How ENWorld has tainted my love of D&D

[McTreble]

I want to prefix this by saying that I'm fully aware that I choose to come to this website and read the forums and post on the messageboards, devouring every small amount of info.

That being said, the multitudes of discussion here that breaks down races and classes, and their combinations makes my head spin and in reality, take away a lot of the magic of roleplaying. I've never put too much thought into bonuses, and comparison of Feats and Weapons and all that jazz. In other words, the raw mechanics don't appeal to me that much, aside from an understanding of the basic rules.

I feel like everytime I read these threads, I get to see the man-behind-the-curtain a little too well. Personally, I'd rather just believe that OZ is great and powerful.

Once again I know it's my fault. Anyone else have this experience?

 

[ExploderWizard]

Not every thread is mechanics related. Just don't spend much time reading through mechanics focused threads and you should be fine.

 

[Lanefan]

Not every thread is mechanics related. Just don't spend much time reading through mechanics focused threads and you should be fine.

Agreed. To preserve your sanity, stay out of the rules forums. All of 'em.

I do, and I still find more than enough to keep me interested...

Lanefan

 

[jonesy]

I started avoiding rules forums after spending way too much time at the old Wizards Min/Max boards. Those were crazy times. I hear CharOp is almost as bad.

 

[IronWolf]

Yeah, definitely avoid threads that get heavily into the mechanics. Some people really like getting into the crunch of their character and how far they can push the rules. Just avoid those threads and it should help.

There is a lot of good discussion on EN World even if you skip every thread that comes up that starts to drift to the mechanics side of things. More than enough to keep one entertained.

 

[roguerouge]

Uh, no. Having gone through half a campaign with a gimped "flavorful" character, I will never EVER put myself in the position of having a character get progressively useless as the plot thickens.

 

[Mercurius]

I work at a small private high school in which you have four general categories of employees: teachers, dorm parents, administrators, staff (maintenance, kitchen, etc). As a hybrid of a teacher/dorm parent, I do little in the world of administration and generally can't stand that sort of thing. That said, I have an appreciation for those that do--without them I couldn't do my job, and there is no doubt in my mind that they do stuff I simply could not do (like be organized!).

I see a similar situation with the rules forums here. It isn't my gig, but it is nice to know that when I have a question, or a house rule idea, I can post something and get a LOT of help. Some good folks in there.

On a side, related note. I've noticed how many on this board have extremely strong views about various rules, how "broken" they are, say a class in the 4E PHB, or how a given book is "unusable" because of all the errata. I sometimes wonder about this, because I find these things to work just fine; sure, maybe they aren't perfect, but the terms "broken" seem rather hyperbolic to me. Most of the rules/books/classes/etc that are considered "broken" or "unusable" aren't completely crippled or immovable, they just have a slight limp. But it takes a certain kind of rules-oriented/administrative mind to "embiggen" that limp into something terminal. An example of this would be skill challenges - I never really figured out why skill challenges were "broken" as originally described...maybe I need to investigate further.

Or not?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Personally, I spend only a fraction of my time to discussions about rules that go beyond "Where can I find...?". I don't think I've called anything here "broken" or "sub-optimal" unless someone else has, and I'm trying to avoid confusion.

I'm more likely to expend SERIOUS thought & effort to helping people on the creative side of things. While that may involve some intense rules discussion, that is only to ensure that the person I'm trying to help is genuinely fully informed as to options, both good and bad. Check my sig: most of those links are about c the creative side of things.

 

[Richards]

Great...now I have "Tainted Love" stuck in my head.

Johnathan

 

[aviel]

I'm totally new to this forum, but I've had a good look around and I know just what you're talking about. In my sessions I'm careful to maintain the core mechanics of DnD, but otherwise my games are quite houseruled...
It's mostly when it comes to character optimization (bonuses etc..) that I sort of blank out. I'm much more interested in mechanics that emulate a characteristic of a trap/terrain/monster or the like. Maybe I'm just lazy...haha.