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Message: <blockquote data-quote="moritheil" data-source="post: 2597700" data-attributes="member: 30610">In which sense?   I value the consistency of a synthetic reality first, and the elegance of its mechanics second.  The mechanics are merely tools that enable us to model interactions within the fantasy world.  I would much rather have a metaphysically consistent and clear, but mechanically lacking world - such as In Nomine - than a world that is mechanically great but wherein no one has any idea of what the true cosmic order is like.  My statements are therefore made from this perspective.In reality, I accept that WOTC is willing to do goofy things to sell more books.  That's why we have this new system.  I also accept that people who dislike the current mechanics may like the new ones.  In my own game, I dislike introducing sweeping new changes without making sure they metaphysically fit into the world.  Therefore the metaphysics are of substantial consequence to me.  I cannot see life force suddenly taking on this new importance, and superceding magic as a source of power and change, and it not being a massive cosmic upheval, just as I cannot see Fire suddenly surpassing Earth, Air, and Water in power and importance, and it not being a massive cosmic upheaval.  This is not true for other DMs, or for many players, who do not worry about the sanity or coherence of their worlds.Mechanically, what I question is the fact that they are moving away from a unified mechanical system that one learns to understand all powers  - which is the virtue of the new psionics - and more into variant systems that will make it difficult for one person to understand everything with minimal reading of the rules.  This does not make DMs' lives easier.  Again, I understand that they are player oriented, not DM oriented, that cool things sell, and that a unified system may not be cool, but totally weird new systems are.  I am stating, however, that I don't like it.  It is not fundamentally aesthetically, mechanically, or metaphysically appealing to me.  They came so close to making things easily understandable, and then veered off.  I am the one stuck with the unenviable job of explaining this stuff to new people at the same time that they are struggling to learn the basic spellcasting system.This is, essentially, a tradeoff that WOTC is making - coherence for cash.  I recognize that their mission is principally to make money, and not to produce the most uniform or most clearly understood gaming environment possible.  I cannot fault them for it, in a sense, but I do not like what they have done.  The arbitrary elevation of components of the multiverse in importance, to sell books, does not strike me as helpful or intellectually honest.</blockquote>

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