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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FireLance" data-source="post: 3016423" data-attributes="member: 3424">You know, I think I've finally narrowed it down. The underlying philosophy of previous versions of D&D appears to be "Let's see what happens". Players were routinely challenged with the unknown, e.g. new monsters with weird abilities, traps that trigger in response to seemingly innocuous actions, oddball effects that defy the known rules, etc. This encouraged caution on the part of the players. Neither the DMs nor the players had any pre-conceived ideas of how an encounter should go. This meant that players could overcome encounters through extreme luck, creativity, or fast-talking the DM into agreeing that whatever crazy scheme they came up with will work (this is often confused with creativity). On the other hand, the underlying philosophy of 3e seems to be "This is what should happen." Players are given more avenues in the rules to acquire information - Knowledge checks to identify monsters and their abilities, Search checks to find traps, Spellcraft checks to learn about magical effects, etc. DMs, if not players, have a better idea of what individual encounters are supposed to do, whether the players have a good, fair or almost no reasonable chance of defeating it in a straight fight, and how the players are expected to overcome it (if at all). Players are expected to overcome challenges with their characters' abilities instead of their own creativity and persuasiveness. The net effect is to foster an attitude of increased confidence (or recklessness, YMMV) and propensity for action on the part of the players.In a way, previous editions expected players to play through the process of being cautious, experimenting, and gathering information, while 3e short-circuits it through various checks so that the players can get straight to the action. Perhaps this is why 3e seems to attract more action-oriented players, or has brought out the action-oriented side of players who had gone through previous editions.</blockquote>

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