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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5834751" data-attributes="member: 54877">I think the key element here is the balancing act (if you'll pardon using "balance" in another context here <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />) between making something flexible and making it work well for a given style.  And by work well, I mean not only the opposite of suck, but that it does what you want, with reasonable effort. I've been able to run games I truly enjoyed (while playing) with many versions of D&D (almost all of them, and probably could all of them if I tried hard enough). And by limiting my styles to certain things that do work well in a given version, I could, today, run games I would enjoy in any of those versions.  The implications of all that, as I see them are: <ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">You might be able to have a 5E that is able to run "In the style of edition N"--where that really means "A few of the more popular and characteristic styles that edition N catered to." But chances are, it is really going to mean, "The primary style associated with that edition," with everyone else left out or sent to other "edition mimicry" for their preferences.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">With some work, you probably will be able to bend those parameters--but it will take that work. The game advice should be clear about this.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">There needs to be clarity about what a given set of mechanics are designed to do. If you want to do something else with it, great, but that's on you.</li> </ol>So the net effect might be that you can play 5E in an "operational adventure/ fantasy Vietnam" kind of style if you want--easily. But if you do, that will mean that you'll be using a lot of the 1E emulation mechanics and widgets. If you want to use those same mechanics and widgets to run a 2E "storyteller" style, they probably want work that well.  There is, of course, some room for "drift" in this, especially in a game flexible enough to do more than one style. It might be that you take mostly 3E style as a base, grab that 1E element, those "basic" classes, this 4E subsystem, and get exactly what you were looking for. It will merely be one of those things that is hit or miss for a given mixture. It might work; it might not. However, to the extent that the rules manage to emulate several styles well, it will do so by including optional pieces that don't always work in the other well-emulated styles--and which you'll be well advised to exclude for your particular style game. "Kitchen Sink" DMs hardest hit. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /></blockquote>

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