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"Hot" take: Aesthetically-pleasing rules are highly overvalued
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<blockquote data-quote="Don Durito" data-source="post: 8113016" data-attributes="member: 6687260"><p>One meta-aesthetic, I would like to see questioned is the idea that character skill and ability should play a part in all player rolls.</p><p></p><p>An appreciation for pure randomness is often seen as part of the OSR aesthetic, but it was 13th Age which really made me appreciate it as a game design element*. Things like the 3 saves in that game where you just have to beat a number on a flat roll of a d20 or flexible attacks (where they work best - people focus too much on when they are used as a basis for maneuvers - but where they really work is in pacing something like the rangers off-hand attack which they would want to do every round) solve an awful lot of problems and solve them easily while completely bypassing even the need to ensure balance is maintained (because it's literally impossible for it not to be - if it's not a matter of character skill and it's not possible to add anything to a roll then it's not possible that some unforseen combination of things could make a character too good at it.)</p><p></p><p>*Controversial opinion, 13th Age is an OSR game.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Don Durito, post: 8113016, member: 6687260"] One meta-aesthetic, I would like to see questioned is the idea that character skill and ability should play a part in all player rolls. An appreciation for pure randomness is often seen as part of the OSR aesthetic, but it was 13th Age which really made me appreciate it as a game design element*. Things like the 3 saves in that game where you just have to beat a number on a flat roll of a d20 or flexible attacks (where they work best - people focus too much on when they are used as a basis for maneuvers - but where they really work is in pacing something like the rangers off-hand attack which they would want to do every round) solve an awful lot of problems and solve them easily while completely bypassing even the need to ensure balance is maintained (because it's literally impossible for it not to be - if it's not a matter of character skill and it's not possible to add anything to a roll then it's not possible that some unforseen combination of things could make a character too good at it.) *Controversial opinion, 13th Age is an OSR game. [/QUOTE]
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"Hot" take: Aesthetically-pleasing rules are highly overvalued
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