D&D 5E Mike Mearls Interview with the Escapist

[Mouseferatu]

I just don't understand how 5e fits this description. Remarkable athlete isn't guidelines. The rules for spell preparation, spell slots and spell resolution aren't guidelines. These are pedantic, granular rules that emphasise precision of adjudication and resolution over flexibility and guidelines.

They're tools and examples. "Here's how we believe such things should be balanced and handled. Use these examples to flesh out stuff we haven't dealt with, or change these in your own campaign, if you'd prefer."

3e and 4e were, in their own ways, easily broken. If you changed rule A, you could discover it had an impact on feat Q and situation Z down the road. And many of the individual rules were overly complicated.

5e--based on what we've seen so far, which is admittedly a small sample size, isn't locked in like that. Th rules aren't Jenga-ed on top of one another so completely, and the individual rules are often far simpler.

Rules broad/flexible enough to handle most situations, a few more precise ones where necessary or as examples.

A simple game with some complex components--but none that are too central or overwhelming.