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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Willie the Duck" data-source="post: 8447851" data-attributes="member: 6799660">Right, that's because they don't care. It's a pretty common trajectory for threads --OP: 'I want to talk about X'Some other guy: 'Sure! WXYZABC and the kitchen sink!''That' guy: 'clearly people don't understand what X means.'That depends on for whom the game is designed, and why; how the rest of the game is designed around them (ex: if there are ignorable castle&leadership rules, but if you ignore them fighters have little gains past name level); and even whether these rules might add confusion rather than subtract from them (particularly for the 10-12 year olds for whom this game is also designed). Also where the rules are placed. Feats and multiclassing are theoretically optional, yet I have incredible trouble finding people who play without them (to the point of having seen people in threads call it Tyrannical DMing to disallow them). While I'm less than duly impressed with the amount of non-combat rules provided in this edition, I won't stand behind a universal more-is-better,-you-can-always-ignore-some position either. There aren't universals on this, IMO, and you always need to understand the context. I've certainly seen games where trying to cover everything ended up being detrimental to the brand (late GURPS 3e and some of the more expansive Hero Systems, IIRC).It'll be interesting to see what comes out of whatever D&D 2024 ends up being. 'Optional rules covering _____' would be a good way of adding enough content to not be an immediate no-sell (in a 'why would I want that, it adds nothing?' fashion) while still being backwards compatible as we've heard it will be.I know one game system which had the same complaints followed that trajectory. Symbaroum is a fantasy TTRPG with a thematic leaning towards venturing out into the dark scary forest and surviving by wits and skill, and then going back into towns and doing heavy mystery-solving and politicking to help resolve the overarching metaplot (which is premised as a clash of civilizations sitting on top of a supernatural ticking time bomb, with a huge amounts of unknowns). Yet when it came out, almost all the mechanics were combat- and magic- (mostly with combat-esque effects) systems. Well, as of the players and GM's expansion books, it finally has robust travel/hexcrawl and social systems. So sometimes developers listen (whether we are representative of 5e's total base, and they are clamoring for more of this, is a broader question).</blockquote>

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