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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5747420" data-attributes="member: 54877">Well, for starters, all of it is going to be an impure version of simulation or narrativism, as it has always been.  So it would be fine to exclude those terms altogether, or possibly limit them to some design notes in the DMG about game theory, if relevant.  My instinct is to leave them out entirely, but then the commentary by Gygax in 1E, while it did cause some trouble, also managed to convey what he had in mind with the rules, which went no small way towards explaining the rest of the game more easily.   So, I'd have each version (however packaged) include the usual information on how to play it, along with extensive examples of play.  You might remember from an earlier topic that one of my beefs with 4E advice is that too much of it is written as "play it this way" to make it easy for the beginners, but that some of the things it discusses have alternates that should be included somewhere.  You don't have to go crazy with every possible alternate, but there is a big difference between saying, "Do X," versus, "Do X to get A.  Or Do Y to get B.  Or maybe Z to get C"--especially when X, Y, and Z are all pretty different.  Gamers are smart enough to read between the lines, and start blending those to get what they want. This is partly why I say the Core is a separate game, however packaged.  There is a gamist thread running through any real version of D&D.  So if you do the Core as a starter set, you make pratically all the advice from that mindset.  Go into the dungeon, avoid the trap, kill the dragon, get the treasure, get snookered by the evil wizard back in town. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />  There is more that you can do with that, but the basic are largely still intact with everything that comes later.  (You might also include some information in this part about complicating the action so that it isn't always an orc and pie in a 10 foot square room.) Then in the "Lore" version, you have the supplemental rules that happen to cater to simulation somewhat (whatever you call them).  Some are things like demographic charts and such, which anyone can use if they want, even in the Legend version.  The advice is centered on making this simulation work, and would probably draw heavily but selectively from 1E, 2E, and 3E. In the "Legends" version, you likewise have supplemental rules that happen to cater to narrativist somewhat (whatever you call them).  Some are things like the 4E "page 42", which anyone can use if they want, even in the Lore version.  The advice pulls heavily from 4E DMG and DMG2, but but without trying to bring along the traditional baggage from the eariler versions, or including the "Drama" component from earlier game models.   Or in short, tell people how to play that particular variant of the game.  Three clear, contradictory "ways to play the game" are far superior to one big muddled "way" that tries to cover too much ground.</blockquote>

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