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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 8312172" data-attributes="member: 6785785">I was the one who said that, and no, that's not what I meant. I'll cite your own words as an example of what I'm talking about: This is a purely cosmetic change. It's the kind that I'm talking about that gives the perception of flexibility. Sure, the settings are a bit different, but one that has divine class abilities as a gift from the gods and one that has the same class abilities attributed to some other fictional element is not all that different. Changing the make believe associated with the game isn't system flexibility. This is one of the ways I think that flexibility is more "perceived" than actual. The other is based on perceptions folks have about games with which they have little to no experience.It's incredibly structured. It's got rounds and turns and initiative and actions and bonus actions and move actions and reactions and difficulty classes and saving throws and stats and levels and spell levels all kinds of structure to it.It's not a rule, no. But it's as close as you can get to a rule without being a rule. It's referenced all throughout the books. And in discussion. Yet, you're right, there will be some exceptions. And of course, a game could be played with 1 player and 1 GM, so there's always that exception, too. The vast majority of D&D rules are about violence.I was referring more to the character level system and how ubiquitous it is throughout the game.Ignore what rules? I really don't know what you're talking about here.So the fact that D&D can deviate from the rules as presented by including optional rules or house rules is a sign of D&D's flexibility, but if I do the same with another game, I'm ignoring the rules? Or did you mean something else here? Because it really sounds a bit unfair.Have you the data to prove this? Of course not. It's poppycock.Well, I don't know about this. First, I think many other games allow all sorts of optional rules, too. Can you site games that as you mentioned earlier say "play this way or else play another game"?Second, it depends on the amount of work "significant" is doing here. A cleric getting his spells from a god versus from the sun is, in my opinion, not all that significant from a game perspective. The most common change I've seen made to D&D 5E rules usually relates to the rest/HP recovery system. People want the game to be "deadlier" or "grittier". Such a change has an impact on play, to be sure....but I don't know if I'd say it "significantly alters gameplay". Are there or can there be more severe changes? Sure. Would they significantly alter the gameplay? Hard to say given the subjective nature of "significant". Using the Forged in the Dark system to create something else IS hacking the game. I don't know why you hold this separate from someone coming up with a house rule for Blades or a homebrew setting for D&D.  There is an entire website and discord devoted to Blades in the Dark and a significant portion of that is people making changes to the game, either for their Blades game, or to use the system for some other setting or genre. You also may not see as much pushback because the default setting of Blades was designed and is presented with flexibility in mind.It's not a common topic here because this site is more broadly focused, with a heavy leaning toward D&D. So maybe you're not seeing as wide a view of the hobby overall as you may think?And again, if we're talking indie games in general, then I think you're even more off. And I don't mean to imply that D&D doesn't have plenty of folks who houserule things.....I know they do. I'm just saying that it's not necessarily any more or less so with other games, and there's no way to really track it.Yeah, I don't know about that. I don't know what your experience is or what games you're talking about beyond D&D and BitD, but it just doesn't match what I know of those games.....the two games I spend the majority of my RPG time playing. And Blades is just one indie type game....there are so many others.Look at Apocalypse World and the insane number of games it spawned. The variety is pretty incredible, not just in settings, but in changes or adjustments to the rules to deliver different experiences.</blockquote>

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