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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Korgoth" data-source="post: 5358056" data-attributes="member: 49613">Interesting. To me it is almost exactly the opposite. OD&D (1974) is the most liberating, conceptually advanced role playing game that I've ever encountered (I came to it late; started with Moldvay); virtually every other fantasy game seems like a defective copy.You have your Fighting Man, your holy man (Cleric) and your wizard (Magic User). What can they do? Anything. My Fighting Man might be a heavily armed mercenary legionaire, yours might be a lightly armed sneak who fights as a peltast. My Cleric might be a pious servant of the One True God, yours might be a cynical sorcerer who manipulates various lesser spirits with irresistible incantations. My Magic User might be a pirate whose spellbook is contained in elaborate scrimshaw; yours might be an enchantress.Can a given character operate a sailing vessel? Well, the MU who is a pirate can but the enchantress probably cannot (unless there is a reason why she can). Can a Fighting Man move silently? Well, my mercenary with his lorica cannot, but your peltast probably can. If we need to roll for it, just roll versus DEX and be done with it.As soon as you add skills, powers, etc. and codify all this stuff, you take options and flexibility away. With OD&D I can play any kind of fantasy game I want, bar none. The more exacting the detail in the rules, the more I am constrained in what I am able to do with the game. 4E is almost totally constrained into a single style.Essentials seems like a step in the right direction to me, though obviously with my White Box I already own the perfect FRPG and have no reason to ever buy another except out of curiosity. 4E as it stands comes off a bit like a hybrid of a role playing game and a board game. That's not an entirely bad thing... board games are doing well right now. But if 4E wants to be a gateway game (in the sense that people actually start with it as their first RPG) then it needs to be simpler... Essentials makes it simpler.</blockquote>

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