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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 6222697" data-attributes="member: 37579">As the late great Douglas Adams said: evolution does not progress, it wanders. Games are tricky when it comes to change, because the entire identity of the game is often tied to the rules and presentation of the game. If you change the rules of Monopoly to make it more a Eurogame, say making it so half the players don’t go bankrupt and sit out half the game, then you risk making a game that’s Monopoly in name only.  This only partially applies to D&D. I wrote a <a href="http://www.5mwd.com/archives/1112" target="_blank">lengthy blog</a> article on the subject. Summarizing that, D&D is equal parts lore and mechanics. If you change too much of either you begin to drift away from what seperates D&D from every other fantasy RPG on the market. And there are LOTS. Name recognition can only carry you so far.Streamlining seems to be the most effective change. If the mechanic seems familiar in play but is easier to adjudicate then it’s an easy change to make. Moving from THAC0 and negative AC to BAB and positive AC had little effect on actually playing. You rolled the same and hit the same, but it was easier to manage. There’s an infinite amount of changes you could make to D&D. You could make endless “evolutions” to the game. For example, polyhedral dice are an added expense that make the game harder to start playing, and add a swinging to the combat where you have equal odds of critting or fumbling. Changing to 3d6 adds a nice bellcurve. Heck, let’s go easier and go down to 2d6 and keep the numbers down. Attack bonuses and variable AC also slow down play with math. You could assume characters have the best armour for your class and have a static hit number dependant on class. Fighters might have a 9, clerics an 8, rogues a 7, and wizards a 6. Or dump PC defences altogether and get the players to roll all the dice. Monsters have a hit number and you have to roll high enough to dodge or parry. It keeps players more active at all times as they’re constantly rolling. Of course, as Dungeon Command showed, its much easier to be tactical if you know your attacks are not going to miss and the random element is elsewhere. Such as recharge rates, having to see what powers have recharged and which are still on cooldown. No one likes wasting a turn so you should always be effective making the game less about lucky rolls and more about strategy. Those are just a handful of ideas, and I’m not a professional game designer. They’re all viable ideas that could be used to “evolve” D&D. And most could be used as the spine of fun RPGS. But that does not necessarily make them compatible with D&D and its legacy. </blockquote>

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