Lets talk GAME not PHILOSOPHY!

[Aramax]

A trend Ive been noticing on these boards is that people talk about and argue mechanics and philosophy and there is very little here to enrich my game.

Its why I come here hoping for a spell or magic item or feat I can yoink.

But thats not what goes on here,look at the vancian spell casting threads,they go on for ever and so much of the effort that peeps put into this forum is in this area.

Ive been participating in a thread about skill-linked minions,barely any interest,yet when some one wants to start a flame war about 3 v 4,
10s of pages.

Im not saying this sort of thing has no place here ,just that too much of peoples efforts here lead to no advancement of the crunch we all could use more of.How about RP tips or stories of some thing cool that happened in your game?

just think would it kill you to post once in usefull material for every3 posts you argue about the size of a pixies wings?

I hope its not that the switch to 4th has curtailled creativity.

Oh the irony,Ive just started another one of those threads!

 

[Diamond Cross]

I'd say 4e has curtailed creativity. There's far too many rules and rules for everything stifle creativity. If you have too many rules you have too many restrictions on players and the paths they want to take.

That's what makes the previous editions so popular. They are comparatively rules light.

The most rules heavy games, IMO are:

Hero System
Hackmaster
Rolemaster
4e

But I'm sure there are many other rules heavy systems, just not as rules heavy.

Many systems have a core rules mechanic.

Gurps will always be resolved by 3d6.
TSR MSH uses their famous white green yellow red tables to roll on.
DC Heroes uses 2d10.
M&M uses a single d20.
The World Of Darkness uses a d10 Dice Pool.

A core resolution of some sort like those mentioned above is relatively light compared to having a system with a huge variety of dice.

And as for me, I prefer my games rules moderately. For what I mean, Gurps Rules Lite is too light for me. I prefer a system like the Unisystem (All Flesh Must Be Eaten) or the d20 system.

 

[Thunderfoot]

Okay, I'll bite, but first, I think the reason there is not a whole ton of "crunch" here is that there is plenty of it in the marketing world. You can buy hundreds of books with stats, but they have zero "fluff" value and people here are a little more transcendent than the "hack and clay" variety (not that we don't have our share here).

But that being said I give you
Bart the Bag
Intelligent bag of holding/devouring/handy haversack
STR: * CON: * DEX: * INT: 24 WIS: 20 CHA: 20(6)
HD: (3d10) hp: 25 Ref: 0 Wil: +10 Fort: 0
Bart is a non-standard bag of holding that has the devouring and handy haversack capabilities.
He is a super genius but has a bit of an ego problem. Unless you keep Bart happy he will either hide objects from you while trying to retrieve them from his holding area or, if he is throwing a tantrum, will devour the item out of spite. Conversely, if Bart is happy with his treatment he will make the item appear at the top of the pile (Like Heward's Handy Haversack) making retrieval a standard action. Bart is a unique item and his creation is a mystery. He will explain that he is the perfection of his younger brethren, a demi-god or some other such nonsense depending upon his mood and inflated ego. Bart is a "tad" cantankerous. Threatening to stuff him inside another bag of holding/devouring just means he will transfer his consciousness to the new container, however threatening to stuff him in a portable hole usually brings him in line for a few days.

History: Bart's ego comes from the 1e/2e ego rules from intelligent swords smashed into a non-standard intelligent item. It is a way for the DM to force players to role play versus "roll" play. A few interactions is usually all it takes for Bart to become a "favorite" of the players.

Legal disclaimer: Bart the bad is copyright 2006 by Eric Stearns. Use of Bart is provided for any campaign free of charge, however if you publish this item in any form for profit I will sue you until your eyes bleed.

 

[Fifth Element]

That's what makes the previous editions so popular. They are comparatively rules light.

I love 3.5 to death, but "rules-light" is way down on the list of adjectives I would use to describe it.

4E has of course no curtailed creativity, that's ridiculous. In many ways it's quite enabling for creativity. Creativity does not care about rules sets.

 

[Haltherrion]

Start some "game" topics. Almost any thread gets traction and you might encourage others to post like minded topics. Ruleset specific stuff probably ought to go into the relevant forum though.




One thing about the "game" topics, a lot of time they are hard to reply to:

• They pertain to a system I've never played or no longer play
• The poster is asking for something that requires a lot more of his game context than is either posted or I'm willing to read (yes, it's a difficult balancing act)
• THe post is about some particular situation, creature or item that doesn't interest me.

I suspect many posters react the way I do. The more specific topics have a narrower audience. Topics about game theory can apply across the board. Edition flame wars have their own separate appeal, at least to a very vocal subset on the boards


One thing to bear in mind is that most of the volume on this board comes from a fairly small set of posters who don't seem to like posting on the topics you are pulling for. Put another way, I wouldn't judge the success of a topic by the amount of pages it generates. I tend to ignore the threads that immediately grow to 4+ pages anyway as those usually are a small group arguing with each other who won't spend any time answering a new voice in the thread unless it's something outrageous.

 

[the Jester]

I'd say 4e has curtailed creativity.

Do you say this having played it much?

I've been dming 4e since (slightly before) its release, and I'm still just as creative as before. I have a ton of homebrewed paragon paths, monsters, powers, items and rituals.

 

[Aramax]

I love 3.5 to death, but "rules-light" is way down on the list of adjectives I would use to describe it.

4E has of course no curtailed creativity, that's ridiculous. In many ways it's quite enabling for creativity. Creativity does not care about rules sets.

If it hasnt stopped creativity where are the threads to prove it?

 

[the Jester]

If it hasnt stopped creativity where are the threads to prove it?

No offense, but that's a dumb argument.

Even if there were no threads showing creativity in 4e, that just means there are no threads here showing creativity.

But there are plenty.

Start here. I have over 20 threads of monsters alone linked in there. Or here's a new thread I started for homebrewed rituals. Here is one for converting kits to themes. Oh look, a thread for converting old edition spells. And it goes on and on.

For wanting to talk about the game rather than pointlessly rant, your last post here so far sure does smack of edition warring. Seriously- no game system will rob a good dm of his creativity. If you've had issues with uncreative dms or players, the issue is not with the game itself.

 

[Sepulchrave II]

A trend Ive been noticing on these boards is that people talk about and argue mechanics and philosophy and there is very little here to enrich my game.

Have you tried other boards? You might have better luck.

Its why I come here hoping for a spell or magic item or feat I can yoink.

You could try the 4E House rules or Legacy forums.

But thats not what goes on here,look at the vancian spell casting threads,they go on for ever and so much of the effort that peeps put into this forum is in this area.

You're right. There's been several of these threads in the past few months.

Ive been participating in a thread about skill-linked minions,barely any interest,yet when some one wants to start a flame war about 3 v 4,
10s of pages.

You have my sympathy. This can be frustrating.

I hope its not that the switch to 4th has curtailled creativity.

You have my frustration. I am unsympathetic.

 

[SteveC]

If it hasnt stopped creativity where are the threads to prove it?

I look at this and I see trolling, and a large reason why ENWorld has a less than stellar signal to noise ratio.

To Aramax: you don't argue to prove a negative. If you've got something to assert, do so, but the burden of proof is on you.

To these OP: the answer is to post threads with questions or ideas you're interested in, and reply to ones that interest you. Generate the talk and content you're interested in.

For me, I've been out of D&D for a while, running a Hero game, but that's wrapped up, and I just had my first session of a 4E game last week. So you bet I'm interested in the game at the moment. I'm reading the forums for interesting content and ideas I can use right now. I've also noted that the same discussions about the editions are still going on, which gives me some comfort that things haven't really changed too much lately.