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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ainamacar" data-source="post: 5777759" data-attributes="member: 70709">Many potential benefits of modularization are obvious, like the ability to  better match our individual preferences to the rules, settings, and  people with whom we game.  There is another subtle benefit that, to my knowledge, hasn't been discussed yet.  Namely, the very process of participating in a modular game is more likely to result in a better gaming experience compared to a non-modular game with exactly the same rules and participants.The argument is quite simple.  In a modular game with any given group of people everyone needs to know what modules are actually being used, and this increases the likelihood of discussion or at least awareness about everyone's individual expectations and preferences.  In a non-modular game that happens to use precisely the same rules this is less likely to occur.  Improved understanding of everyone's campaign expectations from the start can be used to forge firmer consensus about the campaign, will (often) increase mindfulness at the table, and greatly reduces the likelihood that unexpected differences crop up at the table.  Those unexpected differences in expectation, especially, can give rise to anything from a small delay to grumbling to outright campaign meltdown.Shared expectations about the game have always been important to successful play, and intentionally seeking to build it before games isn't exactly new advice.  For tables that already do this well modularization may help them do it more easily, or cover small cases otherwise forgotten.  For tables that barely do it at all, modularization might make some degree of it necessary.I find it remarkable that a person could hypothetically play their ideal (but non-modular) version of D&D, yet be more likely to have a better experience if those same rules came from a modular version of the game.  What an irony it would be to insist on one-true-wayism for game rules if this were true.</blockquote>

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