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Message: <blockquote data-quote="clearstream" data-source="post: 9234301" data-attributes="member: 71699">I've often observed a forefront of theory, taking risks and doing great innovation. Professional designers are typically interested, knowledgeable, and admiring of those in that forefront. They look for ways to integrate what they're learning into their own designs. Making neo-trad in a way quite foreseeable. Usual design moves include focus on accessibility and production quality.Harenstam's comments fit the above. Free League use their Year Zero Engine for other games like Forbidden Lands, which I haven't played but take to lean into sandbox with an OSR feel. Editions of D&D draw on successful experiments around them. Notably 4e, and I can see it in 5e, too. They're always limited by needing to make the game open to all comers. A commercially motivated conservativism.EDIT Out of curiousity I dug up the original article. Here is a fuller quote (Harenstam)And later on in the pieceYou're right that the "how" benefits from learning what makes it work from the innovators themselves. Through study and play. But then the work is the plain craft of design. The challenge isn't innovation but integration and playtesting. Seeing what the purpose is of each element, and not stranding elements pointlessly. (I'm sure we can both think of examples of that!) Done well, it results in comments like thisIt would be a d*** shame if designers weren't doing it. I absolutely want to see brilliant ideas jolting enduring modes into updated forms! You may have noticed me introducing the label "neosim" into some of my posts... that's in the direction of what I'm thinking of.</blockquote>

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