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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 4667591" data-attributes="member: 2067">I don't think 4e imposes a larger restriction. I think a better way to word it is that 4e provides less support for different tones and playstyles.4e is a very focused game. What it's focused on is combat. It doesn't give a real kobold's tail about anything else -- to 4e, combat is the fun part of D&D. Everything else -- espionage, horror, exploration, survival, etc., etc., is boring to 4e.It nods at the other stuff, but the fact of the matter is that skill challenges and rituals (which are going to be the first two answers that leap to mind for those who think it DOESN'T restrict) cannot support a campaign that revolves around them -- there's not enough variety and depth (and balance) in them to hold up a campaign that heavily uses them. Any style of play that doesn't heavily focus on combat is not supported very well in 4e right now.That said, most styles of play probably do heavily focus on combat. Combat is the most important part of the game to get "right" in many cases. It is possible that future adjunct systems can handle other genres and playstyles better than the core rules do right now. 4e probably has the capacity to do more (nothing is stopping it), it just chooses not to (Wizards doesn't think it's especially important).This narrow focus is more "encourages you to one style" rather than "prohibits other styles." There is empty design space there, waiting to be made. There's nothing there right now, though. The style that it encourages is for you to go out and beat things over the head with sharp peices of metal and glittery magic lazers until you get their XP's and GP's.Every other form of resolution is less encouraged to the point where you really can't run a game that doesn't use combat as the main form of resolution in any kind of satisfying way with the game.This isn't accidental. It's intentional. What worries me most going forward in 4e, with regards to old and new settings, is that this idea -- that combat is the best idea, the most fun thing to do, and the thing that needs the most support -- won't get pushed aside by new rules and settings. Ravenloft won't be a game about horror and protection, it'll be a game about going into crypts and fighting vampires instead of a game about going into dungeons and fighting dragons. Planescape in 4e won't be a game about exploring the unknown and philosophical metaphysics, it'll be a game about going into the planes and fighting demon lords. Dark Sun in 4e won't be a game about survival and necessary cruelty, it'll be a game about going into the weastlands and fighting psychic bugs. I worry that 4e will reduce everything to combat, and in that respect, it'll effectively have only one setting, one style, and one kind of campaign: the kind where you go somewhere and kill something.I really don't think that's what every D&D game should be about, and that has never been what MOST of my D&D games are about.The focus is nice if that's what I'm looking for, but I'm not really looking for that.</blockquote>

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