Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 8266847" data-attributes="member: 2629">You mean a role playing game?&nbsp; I don't mean to alarm you, but that is what D&amp;D is. However, there is a great reason to use a game mechanic as part of a story telling game even if the story is all that matters - control, or lack thereof, to be precise. This is not inherently true.&nbsp; The strategic side of D&amp;D can be there to provide a 'board game experience' where you're trying to win the combat to win the combat, or it can be there to provide a random factor to the storytelling so that neither the DM, nor the players, have complete control.&nbsp; For many groups or individuals, it is usually a combination of both ... but the relative importance of each differs.Rules limit.&nbsp; That is what they do.&nbsp; They provide boundaries and reduce options.&nbsp; In the absence of rules, we can do anything.&nbsp; As we add more and more rules, less and less options are open to us.&nbsp; A good ruleset can ALSO inspire creativity.&nbsp; This offsets the limitation by encouraging creativity within the boundaries provided.&nbsp; However, whenever you add a rule to the game, you reduce options.&nbsp; Take stealth rules for example.&nbsp; In prior editions, they were COMPLEX.&nbsp; There was a lot to manage.&nbsp; Once you mastered them, they were sometimes good, sometimes bad.&nbsp; However, they were ripe with exceptions to the exception to the exception.&nbsp; 5E took a different tactic (after a first version that carried on the tradition of complexity).&nbsp; They said, &quot;We're going to give you high level rules, and then we're going to tell the DM to be judge, jury and executioner for the corner cases.&quot;&nbsp; This ticked off a lot of players that wanted to have the rules to wave in front of their DM to tell the DM how they got to be effectively impossible to detect due to Loop Hole 1 to Exception 3 to Clause 7 of Paragraph 4 of PHB page 234.&nbsp; However, it gave the DM freedom to make stealth more dynamic and flexible within the game, which facilitated more freedom in storytelling.In my experience, RPG rules are best when they provide the solid framework and rely upon the DM (with the assistance of the players) to administer corner cases.&nbsp; The rules do not have to go into the details of somersaulting - a rough acrobatics rule is fine.&nbsp; They do not need to provide the level of detailed depth to control each swing of a weapon individually - they can amalgamate them into a single attack for a round while leaving the details up to the player an DM to storytell.&nbsp; They reduce complexity in favor of nimbleness, they don't hogtie a DM away from good storytellin ... but they do inspire creativity and imagination.5E is not perfect, but it is pretty darn good - the best D&amp;D has had to offer.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="jgsugden, post: 8266847, member: 2629"] You mean a role playing game? I don't mean to alarm you, but that is what D&D is. However, there is a great reason to use a game mechanic as part of a story telling game even if the story is all that matters - control, or lack thereof, to be precise. This is not inherently true. The strategic side of D&D can be there to provide a 'board game experience' where you're trying to win the combat to win the combat, or it can be there to provide a random factor to the storytelling so that neither the DM, nor the players, have complete control. For many groups or individuals, it is usually a combination of both ... but the relative importance of each differs. Rules limit. That is what they do. They provide boundaries and reduce options. In the absence of rules, we can do anything. As we add more and more rules, less and less options are open to us. A good ruleset can ALSO inspire creativity. This offsets the limitation by encouraging creativity within the boundaries provided. However, whenever you add a rule to the game, you reduce options. Take stealth rules for example. In prior editions, they were COMPLEX. There was a lot to manage. Once you mastered them, they were sometimes good, sometimes bad. However, they were ripe with exceptions to the exception to the exception. 5E took a different tactic (after a first version that carried on the tradition of complexity). They said, "We're going to give you high level rules, and then we're going to tell the DM to be judge, jury and executioner for the corner cases." This ticked off a lot of players that wanted to have the rules to wave in front of their DM to tell the DM how they got to be effectively impossible to detect due to Loop Hole 1 to Exception 3 to Clause 7 of Paragraph 4 of PHB page 234. However, it gave the DM freedom to make stealth more dynamic and flexible within the game, which facilitated more freedom in storytelling. In my experience, RPG rules are best when they provide the solid framework and rely upon the DM (with the assistance of the players) to administer corner cases. The rules do not have to go into the details of somersaulting - a rough acrobatics rule is fine. They do not need to provide the level of detailed depth to control each swing of a weapon individually - they can amalgamate them into a single attack for a round while leaving the details up to the player an DM to storytell. They reduce complexity in favor of nimbleness, they don't hogtie a DM away from good storytellin ... but they do inspire creativity and imagination. 5E is not perfect, but it is pretty darn good - the best D&D has had to offer. [/QUOTE]

Verification