Mearls on Balance in D&D

[Nebulous]

Bravo, sir! You have just summed up the #1 problem with RAW D&D, the reliance upon and proliferation of magic items. This is why magic items are extremely rare whenever I run D&D.

Azgulor

Me too. And this was also one of the primary reasons i loved the Midnight Campaign Setting so much. Magic was rare, it was treasured, and it couldn't be bought with a shopping cart.

 

[hexgrid]

Why do so many people hang on Mike Mearls?

Because he's got a lot of ideas and is more outspoken than the average game designer- combined with the fact that many perceive him to be in a position to apply his ideas to the overall direction that D&D takes.

 

[Aaron L]

Mike seems like a swell guy, and I m deeply embarrassed for the treatment he gets here on ENWorld now that he's started working full-time for WotC. Yes, he was a fairly frequent ENWorlder back in the day, and I cringe at the thought of what would/will happen if Ari gets the chance to work there as well. We'll start seeing threads about how out of touch or outright bad his rules are, as well; will the insults flow like water for him, too?

I'm actually a fair bit ashamed at the treatment Mr Mearls gets here anymore.


And if he had anything at all to do with the Duskblade, I want to give him a big wet kiss on the cheek.

 

[WhatGravitas]

There's my fear. Pretty much, in all his articles recently, I've agreed with what he said needed to change and why, then I read how he planned to change them and it was not something I could agree with at all. His changes seem to be based on design parameters that I cannot live with for D&D.

On the other hand, that's a fresh mind, who doesn't adhere himself to D&D. And I agree that Mearls' stuff is very discussable. And that's better than off-the-mill stuff. And stuff like this is needed, if a 4th ever comes: Not just more of the same.

@Aaron L: Yeah, back there I was more of a lurker... and enjoyed his posts and stuff. Now I hardly seeing him at all - now I'm happy about his blog and occasional stuff on the WotC messageboards. I'm still a bit surprised, why so many Mearls-criticism comes up here.

Well, at least he now gets his own articles on Wizards... (*wishes for Monster Makeover*) and neat to see that "lunchtime campaign" - it sounds like fun.

 

[Wormwood]

I'm actually a fair bit ashamed at the treatment Mr Mearls gets here anymore.

Hear hear.

I dig his WotC articles and his contributions to the game thus far. The dude could DM for me any day, and I'd be happy to see his name on the 4e credits page.

And juvenilia or not, Mearls scored a direct freakin' hit with his KotB review.

 

[Piratecat]

I know Mike reasonably well; in fact, he's the first person I ever co-GMed a game with. In my opinion Mike is blazingly smart, extremely prolific, moderately opinionated, and a little more stubborn than I am. He's also tremendously imaginative and has a solid grasp of "fun". He's not afraid to challenge existing paradigms just for the sake of challenging them, which I think is what we see in the monster re-imagining articles. I don't always agree with his opinion, but I respect it.

As for that Keep on the Borderland review, from back in '99? Anyone who is reading that without their tongue firmly planted in their cheek is missing the point. Note the sarcasm and the tags - "comedy" - and for me it becomes clear that it's not intended to be a real review. It is intended to make a few hyperbolic points about the module's flaws.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Your solution to the over-powering influence of magic in the game is to punish the fighter?

What, its been a staple of D&D since the beginning.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

It used to go like this in our games:

Fred: "I'll knock on the walls, looking for hollow areas"

Joe: "meanwhile, I'll check the edges of the door for trick hinges"

DM: "Fred, you die when you touch the wall. Joe, you nick your finger and also die."

Fixed, at least from my memories of the typical DM I played with.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Mike seems like a swell guy, and I m deeply embarrassed for the treatment he gets here on ENWorld

Ditto.

 

[Henry]

Fixed, at least from my memories of the typical DM I played with.

You had some darned rough DMs!