Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="ourchair" data-source="post: 5269832" data-attributes="member: 85362">Girlfriend DM has been asking me what all this fuss about Essentials is, and everytime I try to explain what everyone is talking about and what Essentials actually is, the result is a ping pong effect that creates a discussion that complicates one or the other.I think it all amounts to this: Everyone is picking nits over the &quot;intended market&quot; and the Essentials mechanics, in an attempt to infer one from the other, when in fact it really shouldn't matter. At all. To me, Essentials is simply a new set of class structures to play with, and whether that is better for players new to RPGs , players with a passing familiarity with D&amp;D (i.e. CRPG players such as Interplay fans), or old school players who previously stayed away from 4e is completely irrelevant.It's presumptious to say that certain mechanical styles are better suited to certain people because it oversimplifies each gaming demographic, as if they would all have the same level of rules grokking. I've introduced 4e to a lot of players, and one thing I can tell you is that nobody grasps the rules exactly the same way, even between individuals who fall in the same gamer demographic. For some, the Vanceian spellcasting of 2e/3e is too complicated. It's a case of strategizing slots, an predict each day. But for some, it's fine because the cooldown of their spells only happens every gameday. They don't have to keep track of anything except, &quot;The party rests,&quot; which to them is a more elegant cooldown than every five minutes or per encounter.For some of them, the simple rules many exceptions structure of 4e is a big old headache as they have to remember that powers and feats are about breaking the normal laws of the ruleset. Which on a certain cognitive level, can feel weird. What I'm trying to say I guess is that the learning psychology of players is so divergent that using new players/old players to distinguish between them is a mistake when trying to figure out &quot;Who is Essentials supposed to be for?&quot;</blockquote>

[QUOTE="ourchair, post: 5269832, member: 85362"] Girlfriend DM has been asking me what all this fuss about Essentials is, and everytime I try to explain what everyone is talking about and what Essentials actually is, the result is a ping pong effect that creates a discussion that complicates one or the other. I think it all amounts to this: Everyone is picking nits over the "intended market" and the Essentials mechanics, in an attempt to infer one from the other, when in fact it really shouldn't matter. At all. To me, Essentials is simply a new set of class structures to play with, and whether that is better for players new to RPGs , players with a passing familiarity with D&D (i.e. CRPG players such as Interplay fans), or old school players who previously stayed away from 4e is completely irrelevant. It's presumptious to say that certain mechanical styles are better suited to certain people because it oversimplifies each gaming demographic, as if they would all have the same level of rules grokking. I've introduced 4e to a lot of players, and one thing I can tell you is that nobody grasps the rules exactly the same way, even between individuals who fall in the same gamer demographic. For some, the Vanceian spellcasting of 2e/3e is too complicated. It's a case of strategizing slots, an predict each day. But for some, it's fine because the cooldown of their spells only happens every gameday. They don't have to keep track of anything except, "The party rests," which to them is a more elegant cooldown than every five minutes or per encounter. For some of them, the simple rules many exceptions structure of 4e is a big old headache as they have to remember that powers and feats are about breaking the normal laws of the ruleset. Which on a certain cognitive level, can feel weird. What I'm trying to say I guess is that the learning psychology of players is so divergent that using new players/old players to distinguish between them is a mistake when trying to figure out "Who is Essentials supposed to be for?" [/QUOTE]

Verification