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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JamesM" data-source="post: 3790502" data-attributes="member: 2762">And a very good thought it is. Many traditions and customs may seem purely arbitrary or whimsical or just plain stupid when you don't consider the circumstances under which they arose. Unfortunately, most people have short memories and even worse knowledge of history, so, when confronted with some "stupid" tradition they don't like, they laugh at it or ignore it or, worse yet, try to get others to follow their lead. In some cases, there are few, if any, consequences to their actions. In others, though, their ignorance shows itself in spades, as the bad consequences the tradition/custom kept in check run wild without anything to prevent them any longer.The same is true of many elements of D&D. Older editions of the game look, to newcomers, to be very ad hoc and patchwork in nature, as if they were cobbled together over time without any rhyme or reason. The truth is that, yes, they are patchwork, but it doesn't follow that the patches weren't added for very specific reasons -- quite the opposite. Now, in some cases, probably many, you can re-design things from the ground up to avoid the circumstances that demanded the need for patches, but in some cases you can't. In some cases, you have a choice: either accept that the guys who worked on earlier editions weren't dummies who never gave any thought to how rules interact and maybe had a good idea or two or else ditch what they've done and create what is effectively a new game.I don't know for a fact that 4E is a new game, but it sure feels like it to me based on the little we've seen. I may in fact be completely wrong on this point and I'd love to be. Perhaps it'd be nice if a couple of the upcoming Design & Development articles stressed 4E's continuity, both mechanically and thematically, with previous editions rather than highlighting how it differs. That'd be a small step toward winning me rather than losing me, as it is now.</blockquote>

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