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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Malmuria" data-source="post: 9057930" data-attributes="member: 7030755">Rules volume is one measure of what a game is 'about'.  But I would also say any game has a core categorization of rules, one unsurprisingly conveyed via  tables of contents.  If we look at the 5e PHB table of contents, I wonder if we can rethink the "pillars of play"Pillars of Play<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Character Creation (pp. 9-165)<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Obviously there will be overlaps with the other pillars here.  But I have heard people talk about building characters as its own pillar of play.  Given the number of people who engage in "lonely fun" on dnd beyond just making characters, let alone the people who dream up backstories and create art for characters that never see play, I have to think character creation counts as a core activity for 5e.\</li> </ul></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Adventuring (pp.181-187)<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Subsections: time, movement, the environment, social interaction, resting, between adventurers</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Social interaction and exploration are subsets of the pillar adventuring</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The engine for this is the "Using Ability Scores" section (pp. 173-180).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Even adding those two sections together, it amounts to only 13 A4 pages.  So not a lot by volume, though I would argue that that's because the core of 5e is a very simple game.  Also most of the dungeon master's guide pertains to actually creating and running the adventures (whatever you think of that advice)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Side note: Going through the 5 "downtime activities" on p. 187 would be a totally valid procedure for handling downtime.  Just ask the PCs which of those actions they choose to take during downtime and then follow the rules in those sections.</li> </ul></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Combat (pp. 189-198)<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Again, only 10 pages, but it is significant that it gets it's own section</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">You could add the "conditions" and "creatures appendix" (or, indeed, the entire MM) to this section.  But creatures are just variations expressed using the base rules of combat, not additional rules.</li> </ul></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Magic (pp. 199-206)<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Magic in this game has it's own special rules and lexicon</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The spell lists (pp. 199-211) are just specific cases using the magic rules</li> </ul></li> </ul>Thus we can say that 5e is a game "about" creating heroic characters, adventuring, combat, and magic.  So that exercise...tells us very little that we didn't already know!  But maybe is a better way to look at play focus than simply rules volume per number of pages.  In other words, how do the designers of any game think it best to organize and present their material?  That tells you what the game is about.Similar exercise with ...<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Vaesen: characters and their skills/talents, conflict (i.e. combat but I think important that they choose to call it "conflict" instead), the society, the mythic north, the vaesen, mysteries<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">This tells me the game is about the semi-mythic environment, its mysteries, and the conflict that arises between it and the modern investigators (which may or may not be conflict)</li> </ul></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Blades in the Dark: Characters, Crew, Scores, Downtime, Strange Forces, Doskvol<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">What's important in this game is the set structure of scores and downtime and the haunted setting of Doskvol.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">etc</li> </ul></li> </ul></blockquote>

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