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Elegant Rules (Forked From: Inconsistant/Arbitrary rules...)
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<blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 4792842" data-attributes="member: 54877"><p>Maybe my appreciation for elegance is unfairly strict, but I cannot think of a single rule in any version of D&D that would qualifiy. There is often some emergent, system-wide elegance in operation, for example:</p><p> </p><p>Basic: Generating characters.</p><p>1st ed.: Lots of magic without it dominating play until high levels.</p><p>3rd ed.: Skill coverage.</p><p>4th ed.: GM prep.</p><p> </p><p>But the actual rules underlying that are all "very functional", at best. As another example, there is nothing elegant about printing out a bunch of powers to use with 4E or limiting the action economy. There is something elegant about each player grokking the spirit of this, and zipping around the table during a round.</p><p> </p><p>I'm not even sure that D&D is well served by going after elegance, too much. Hit points and Armor as hit avoidance are the poster children for inelegant things with highly functional results. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Crazy Jerome, post: 4792842, member: 54877"] Maybe my appreciation for elegance is unfairly strict, but I cannot think of a single rule in any version of D&D that would qualifiy. There is often some emergent, system-wide elegance in operation, for example: Basic: Generating characters. 1st ed.: Lots of magic without it dominating play until high levels. 3rd ed.: Skill coverage. 4th ed.: GM prep. But the actual rules underlying that are all "very functional", at best. As another example, there is nothing elegant about printing out a bunch of powers to use with 4E or limiting the action economy. There is something elegant about each player grokking the spirit of this, and zipping around the table during a round. I'm not even sure that D&D is well served by going after elegance, too much. Hit points and Armor as hit avoidance are the poster children for inelegant things with highly functional results. :) [/QUOTE]
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