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Only three pillars?
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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9091376" data-attributes="member: 6790260"><p>Well, that's sort of the thing, innit?</p><p></p><p>With three, everything is vital. You can't lose any of them without the structure becoming unstable. With four, you could have at least one that's a rickety wreck because it's not essential. Restricting yourself to three means you have to make sure they're all worthwhile, or else it's quite noticeable that they aren't.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Yeah, I definitely get the feeling that there's a lot of "I really REALLY like this subsystem, so it should be promoted to being one of the things <em>everyone should expect to care about</em>."</p><p></p><p>For my own part, if I absolutely, positively <em>had</em> to add a fourth pillar, it would be <strong>Ethos</strong>. Note, not "Ethics," nor "Philosophy." Because that actually rises, to some extent, to the level of a key part of the game that everyone is expected to care about at least to SOME extent. Alignment goes in there. But so do things like values, personality, and "thematics" (e.g. choosing to play an "ice mage" so you only take spells which fit with that theme). 5e Backgrounds, 4e BGs/Themes/alignment, and prior games' alignment and other systems, all feed into this pillar. It has real, meaningful mechanical impact, and for all but the most stridently murderhobo near-zero-RP games, SOME part of Ethos matters to play.</p><p></p><p>In general, I don't think of this as actually being a pillar, but rather being something that rests <em>atop</em> the pillars, a further elaboration of gameplay "above" the pillar part, since players choose whether and how much to dip their toes into it. But if I absolutely had <em>no other choice</em> but to pick a "new" pillar to "add" to the game, that would be it. Because it's effectively already there. It just doesn't get called out because it's considered more a rider of play rather than a fundamental goal of play.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 9091376, member: 6790260"] Well, that's sort of the thing, innit? With three, everything is vital. You can't lose any of them without the structure becoming unstable. With four, you could have at least one that's a rickety wreck because it's not essential. Restricting yourself to three means you have to make sure they're all worthwhile, or else it's quite noticeable that they aren't. Yeah, I definitely get the feeling that there's a lot of "I really REALLY like this subsystem, so it should be promoted to being one of the things [I]everyone should expect to care about[/I]." For my own part, if I absolutely, positively [I]had[/I] to add a fourth pillar, it would be [B]Ethos[/B]. Note, not "Ethics," nor "Philosophy." Because that actually rises, to some extent, to the level of a key part of the game that everyone is expected to care about at least to SOME extent. Alignment goes in there. But so do things like values, personality, and "thematics" (e.g. choosing to play an "ice mage" so you only take spells which fit with that theme). 5e Backgrounds, 4e BGs/Themes/alignment, and prior games' alignment and other systems, all feed into this pillar. It has real, meaningful mechanical impact, and for all but the most stridently murderhobo near-zero-RP games, SOME part of Ethos matters to play. In general, I don't think of this as actually being a pillar, but rather being something that rests [I]atop[/I] the pillars, a further elaboration of gameplay "above" the pillar part, since players choose whether and how much to dip their toes into it. But if I absolutely had [I]no other choice[/I] but to pick a "new" pillar to "add" to the game, that would be it. Because it's effectively already there. It just doesn't get called out because it's considered more a rider of play rather than a fundamental goal of play. [/QUOTE]
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