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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Grainger" data-source="post: 6488478" data-attributes="member: 6779234">Actually, thinking about this some more, I really don't agree with the "make them learn the maths before they play" school of thought. Players learn how the attack/damage rolls break down when they do character creation for the first time - that's when you quickly see what affects the roll, and that's when it's relevant information.Sure, it could be broken down before this, but why? The player can already clearly see which weapons he/she is better at. How these figures were derived is (in the vast majority of situations) immaterial in play. I don't class this as "need to know" for newcomers. It's really only relevant in character design. If the player wants to consider picking up a new weapon - that's what we have DMs (and rule books) for - the DM explains what their to-hit and damage would be, or the players look it up, as they might do with other rules for situations they haven't encountered yet.This all smacks of getting people to look under the hood because you personally like tinkering with engines. Personally, I have no clue how my car works, and I'm happy for this situation to stay that way*. I know how computers work, but I don't think that everyone should learn to assemble a PC before they surf the internet.Going back to D&D, where does it stop, anyway? You can keep drilling down with "why" questions ad infinitum. Why is there a strength bonus? How is the strength score generated? Why are there six ability scores? Et cetera et cetera. At some point, when teaching the game, you need to draw a line, and I think they drew it in a pretty sensible place. The information is there if and when players need to know it, but there's a finite amount they can absorb at one time, and I think the rules do an excellent job of distilling what is a very complex game (from the point of view of most people) into a very approachable one. The deeper information is there as and when players need it.*Actually, I just learned how a car engine works. Interesting! However, I didn't need to know in order to drive one.</blockquote>

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