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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6250192" data-attributes="member: 2067"><p>I don't know that I'd characterize 4e as "the game/players serving the rules." I'm not sure that Mearls would, either. I don't know how that would even work. If the 4e rules are what you like, it's clearly the rules serving what you as the player want. The problem happens when it's not what you like, but you feel like you need to use them anyway to "play D&D." Which is how I hear Mearls's line. </p><p></p><p>My takeaway from that line was more that 5e is explicitly telling you that the rules are all optional, and giving you real tools that you can use to manipulate them. The core rules aren't sacrosanct in 5e's conception: that a given table can change them, manipulate them to serve their own game. The rules aren't a thing you need to adhere to or be "broken" or "unbalanced" or "unfair" or "not fun," they're a tool to use to support the way you play. The rules will be subordinate to an individual table's desires and whims, rather than a round hole you need to fit all these different pegs into. </p><p></p><p>That's in contrast to bits of 4e, sure, where the game assumed a tripped ooze is a thing even if you didn't want it to be, but it's also in contrast to <em>most</em> of D&D, at least as it has been presented in the rulebooks. The presumption of the rulebooks are typically that these are <strong>the</strong> rules for playing the game, and that if you want to play D&D, you'll use these rules (or at least the ones not explicitly labelled "optional"). It does match how D&D has actually been played, though. It's the logical extension of Rule 0, of the variety of house rules during 1e and 2e, of the d20 explosion. </p><p></p><p>It's a confession that 5e doesn't have one True Way to Play, and it's not going to tell you what you have to do. If you want a tripped ooze to be a thing, it is. If you don't, it's not. And either way is fine. </p><p></p><p>Which, after 5 years of hearing every once in a while how if I don't like ADEU then I must hate fighters, how if tripping oozes doesn't make sense to me that I want to cripple players, how if HP are my injury mechanic and not my morale mechanic that I'm Doing It Wrong, is pretty great to me. But that's just the most recent: it's also after 30+ years of hearing from various editions that a given rule is necessary. It's permission to ignore wealth-by-level, demihuman level limits, THAC0, grapple rules, lava damage, falling damage, the Fighter class, gnomes, whatever it is about D&D that I might not want or like at the moment.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 6250192, member: 2067"] I don't know that I'd characterize 4e as "the game/players serving the rules." I'm not sure that Mearls would, either. I don't know how that would even work. If the 4e rules are what you like, it's clearly the rules serving what you as the player want. The problem happens when it's not what you like, but you feel like you need to use them anyway to "play D&D." Which is how I hear Mearls's line. My takeaway from that line was more that 5e is explicitly telling you that the rules are all optional, and giving you real tools that you can use to manipulate them. The core rules aren't sacrosanct in 5e's conception: that a given table can change them, manipulate them to serve their own game. The rules aren't a thing you need to adhere to or be "broken" or "unbalanced" or "unfair" or "not fun," they're a tool to use to support the way you play. The rules will be subordinate to an individual table's desires and whims, rather than a round hole you need to fit all these different pegs into. That's in contrast to bits of 4e, sure, where the game assumed a tripped ooze is a thing even if you didn't want it to be, but it's also in contrast to [I]most[/I] of D&D, at least as it has been presented in the rulebooks. The presumption of the rulebooks are typically that these are [B]the[/B] rules for playing the game, and that if you want to play D&D, you'll use these rules (or at least the ones not explicitly labelled "optional"). It does match how D&D has actually been played, though. It's the logical extension of Rule 0, of the variety of house rules during 1e and 2e, of the d20 explosion. It's a confession that 5e doesn't have one True Way to Play, and it's not going to tell you what you have to do. If you want a tripped ooze to be a thing, it is. If you don't, it's not. And either way is fine. Which, after 5 years of hearing every once in a while how if I don't like ADEU then I must hate fighters, how if tripping oozes doesn't make sense to me that I want to cripple players, how if HP are my injury mechanic and not my morale mechanic that I'm Doing It Wrong, is pretty great to me. But that's just the most recent: it's also after 30+ years of hearing from various editions that a given rule is necessary. It's permission to ignore wealth-by-level, demihuman level limits, THAC0, grapple rules, lava damage, falling damage, the Fighter class, gnomes, whatever it is about D&D that I might not want or like at the moment. [/QUOTE]
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