need guidelines, old players will take or leave whatever they want anyway, leading to a presentation of the material that made it sound more immutable than it actually is.I understand your example, but I would also say: armor as changing hit chance is pretty core to the game, and goes back a long way.  I'm not surprised that that would have some pretty big cascade affects, but I would chalk that up as much to the way the alternate rule was presented in UA (without being completely thought through) as anything.  I also think that is of a different class of customization than, say, resolving how far someone can jump using an on-the-spot ruling vs. a published rule.  One is replacing what is actually a big element of the combat system, whereas the other one just needs to meet very basic requirements of common sense, real-world physics, and consistency.  I doubt you are going to find a system that leaves how armor works up to DM preference by default, whereas jump distance is the sort of thing I could figure out for myself but frankly can't be bothered.</blockquote>

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