D&D General Reification versus ludification in 5E/6E

[Micah Sweet]

I really don't see why we can't have some basic lore. All the Level Up corebooks provide basic lore and explanations and make it clear you can change it as you see fit. Why can't the "official" game do the same?

 

[mamba]

If WotC came out with an explanation for ho, they’d get crucified. No matter what the explanation was, the hue and cry over forcing playstyle would be overwhelming.

I am not seeing how this forces a playstyle, it just gives the DM some better ways to describe what is happening in game with what the mechanics already do

 

[mamba]

Explanations explain how something happens. Lore explains why. Explanation says "clerics channel divine power into spells" while lore explains where divine power comes from.

I would not call your example an explanation, at least not to the type of question that I assumed was being asked. It is much more of a declaration than an explanation

 

[Older Beholder]

I really don't see why we can't have some basic lore. All the Level Up corebooks provide basic lore and explanations and make it clear you can change it as you see fit. Why can't the "official" game do the same?

It does, the DMG as an example has 30 pages alone just on Grewhawk. How is this not basic lore?

 

[Sepulchrave II]

[Deleted -wrong thread]

 

[Hussar]

I am not seeing how this forces a playstyle, it just gives the DM some better ways to describe what is happening in game with what the mechanics already do

You don't? See the reactions to 4e if you want to see what happens when the game gives explanations for how things work.

Heck, people lose their poop over minor lore changes like name changes. Could you imagine the outcry if WotC said, "Well, fireballs work like X."? The outcry would never end. "How dare they tell ME how MY campaign works. Who are they to tell me this?!?!??!"

So, no, it wouldn't give "the DM some better ways to describe". It would give edition warriors a giant bag full of ammunition to flood the airwaves with endless "WotC hates gamers because they are trying to force everyone to play the game the one true way!?!?!?!?!??!" type posts. WotC absolutely learned their lesson in trying to tell gamers anything. Far, far better to just not say anything.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It does, the DMG as an example has 30 pages alone just on Grewhawk. How is this not basic lore?

Is Greyhawk the assumed setting for D&D, unless told otherwise?

 

[Lanefan]

You don't? See the reactions to 4e if you want to see what happens when the game gives explanations for how things work.

I'm not sure the outcry was because the game gave those explanations so much as it was over what some of those explanations were tasked with trying to explain.

There is no explanation, for example, that could ever make sense of why a fireball conveniently pixellates itself into nice neat 5-foot cubes..

 

[Hussar]

I'm not sure the outcry was because the game gave those explanations so much as it was over what some of those explanations were tasked with trying to explain.

There is no explanation, for example, that could ever make sense of why a fireball conveniently pixellates itself into nice neat 5-foot cubes..

But, there's the rub. See, 5e doesn't actually use 1-2-1 counting. So, you can move diagonally 6 squares on a grid. But, for some bizarre reason, spell effects still use the 1-2-1 counting. Sort of. It's actually the worst of all worlds.

In any case, it's easy to explain why fireballs are square on a grid - ease of play and a gridded map is not, and never has been, a perfect representation, but, rather an abstraction. So, we have square fireballs, because it's a heck of a lot more convenient to play.

edit to add -

Hang on. Neat pixelated cubes? Sorry, that's 3e, not 4e.

 

[James Gasik]

You don't? See the reactions to 4e if you want to see what happens when the game gives explanations for how things work.

Heck, people lose their poop over minor lore changes like name changes. Could you imagine the outcry if WotC said, "Well, fireballs work like X."? The outcry would never end. "How dare they tell ME how MY campaign works. Who are they to tell me this?!?!??!"

So, no, it wouldn't give "the DM some better ways to describe". It would give edition warriors a giant bag full of ammunition to flood the airwaves with endless "WotC hates gamers because they are trying to force everyone to play the game the one true way!?!?!?!?!??!" type posts. WotC absolutely learned their lesson in trying to tell gamers anything. Far, far better to just not say anything.

4e Magic Missile originally required attack rolls. The reaction to this was so heated that the Essentials rewrite made it an effect that did damage automatically (ironically making options that originally improved the spell no longer function).