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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8277325" data-attributes="member: 82106">I think the AD&D version is basically equivalent to the 5e version in terms of the criticisms [USER=7027139]@loverdrive[/USER] listed. The consequences are much more severe, but nothing tells you how to use it, at all, really. Beyond that, the FUNDAMENTAL problem is, as she said, there's nothing but disincentive for the game to go there. It is just like saying to the players "hey, here's a pool of acid for your PCs to walk in!" Guess what? They aren't going to walk in there. If they do it is only because you offered them some big carrot, a huge treasure or something. What do the characters in a Mythos game DO? They confront this sort of thing out of necessity and it is balanced against other outcomes, and that happens mechanically (and in fact my assertion that CoC is basically a crap game is because it exactly DOES NOT do this in any mechanical sense). Cthulhu Dark for example allows you to specifically achieve results against the mythos by exactly one method, putting stress on your sanity (even then you presumably have to go through other fictional position to get that chance). 5e has perverse incentives here, mainly because the system IS tacked on. There's no clear advantage to risking your sanity, or motive to do so. Sure, you may end up getting hit with SAN checks. You may even need to wade through that 'pit of acid' but there's nothing like the idea that you actually use your understanding of Mythos stuff to solve the problem, and that this is THE ONLY WAY to solve it. In The Dunwich Horror, the protagonists learn what is happening, starting with a fortunate incident, but from there they have to read the Necronomicon, go to a village full of nasty horrors, see lots of terrifying stuff, and enact an actual magical ritual. Even in CoC this literally requires spending SAN points. You simply cannot avoid it. In 5e you would find a back door, use some spell to avoid the badness, wait till you were higher level to deal with the problem, etc. Heck, the trope in D&D is you only get hit with problems you CAN solve, the monsters are the right 'CR', etc. You can break that, but it is still not a game that has a good model for this. At best the 'feel' of the game is wrong and has to be actively subverted along with the specific rules.</blockquote>

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