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Community
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D&D Older Editions
I love 5E, but lately I miss 4E's monsters
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<blockquote data-quote="machineelf" data-source="post: 7014103" data-attributes="member: 6774924"><p>This is a cool video, and he makes some interesting points. But one of the things that I think he misses is when he talks about how 4e simply takes certain things like spell descriptions and put them into game mechanics terms, like saying a power is an "encounter" power, instead of saying this spell lasts 10 minutes, which would be about the same thing. His argument is that it's really all the same, but some people didn't like that mental shift from a story-driven terminology to a game mechanic terminology, whereas other people don't have a problem with that mental shift.</p><p></p><p>What I think he misses, though, is that the whole point of Dungeons and Dragons as a role-playing game is the immersive aspect of it. The language is a part of that immersive aspect. When you change the language, you are essentially changing the nature of the game. When I want to play a "role," I want to think about magic as my character would. The world should represent that. </p><p></p><p>If we suddenly decide to talk about powers as "encounter powers," then we are making a subtle shift out of our immersion to a kind of meta-game mentality. When we start to think more about "sliding a character back two squares," what is a square? It's a meta-game mechanic that takes you out of the immersiveness; Suddenly you're not a person in an ancient world, now you're a mini on a game map, and your brain will subtly realize it. You will lose the immersiveness. </p><p></p><p>Is it still a fun game? Yeah I still think 4e is a fun game, but it's a meta, grid-mechanic game, and loses some of that important role-playing immersion. Language is important. And apparently the unpopularity of 4e is a testament to how important immersion (and the use of natural language in spell descriptions) is to the idea of role-playing.</p><p></p><p>This is ultimately my concern with monster design that goes overboard with special abilities or gimmicks. Or having monsters with types that scale up from level 1 to the level cap. Aside from the treadmill problem, it also breaks immersion for me. Is that how the world would actually function? Sometimes an ogre is just a big strong monster with a club. It doesn't need to have an extra gimmick. And there are plenty of other strange monsters that do have unique traits. That plus the DM being able to tell an interesting story with dynamic fighting tactics is what I require.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="machineelf, post: 7014103, member: 6774924"] This is a cool video, and he makes some interesting points. But one of the things that I think he misses is when he talks about how 4e simply takes certain things like spell descriptions and put them into game mechanics terms, like saying a power is an "encounter" power, instead of saying this spell lasts 10 minutes, which would be about the same thing. His argument is that it's really all the same, but some people didn't like that mental shift from a story-driven terminology to a game mechanic terminology, whereas other people don't have a problem with that mental shift. What I think he misses, though, is that the whole point of Dungeons and Dragons as a role-playing game is the immersive aspect of it. The language is a part of that immersive aspect. When you change the language, you are essentially changing the nature of the game. When I want to play a "role," I want to think about magic as my character would. The world should represent that. If we suddenly decide to talk about powers as "encounter powers," then we are making a subtle shift out of our immersion to a kind of meta-game mentality. When we start to think more about "sliding a character back two squares," what is a square? It's a meta-game mechanic that takes you out of the immersiveness; Suddenly you're not a person in an ancient world, now you're a mini on a game map, and your brain will subtly realize it. You will lose the immersiveness. Is it still a fun game? Yeah I still think 4e is a fun game, but it's a meta, grid-mechanic game, and loses some of that important role-playing immersion. Language is important. And apparently the unpopularity of 4e is a testament to how important immersion (and the use of natural language in spell descriptions) is to the idea of role-playing. This is ultimately my concern with monster design that goes overboard with special abilities or gimmicks. Or having monsters with types that scale up from level 1 to the level cap. Aside from the treadmill problem, it also breaks immersion for me. Is that how the world would actually function? Sometimes an ogre is just a big strong monster with a club. It doesn't need to have an extra gimmick. And there are plenty of other strange monsters that do have unique traits. That plus the DM being able to tell an interesting story with dynamic fighting tactics is what I require. [/QUOTE]
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