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Message: <blockquote data-quote="loverdrive" data-source="post: 8992840" data-attributes="member: 7027139">That's probably true. I'll specify that I'm talking about 3E and 5E in the future, as I have a very limited experience of anything before that -- well, I wasn't even alive.  Post-DL means post Dragon Lance?I don't really have an answer, sadly. But just like with videogames, I feel cautious about attributing a commercial success or failure to the design, or, at least, to the design alone. Among all other factors, the design itself of commercial games is influenced by things that have nothing to do with making a good game.If I have to guess, I'd say it's a combination of "well, it's an industry standard" and increased, uhm, gravity pull force. I was hesitant to "leave" D&D because I always knew that all the real game is made by me, and other systems I've tried at the time (GURPS and World of Darkness mostly) did nothing to persuade me otherwise. Cool, I still have to do all the work myself, but now I also need to learn how this new system works, how I need to design the adventure, all that. What's the point?And then there's this thing where GM is often the only person at the table who even read the PHB, yet alone any other material, so... Yeah.Well, the designer still has a way for the game to be handled in mind, when they design it. I hope, at least, that nobody just throws words and numbers at blank sheet with no rhyme or reason. It's inescapable. The best one can do is to obscure this vision as much as possible, leaving the end-users to stumble in the darkness.I honestly don't see any real difference between learning how D&D/VtM/whatever is ran the best and just sitting and designing your own game, both in terms of effort required and, uhm, muscles stretched.While, yeah, if you roll to pick a lock on the barn and roll 25, but the DM proceeds to narrate how you failed miserably, broke your lockpicks and then exploded, of course everyone will call the DM out.But the whole situation is setup by the DM. DM decides, whether there's something useful in the barn. DM decides, if the door is locked or not, and if it is, whether it's secured by an old rusty lock or a masterpiece of dwarven engineering.The DM is constrained only by things they establish, and only in a very short term. I mean, narrative justifications are a dime a dozen.</blockquote>

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