D&D 5E Let's Count D&D's Rules

[Eyes of Nine]

Anything entirely in-game is fluff to me. You can change the price of a spear to anything you want, and most games don't break. A game that revolves around acquiring better gear, with rules that depend on that idea, would have some official equipment-price-rules. D&D's rules about what gear a character starts with are very much guidelines; DMs can add to it, reduce it, allow random rolls, etc, without breaking the game (other rules). There are actual rules about types of gear. "Heavy armor" has certain rules and rule-interactions, but I can make up 8 new varieties of heavy armor and the rest of the rules remain completely intact.

I always go to extremes when discussing use cases.

+4 vorpal sword - 10sp, and easy to find.
Or other: Potion of Greater Healing, 2gp, and easy to find.

Feels like these might break a game?
As such, is the price on these a rule? Or merely fluff?

 

[GMMichael]

I always go to extremes when discussing use cases.

I mean, it IS the internet...

+4 vorpal sword - 10sp, and easy to find.
Or other: Potion of Greater Healing, 2gp, and easy to find.

Feels like these might break a game?
As such, is the price on these a rule? Or merely fluff?

Does it break the game? 100% up to the DM. I have yet to see the rule that says "DM must offer all items from the PHB at their listed prices." Maybe it's in there . We haven't got that far yet

It might break the setting, but as I say, that's fluff, not rules. The -challenging- rule might be, "all fighters begin with a +4 vorpal sword." It doesn't break the rest of the rules, but it sort of makes all the rules for the other classes worthless. And let's note the difference: one is an inventory item ( 10sp vorpal sword), and one is a class feature.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I always go to extremes when discussing use cases.

+4 vorpal sword - 10sp, and easy to find.
Or other: Potion of Greater Healing, 2gp, and easy to find.

Feels like these might break a game?
As such, is the price on these a rule? Or merely fluff?

The potion one fixes the game's anemic combat healing. Thanks for the idea!

 

[nevin]

I mean, it IS the internet...

Does it break the game? 100% up to the DM. I have yet to see the rule that says "DM must offer all items from the PHB at their listed prices." Maybe it's in there . We haven't got that far yet

It might break the setting, but as I say, that's fluff, not rules. The -challenging- rule might be, "all fighters begin with a +4 vorpal sword." It doesn't break the rest of the rules, but it sort of makes all the rules for the other classes worthless. And let's note the difference: one is an inventory item ( 10sp vorpal sword), and one is a class feature.

i think you miss the point that magic items are advancement as well. +4 Vorpal sword is basically raising the character by 4 or more levels in combat and giving them a legendary ability to remove heads on a crit. Using the word fluff to describe it is dismissive and so silly I doubt anyone could past that to actually "hear" your actual argument.

 

[GMMichael]

i think you miss the point that magic items are advancement as well. +4 Vorpal sword is basically raising the character by 4 or more levels in combat and giving them a legendary ability to remove heads on a crit. Using the word fluff to describe it is dismissive and so silly I doubt anyone could past that to actually "hear" your actual argument.

Isn't that what I addressed with the fighter-feature example?

You're right that "fluff" isn't quite accurate. I call inventory a "list" instead of "rules" for this reason. The Fluff doesn't require any rules - just setting. The vorpal sword follows rules for damage, decapitation (saving throws?), weapon type, etc. But there's no point where the Vorpal Sword Rule comes into play. It's a List item.

Also, some rule sets would be unfairly bloated if list items were considered rules. Example: which is more representative of D&D's actual rules: the Basic Rules at about 100 pages, or the SRD at about 400 pages?

 

[Velderan]

Don't get me started on action/bonus action/reaction.

I see a fair amount of confusion about this at times even by players who have played for over a year. The action in particular that seems to get people is the Ready action. Bonus actions also seem to confuse people at times.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Isn't that what I addressed with the fighter-feature example?

You're right that "fluff" isn't quite accurate. I call inventory a "list" instead of "rules" for this reason. The Fluff doesn't require any rules - just setting. The vorpal sword follows rules for damage, decapitation (saving throws?), weapon type, etc. But there's no point where the Vorpal Sword Rule comes into play. It's a List item.

Also, some rule sets would be unfairly bloated if list items were considered rules. Example: which is more representative of D&D's actual rules: the Basic Rules at about 100 pages, or the SRD at about 400 pages?

Ahhh, ok, thank you. That clarifies. Because I was wondering about what was going to happen when we got to the spell list. A spell is a List item; but not a Rule

 

[Eyes of Nine]

What we'll have to keep our eyes sharp for are List items which break or add rules. Hopefully no List items like that, but again - we'll need to be eyes of hawk on that

 

[GMMichael]

For reference, the 3.5 edition Rules Compendium has about 90 content headers and 260 topics, and no lists. That is, give or take, 350 rules to memorize if you want to treat the game as rules-light. Or you could pop the books open once in a while (not including gear, monster, or spell references?) and say well, it's really a rules-medium game...