Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Akrasia" data-source="post: 1866370" data-attributes="member: 23012">Yes, this is correct.  And in fact this dates back to the first two "D&D" campaigns: supposedly, Dave Arneson's Blackmoor campaign was pretty free-form and 'narrativist' in nature, whereas Gary Gygax's Greyhawk campaign was much more 'wargamist' in nature.Well, you might think that requiring players to focus so much on the mechanical aspects of their characters (because of the options) leads them to focus on understanding their characters as sets of numbers and abilities, rather than as protagonists in a story.   This is not necessarily the case, but a game that provides a wide a array of 'gamist/mechanical' options might have this effect.Also, options introduce complexity into the game, and can slow it down (as players/DMs scramble through their manuals to check a particular feat, skill, or feat).  Furthermore, a wide set of mechanically-defined options can actually limit the flexibility and possible actions of characters -- i.e. your fighter can only 'swing from a rope while trying to kick the orc lord in the face' if he has the appropriate, clearly definied and quantified, abilities (feats and skills). In contrast, a well designed rules lite system could give you a basic resolution mechanic for resolving unusual actions, and thus give players (and GMs) more lattitude for trying interesting actions with their PCs (and NPCs).Finally -- and this is the biggie for me -- increased player (and thus NPC) options means increased DM burdens.  This is the case both during the game (as DM you have to be aware of the players' abilities, as well as those of a number of NPCs and monsters), and even moreso before the game.  The additional prep time caused by many options -- which have to be used for important NPCs as well PCs, in order to provide adequate challenges for the players -- can be a pain, and can also distract the DM from the other, less 'crunchy' but more interesting, aspects of adventure design.</blockquote>

Verification