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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Skyscraper" data-source="post: 5732265" data-attributes="member: 48518">[MENTION=22260]TerraDave[/MENTION]: I don't agree that there is absence of content here.I think that the topic discussed by Cook is central to the how the design is at work here: do you want to add heaps of rules to the game until the players search for answers in the rules, or do you wish to move toward freeform improvisation where players try to find solutions in the situation without trying to link it to the rules?IMO this is a relevant question. 4E went far into the rules realm. Too far for my taste, now that I've been at that table a lot. Combat is super rules-dependent, but now even social events become skill challenges where rules tell you how participants interact. This is high-level design questioning (as opposed to specific rules-making) and it's interesting that they should discuss this openly.As far as Cook's article is concerned, there are a three different question therein, also raised in this thread:1) do you have answers to challenges on the PC sheet?2) do you have answers to challenges in the rules? (this includes #1)3) do you find pre-set answers to challenges to any given situation? (This may include #1 and #2, but not necessarily). E.g. if a PC comes up before a wall of force that prevents them from reaching what they want to reach and there is no power or rule that allows them to beat the wall of force, has the DM predefined how this challenge can be beat? (e.g. a lever in the next room.)I've always thought that RPGs are a mix of YES and NO to the answers to all three question above. If you go to one extreme, you either depart from the RPG genre or end up in games that lack one aspect of it. However, looking at the evolution of D&D, I think that 4E is too much into the YES for all three questions.As concerns #3 specifically, I think that this is why many WotC adventures were so much critisized. The modules take the PCs by the hand and guide them towards the endings. The Slaying Stone departed from this format and offered another type of adventure that, IMO, brings back RPGs closer to a classic, old-style game that I prefer. I don't like everything about older editions, but that's one of them.</blockquote>

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