D&D 5E Breakin' the Law! Thoughts on Rules in 5e

[iserith]

I prefer to conceptualize it this way:

Everything the DM says when adjudicating an action is a ruling.

Those rulings may or may not be based on the rules of the game.

 

[Malmuria]

C. Mental Overhead for the DM. This is often-overlooked, but for DMs (especially new DMs), it is often beneficial to be able to rely on a rule. For most people, it is less mentally taxing to be able to just use a rule than to come up with an ad hoc adjudication. There is an AC, there is a to hit roll, boom.

Having to constantly look up and parse rules (especially spells) are what lead to cognitive overload for me. I'm already concentrating so much on the players and reacting to what they are doing, it is too much for me to shift gears and start looking at books and notes in a detailed way. Ideally I would either just remember, be able to figure out how to adjudicate it ("roll intelligence check"), or it would maybe be on a rules reference no longer than 4 pages.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Another reason I prefer TotM.

Same process really if it is TotM: DM decides.

 

[DEFCON 1]

To me... 'too many rules' is the attempted treatment game designers use for the disease of players trying too hard to "win" the game by forsaking common-sense play and adjudication of the rules currently there. Players some time in the past tried to scam their way past a basic rule for their own betterment-- argued their way through a potential loophole in the rules because it got them what they wanted-- and as a result more complex rules ended up getting written to try and fill in that hole to stop similar players in the future.

The best way to have a rules-light game is to have a table full of people who accept the light rules and not do anything to force the DM to had to add in more to cover the holes your sorry ass broke through.

 

[Voadam]

I really like the simplification and speed of 5e advantage and disadvantage versus lots of conditional changing modifiers from past editions such as power attack and expertise in 3e. It works well with keeping things in bounded accuracy as well.

Then I get into the specifics of the 5e game there is cover with conditional static bonuses. And 1st level bless with +1d4 per round (not just add in, but roll), and cantrip guidance. These are not just fiddly friction points, but also mess a little with bounded accuracy.

 

[Plaguescarred]

5E for me strikes a good balance between the ammount of rules it has and its Rule vs Ruling mantra. It has enought to be functional but not too much to easily get bug down, and can't cover everything so there's room for ruling.