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<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 9239668" data-attributes="member: 22779">Another good example of why opacity doesn't work:In 1e, when the PC's traveled to another plane, &quot;Plussed&quot; items would lose two plusses.&nbsp; Why?&nbsp; Well, the primary reason was that by the time AD&amp;D PC's could actually travel across planes, they were basically minor gods and would curb stomp anything out of the books.&nbsp; So, to rein in the power levels of the characters, planar traveling dropped the plusses.&nbsp; Then you lost access to higher level cleric spells as well.&nbsp; Basically all these things were added in to make the adventure challenging.&nbsp; Without these changes, double digit level characters were just so powerful that it wasn't any fun.&nbsp; Certainly wasn't much of a challenge by that point.&nbsp; But, none of this was actually explained.&nbsp; Now, it was very obvious that this is why it was done.&nbsp; Even 14 year old me could figure that one out looking at something like Queen of the Demonweb Pits.&nbsp; Granted they wrapped it up in some in universe gobbledegook to make it look good, but, everyone knew exactly what was going on.&nbsp; It wasn't exactly subtle.However, instead of just being up front and explaining why these changes were being done, they kept trying to bury the lede and pretend that it was somehow &quot;logical&quot; that your Holy Avenger just wasn't quite so holy, just because you happened to be on a different plane.&nbsp; <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/erm.png"&nbsp; class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":erm:" title="Erm&nbsp; &nbsp; :erm:" data-shortname=":erm:" />D&amp;D has a very long history of trying to cover up very reasonable game rules with in universe explanations.&nbsp; I've never quite understood the need.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 9239668, member: 22779"] Another good example of why opacity doesn't work: In 1e, when the PC's traveled to another plane, "Plussed" items would lose two plusses. Why? Well, the primary reason was that by the time AD&D PC's could actually travel across planes, they were basically minor gods and would curb stomp anything out of the books. So, to rein in the power levels of the characters, planar traveling dropped the plusses. Then you lost access to higher level cleric spells as well. Basically all these things were added in to make the adventure challenging. Without these changes, double digit level characters were just so powerful that it wasn't any fun. Certainly wasn't much of a challenge by that point. But, none of this was actually explained. Now, it was very obvious that this is why it was done. Even 14 year old me could figure that one out looking at something like Queen of the Demonweb Pits. Granted they wrapped it up in some in universe gobbledegook to make it look good, but, everyone knew exactly what was going on. It wasn't exactly subtle. However, instead of just being up front and explaining why these changes were being done, they kept trying to bury the lede and pretend that it was somehow "logical" that your Holy Avenger just wasn't quite so holy, just because you happened to be on a different plane. :erm: D&D has a very long history of trying to cover up very reasonable game rules with in universe explanations. I've never quite understood the need. [/QUOTE]

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