All D20 Is Broken

[Digital M@]

I think some people throw around the word "broken" with casual ease these days.

Yeah, the term broken is broken.

 

[Greylock]

"You miss him."
"He misses you."
"You miss him."
"He misses you."
"You hit him and deal 10 points of damage. He looks barely injured."
"He misses you."
"You miss him."
"He misses you."

Sounds like true love.

 

[Drowbane]

I think some people throw around the word "broken" with casual ease these days.

man, I wish I could remember where I got this quote... but here it goes:

"Broken!!!, is the battlecry of the inexperienced DM"

Yeah, the term broken is broken.

Quoted for truth >.<

 

[Starman]

Indeed! It is the one, the only, A silent wail.

I miss the little guy. I wish he'd poke his head out and offer another silent wail for us.

 

[Nomad4life]

Hey! You could always play RIFTS. With lots of “megadamage” or whatever.

Trust me. You will never, never, never, ever, ever, ever, complain about "short combat rounds" again.

 

[Wil]

Hey! You could always play RIFTS. With lots of “megadamage” or whatever.

Trust me. You will never, never, never, ever, ever, ever, complain about "short combat rounds" again.

Well, I don't know about RIFTS...but in the Robotech rpg, when a Veritech has several hundred MDC and the weapons being used against it do like 1d6x10, combats are pretty durned drawn out. You begin to long for those "particle beam hits Veritech, Veritech blows up" scenes from the actual anime.

 

[Crothian]

D&D in particular forces you to move through different styles of play if you want to have progress with the same group of characters. Many players seem to have a 'sweet spot' of levels they particularly like to play at; why can't they continue to play the same characters, expanding their abilities and improving incrementally, without having to leave that sweet spot?

Because they don't want to. If they did, they would. There is nothing in the game forcing you to play 1-20th levels. Players and DMs should be playing the type of game they want and if they aren't they need to look in the mirror. These books are actually quite passive and even Biggus Geekus can take them in a fight. So, don't be forced to do anything by the books, the people should control the game.

 

[I'm A Banana]

So, don't be forced to do anything by the books, the people should control the game.

Then it's not D&D that's flexible.

It's the people playing it.

D&D, then, is only as flexible as the people playing it.

Which, really, makes the whole "D&D" factor irrelevant. Which means D&D has jack on any other system for this. So saying D&D is flexible is pretty misleading. You could say that any other RPG or game of imagination is as flexible. You could say that a videogame is as flexible because you control how and when you play the game. Which, ultimately, makes the statement that D&D is verstatile rather empty in this regard.

 

[Crothian]

Then it's not D&D that's flexible.

It's the people playing it.

D&D, then, is only as flexible as the people playing it.

D&D is flexible, not all games allow the people that play the ability to control it so much. But of course the people playing the game are more important then the books. I'm not sure that was ever in doubt.

 

[I'm A Banana]

D&D is flexible, not all games allow the people that play the ability to control it so much.

I don't know any TRPGs that have a rules gestapo, so D&D, at best, is only as flexible as the next TRPG.

But of course the people playing the game are more important then the books. I'm not sure that was ever in doubt.

Yeah, but because the people playing d20 and playing every other system out there have about the same amount of flexibility, that zeroes out. So the only way to measure d20's "brokenness" with regards to other TRPGs is the rules. The people are rather irrelevant to the discussion because the people playing d20 or other TRPG's are largely equal.

Saying "You can make D&D anything you want!" is kind of empty. You can make any system anything you want. What matters is what flexibility there is, not what there may be.