Do you really want dials and options?

[FireLance]

I know it seems like a strange thing to ask, but human nature is strange (IMO, YMMV, etc.).

Sure, everyone seems supportive of dials and options on the surface, but the underlying, unstated sentiment seems to be, "I am in favor of including an option I want."

However, experience from the last few years seems to suggest that including desired options is only half the story. The other half is excluding options that are not wanted.

The warlord class. The tiefling and dragonborn races. The come and get it power. Even though the game might have options they want, the fact that it also includes options that they don't want seems to be a sticking point for some people.

So, search your feelings and answer true: are you really in favor of dials and options? If you can get the play experience you want, would it bug you that other people can adjust the game to get different play experiences that you specifically would not like?

 

[Hassassin]

So, search your feelings and answer true: are you really in favor of dials and options? If you can get the play experience you want, would it bug you that other people can adjust the game to get different play experiences that you specifically would not like?

I think there is a difference between dials and options in the core rules and optional rules that come with supplements. The former carry more cost.

I also think some options and dials belong to the DM, to make the system match their setting and adventure. For example, if he's planning on running a gritty campaign, he could ask: "Who wants to play a game using core and Tome of Sweat?"

 

[jasin]

I'm all in favour of dials and options in theory, but I'm having great trouble getting into games that first require work to construct the game I want by tuning the dials and options. A clear and workable baseline + dials and options is what'd work best for me, probably.

 

[Ainamacar]

As DM I can remove a race, class, or power in sentence. As a player I might be able to negotiate it. It's unlikely I could invent any missing option that easily. I might briefly become surly if the only game in town has an element I can't stand, but for the most part I don't see it as a problem.

The thing I see as more significant is tyranny of choice, where there might be so many game options and dials that actually picking what version of a game to play causes people to give up in frustration. In the extreme case, if 5e's Unearthed Arcana has as many options as 4e has feats. The solution -- OK, significant mitigation -- to that situation is robust defaults. I'm big on robust defaults. In fact, I think about them in much the same way I think about analogous coding issues.

We can be confident 5e will have robust defaults for at least one very important reason: new players.

 

[Nagol]

I have dials and options now; I play/run lots of different systems.

Inside the conceptual space of RPG possibility, each system sets a whole bunch of dials to develop itself. A whole bunch more get set when I pick the setting and even more when I pick the initial environment.

I have absolutely no problem with people playing differently; however every default assumption is a dial setting. If too many dials are set away from what I'm looking for, I look for a system closer to my expectation.

 

[delericho]

Ideally, I would like the game to work perfectly (for me) out-of-the-box.

However, since my tastes are unique to me, and since they change over time, they need to be more flexible that "here's the one true way to play". Some sort of customisation options are absolutely required, especially if WotC truly hope to unify the fanbase.

My suggestion would be to produce a fairly lightweight baseline game, that forms the common ruleset used by everyone. In concept, this would be similar to the d20 kernel used in 3e. (Although, even in the 3.0e core rulebooks, they had already over-laden it with complexity. Also, I would be inclined to hew closer to the 4e math than 3e.) This should form the basis of the Starter Set and the Core Rulebook.

From there, you add options of increasing complexity - books akin to the 3e "Unearthed Arcana", although a bit more fleshed out. Indeed, the very first DMG should probably also be the first of these books, providing several rules modules for people to use.

But, and I think this is crucial, I think the Core Rulebook (and Starter Set) should present the game in its simplest possible iteration. I don't think they can meaningfully provide ways to remove complexity from the game. And I don't think literal "complexity dials" works (unless you're enforcing the use of DDI tools - but that's one of my absolute deal-breakers). I think presenting the baseline and then modular additional rules is the way to go.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I would be in favour of strong defaults and I like options but I am sceptical of dials and am likely to reamin so until I see this in action.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

I'm a toolkit guy. I'm going to compulsively vivisect the system anyway; the game has more value to me if her organs are already clearly labelled when I open her up. But I'll agree with what others have said-- start with the simplest possible baseline system, and then add optional rules modules. The popular modules will become the de facto baseline, but simply naming the modules in play will tell people what they need to know about the ruleset.

 

[Rechan]

The warlord class. The tiefling and dragonborn races. The come and get it power. Even though the game might have options they want, the fact that it also includes options that they don't want seems to be a sticking point for some people.

I think the underlying problem is not that those options exist, but rather that they exist and there is a feeling that they will show up "At My Table".

For instance, many have said they are fine with Dragonborn and Tieflings existing as player options, but the problem was that they were in PHB1. That implies some level of significance. That a player is going to come along and say "Oh hey I want to play a tiefling" and the DM feels cornered because the Tiefling is in the PHB1, how can they deny that?

Like psionics, people want that icky thing sequestered into its own book where it's not touching the stuff they like, so they can just disavow that book.

 

[Wightbred]

Yes I definitely want dials and options, even if I don't use them. I hack every game I run to some extent, so more options means more food for thought and less I have hack.

But I do think they can be parceled together (options for people who want complexity, options to make it run old school), the default should be easy for new players and there should be robust advice on using options (like that what you leave out is as important as what you put in).