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One D&D gets gnomes close to perfect
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<blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 8764684" data-attributes="member: 11760"><p>I agree that having gnomes and halflings differentiated from one another is doable and generally a good thing.</p><p></p><p>I think -- and I suspect the architects of 5E agree on this -- that while introducing new ideas and new flavors to existing player character races and classes is great and expands their appeal, cutting away non-problematic parts of them turns away existing fans in favor of finding new ones.</p><p></p><p>4E halflings in particular -- dreadlocked nomadic boat people -- are such a striking change from even the 3E halflings that it's hard to see how someone (like me!) who likes halflings and both plays them and has run all-halfling games would feel like what I liked before still existed. The 1D&D halflings in contrast bring together all flavors of existing halflings -- including 4E! -- and make them all part of the same package.</p><p></p><p>I think 4E gnomes are mostly fine -- I find the 4E cartoons charming -- but they're still a sharp break from the past and, by taking them out of the PHB, WotC back then was sending a clear message about which players they were worried about and which they weren't. (It's also essentially impossible to play a traditional illusionist in 4E, as illusion magic just flavors existing types of 4E spells, rather than being the freeform magic that requires a lot of adjudication and negotiation with a DM to make work.)</p><p></p><p>4E was very good at being the particular game they wanted to make. I know a ton of computer game makers who adore it from a design standpoint. That said, I'm a lot more interested in killing sacred cows when they're mechanical cruft and not when they eliminate broad swaths of past lore where the only problem is that the designer didn't like them. Make additive changes in those cases, not subtractive.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Whizbang Dustyboots, post: 8764684, member: 11760"] I agree that having gnomes and halflings differentiated from one another is doable and generally a good thing. I think -- and I suspect the architects of 5E agree on this -- that while introducing new ideas and new flavors to existing player character races and classes is great and expands their appeal, cutting away non-problematic parts of them turns away existing fans in favor of finding new ones. 4E halflings in particular -- dreadlocked nomadic boat people -- are such a striking change from even the 3E halflings that it's hard to see how someone (like me!) who likes halflings and both plays them and has run all-halfling games would feel like what I liked before still existed. The 1D&D halflings in contrast bring together all flavors of existing halflings -- including 4E! -- and make them all part of the same package. I think 4E gnomes are mostly fine -- I find the 4E cartoons charming -- but they're still a sharp break from the past and, by taking them out of the PHB, WotC back then was sending a clear message about which players they were worried about and which they weren't. (It's also essentially impossible to play a traditional illusionist in 4E, as illusion magic just flavors existing types of 4E spells, rather than being the freeform magic that requires a lot of adjudication and negotiation with a DM to make work.) 4E was very good at being the particular game they wanted to make. I know a ton of computer game makers who adore it from a design standpoint. That said, I'm a lot more interested in killing sacred cows when they're mechanical cruft and not when they eliminate broad swaths of past lore where the only problem is that the designer didn't like them. Make additive changes in those cases, not subtractive. [/QUOTE]
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