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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 5694913" data-attributes="member: 82106">I think part of the issue here is that it was an untenable vision. It sounded good in theory, but when each feat is tied to a very narrow set of options the result is (and 4e shows it well) massive feat bloat. They recalibrated slowly and found that it made more sense to write more general feats, and with Essentials we see the final evolution of that, with a relatively svelt feat list. I get what you're after and I sympathize entirely with you. It just was one of those cool but fatally flawed ideas.I think 4e in a lot of ways is like that. It is a good system. It is just very hard for a group of game designers to fully comprehend how such an extensive game is going to feel when it is all done. They had certain goals. Those goals might not have been entirely met, and some of them probably couldn't actually be met within the context of the design. The problem is you have to at some point nail down the broad outline of the mechanics of a game so you can get on with it, and often you find out towards the end that a lot of decisions you made 2 years earlier didn't exactly contribute to your goals, or even undermine them. Other things are just "this is off a bit" (like monster damage and certain other things). Those can be fixed. 4e, being almost a ground up new game design, came with a lot of areas where I think the developers going back 2 years in time would say "no, that won't get you what you want, maybe do this instead", so it is something of a prototype. Unfortunately you don't get easy do-overs and revisions are costly. I rather agree with Nemesis on the feel thing. I'm working up ideas now for another campaign and one of the things that I want to do is a much more radical take on Points of Light. The world isn't just one where the 'Empire of Nerath' fell apart and the roads are bad. This is a world where the very existence of humanity was and is in doubt. Getting to the next town is not something you attempt lightly. In fact nobody is even sure if the next town still exists. You'll be lucky to get word once in a year from someone who's gone that far. If you wander around in the woods at night (the woods that surround the edges of every field) you're not likely to come back. 4e can handle that. It just isn't Nentir Vale as presented in the DMG. It is a lot more like a fairy tale, the world is big, hostile, and largely unknown. Only the toughest adventurers venture out into it, and even they step carefully.</blockquote>

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