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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jdrakeh" data-source="post: 2735692" data-attributes="member: 13892">Unified rules =/= less rules. Incidentally, the core resolution mechanic is unified, but in point of fact, there are a lot of situation-specific rules present in D&D 3x (mostly where feats and skills are concerned) that a DM needs to be familiar with order to run the game by the book. It's this bulk of situation-specific (and, thus, not unified) rules that I believe Chainsaw Mage is referring to. Completely different is a bit misleading - both still involved making a 'To Hit' roll versus AC on a d20. The disparity between making an armed attack and an unarmed attack in AD&D 1e is no different than, say... making a grappling attack or executing a great cleave in 3x. In fact I'd say that they were less disparate. In earlier editions, there may have been some minor differences between unarmed and armed attacks, but those were really the only two attack options you had - so you had 2 situation-specific rules. In 3x nearly every feat-based attack has its own set of rules  - sure they use the same resolution mechanic, but the specific implementation differs greatly from feat to feat, requiring an unique sub-set of rules for each. It's this crazy, anal-retentive, focus on situation-specific minutae that makes DMing D&D 3x a pain for me. It's not so bad at lower levels, but lacking a photographic memory and tons of free time to study the rules like one studies for a doctorate, at higher levels it quickly becomes unmanageable for me. I think the old 'change the game until it plays in a way that you like' argument side-steps some of the points being made in this thread, rather than addressing them. It has as much merit as the 'if you don't like game X, just ignore rule y, implement house rule Z, and switch out rules A and B' argument (i.e., it has no merit). The bottom line is that D&D 3x works really well for some people and not for others. In the end it has less to do with the system than with what a given individual likes, has the free time to fiddle with, or finds practical. And that's really the bottom line for me - given time constraints and my style of gaming, I find D&D 3x to be impractical more than anything (largely due to the mass of situation-specific rules). I can put a lot less efffort into AD&D 1e or Rolemaster and get almost the exact same end result as I can achieve with D&D 3x. Why work my ass off needlessly, if the same result can be achieved with less time invested on part, allowing me to focus on other aspects of the game than rules (setting, character devlopment, etc).</blockquote>

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