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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8201392" data-attributes="member: 42582">Well my feeling is that if D&amp;D was being invented today it probably wouldn't be coming off a wargame chassis. And so would probably begin from the premise that cooperative play with a degree of self-restraint is a thing.A free-descriptor system takes as given that different tables, and even the same table in different moods, might reach different views about what is within the capability of a forester and archer or a temple monk or a druid of the ancient order. What matters is that, on any given occasion of resolution, the table is able to reach broad consensus with non-obvious cases. HeroQuest revised tackles the issue of balancing wider and narrower descriptors, by way of ad hoc modifiers; so does Over the Edge (another descriptor-based game that I'd forgotten about upthread), by way of bonus dice for narrow descriptors. The version of D&amp;D I'm imagining could include something similar, or alternatively it might have a rule that everyone has to choose a descriptor at what is an agreed and appropriate level of generality.I realise that what I'm suggesting is a bit of a departure from the tradition of PC build based on ever-lengthening lists, but I thought that was part of the purpose of the thought experiment!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8201392, member: 42582"] Well my feeling is that if D&D was being invented today it probably wouldn't be coming off a wargame chassis. And so would probably begin from the premise that cooperative play with a degree of self-restraint is a thing. A free-descriptor system takes as given that different tables, and even the same table in different moods, might reach different views about what is within the capability of a [I]forester and archer[/I] or a [I]temple monk[/I] or a [I]druid of the ancient order[/I]. What matters is that, on any given occasion of resolution, the table is able to reach broad consensus with non-obvious cases. HeroQuest revised tackles the issue of balancing wider and narrower descriptors, by way of ad hoc modifiers; so does Over the Edge (another descriptor-based game that I'd forgotten about upthread), by way of bonus dice for narrow descriptors. The version of D&D I'm imagining could include something similar, or alternatively it might have a rule that everyone has to choose a descriptor at what is an agreed and appropriate level of generality. I realise that what I'm suggesting is a bit of a departure from the tradition of PC build based on ever-lengthening lists, but I thought that was part of the purpose of the thought experiment! [/QUOTE]

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