Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Killing the sense of wonder
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Heathen72" data-source="post: 5338269" data-attributes="member: 7029"><p>Exactly. I enjoyed using minis much more back when we played 2nd Ed, when they were merely colourful visual representations of the approximate positions of the characters, not surrogate chips on a wargaming board. Sadly, I recently played in a 4th Ed game where the DM refused to let us use miniatures, insisting instead on using counters, because it was easy to put buttons on them to indicate who was marked, etc. Sigh.</p><p></p><p>It's a sad malaise when the rules get in the way of the sense of wonder. I remember my dismay when I was dutifully 'informed' by a player in a short 3rd Ed game I was running that every magic effect had to be codified and, indeed, balanced. We had, for instance, to be able to tell how a magical effect impacted on, say, undead. It seemed like any magic item I created had to have a series of suffixs attached to it, like a list of degrees at the end of the name of some oxford scholar. But it wasn't about making the items more impressive. It was about pigeon holing them. </p><p></p><p>I don't want it to look like I am bashing the later editions btw; frankly, D&D has suffered from these sorts of issues all along. Consider the extensive monster manuals and long spell lists; in some ways they are virtues, but defining the world so extensively can have its problems. For instance, in the first post in this thread I mentioned that how the response of my players to the freaky roof climbing baby was to assume it was 'Spiderclimb'. I was hoping to elicit a sense of supernatural horror, but all the players seemed to witness was a spell effect. It brought home to me how 'unmagical' magic had become - in a world filled with magic, magic was no longer special. Ultimately the myriad list of spells had made the world a smaller place, where magic was all mapped out. It felt like there was no wildernesses left, no place on the chart where the only label was "here be dragons". The lack of frontiers was killing the sense of wonder.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Heathen72, post: 5338269, member: 7029"] Exactly. I enjoyed using minis much more back when we played 2nd Ed, when they were merely colourful visual representations of the approximate positions of the characters, not surrogate chips on a wargaming board. Sadly, I recently played in a 4th Ed game where the DM refused to let us use miniatures, insisting instead on using counters, because it was easy to put buttons on them to indicate who was marked, etc. Sigh. It's a sad malaise when the rules get in the way of the sense of wonder. I remember my dismay when I was dutifully 'informed' by a player in a short 3rd Ed game I was running that every magic effect had to be codified and, indeed, balanced. We had, for instance, to be able to tell how a magical effect impacted on, say, undead. It seemed like any magic item I created had to have a series of suffixs attached to it, like a list of degrees at the end of the name of some oxford scholar. But it wasn't about making the items more impressive. It was about pigeon holing them. I don't want it to look like I am bashing the later editions btw; frankly, D&D has suffered from these sorts of issues all along. Consider the extensive monster manuals and long spell lists; in some ways they are virtues, but defining the world so extensively can have its problems. For instance, in the first post in this thread I mentioned that how the response of my players to the freaky roof climbing baby was to assume it was 'Spiderclimb'. I was hoping to elicit a sense of supernatural horror, but all the players seemed to witness was a spell effect. It brought home to me how 'unmagical' magic had become - in a world filled with magic, magic was no longer special. Ultimately the myriad list of spells had made the world a smaller place, where magic was all mapped out. It felt like there was no wildernesses left, no place on the chart where the only label was "here be dragons". The lack of frontiers was killing the sense of wonder. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Killing the sense of wonder
Top