NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steampunkette" data-source="post: 9716050" data-attributes="member: 6796468">I did mean OD&D, yeah. Strategic Review.It's definitely true that the core, basic, AD&D rules didn't have a whole lot of leveling choices (other than the aforementioned decision points on multiclassing stuff). But the point I'm making is there isn't this big generational cultural shift where "Oh, we HAVE to make it like videogames do it!" that Mearls is pitching.It was a progression. Largely driven by designers who built on what came before and went "What if there was more room for me to design stuff?"People who had been playing since the 70s, got hired in the 80s and 90s, designed material that would form the basis of the 2000s, as soon as their bosses gave them enough slack to do so.I mean... Kind of.Almost every new edition is just trying to compile the stuff that got added to the previous edition with a more streamlined and harmonious overall design. AD&D took what came before and struggled to put it into a 'More Balanced' framework that compiled all the previous options into something that made more sense. AD&D 2e was the same. Then came 3e building on 2e's designs. 4th edition was largely a departure... but the Book of the Nine Swords, Expanded Psionics Handbook, and more formed some of the bones of the new system.3e's late addition of the Warlock class got made more or less core in 4e and then actual core in 5e.I don't think Skills and Powers represented a need to develop a new edition, so much as being the codification and gameification of the materials that came before it, which helped to support a new edition by laying the groundwork of collecting material from across 2e.'Cause with Skills and Powers in hand you had 2e's (entirely optional) nonweapon proficiencies expounded upon, the various subraces introduced in the Complete Book of Dwarves/Elves/Humanoids, classes and kits from the Class Handbooks, and a ton of other material.Honestly? In retrospect, Skills and Powers with Combat and Tactics and Spells and Magic probably could've been a new "Revised Edition" of 2e, or the 'Real' 3e...Huh. Microedition.</blockquote>

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