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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 304661" data-attributes="member: 177">Yes, but let us not confuse advertising copy with actual intent.  To say, "This system has the potential to be universal" is not nearly the same thing as "We intend to make this system universal."  One syas you are providing the foundation, the other says you actually intend to build the house.No, it isn't essential.  It's just very, very helpful.  Honestly, giving other people said meta-mechanics book wouldn't necessarily be a great thing. If they follow the meta mechanics, they are following the same thought paths as the designers. That's not new.  If you want real stretching, real originality, you let people work without knowing what patterns the original designers were following.  First (and it actually isn't a big deal), but you assume too much.  I argue that the gaming community really needs other games to exist, not that I personally need to play them.Why do other games need to exist?  Because you wouldn't get such a good d20 Call of Cthulhu if they weren't trying to model aspects of the original, successful non-d20 Call of Cthulhu.  Because the various d20 Supers rules are learning from previous, non-d20 Supers games.  Because the best examples of non-vancian magic come from non-d20 games.  Because, in short, d20 can learn and be inspired by other games. If your mind is stuck on d20, it becomes much more difficult to break the mold.  And, in the end, there are things that d20 simply cannot do, as a simple manner of statistics.  The core mechanic of d20 is that 20-sided die.  The "find a DC, roll a d20, add modifiers".  If it doesn't have that, it isn't d20, no matter how you slice it.  And, this method has a characteristic statistic - one markedly different from games that use a dice pool.  The statistical characteristics of the system do have an effect on the "feel" of the game - what you can and can't do, and how like you are to succeed.  How the session flows, and how the character changes with time and experience. d20 and a dice pool simply aren't equivalent, and will always do different things well.</blockquote>

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