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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zarrock God of Evil" data-source="post: 1806477" data-attributes="member: 2025">Well, firstly, I too can empathise with any genre and style. I dislike most romantic comedies, yet I believe that I can discern a good romantic comedy from a bad romantic comedy, and I DO understand why many people enjoy them. But to my mind any style and genre can be achieved within the ruleset that is the SRD or the d20 core mechanic and divergence from this core must then either be based on: 1) Accident or mistake, 2) Ignorance of the ruleset or its original intention, or 3) Deliberate decision. I can forgive the first, I believe the second should be remedied whenever possible, and I would like to see good arguments for the third such as "the flavour/style we were trying to create was just not achieveable even though we analyzed all the possibilities in the existing system, and we had to accept a breach in the systems internal consistancy" Mind you, I too am operating with some presuppositions here (that I believe ot be correct, but as I am not omniscient who knows?) is that Sean has inside knowledge of the original foundations of the d20 core mechanics, and knows the original intention of the different rules, and that he therefore is able to adhere closer to this core mechanic than people with less knowledge of the "core" (because they were limited by access, didn't analyze the system properly etc.). Another basic assumption that I am making is that the original d20 mechanic was created with a purpose: to secure some kind of internal balance and more importantly to secure coherence and consistancy. This should, to my mind, be the main goal of any kind of "core engine" for how else can you truly discern direct additions to the "core" from systems that are not derived from the "core" if not because the additions are coherent and consistent with the basic rules and regulations that govern this core mechanic? If products started to derange wildly from the system presented in the SRD would/should they still be considered d20 games? And if so, maybe only in name? Is a d20 game any game that uses the gaming license, or is it a game that shares the same fundamental logic that lies inherent and implicit in the SRD?I do find the "play like he plays" versus "how you play" dichotomy to be a bit off. The construction of the rules has nothing to do with playing style and should not really affect how anyone plays their games at home, and I agree with Sean if sloppy design is "simply changing principles of the core mechanics for flavour reasons". This seems - and excuse the term - a bit "lazy" to me. Surely the core mechanic is flexible enough to allow you to integrate the "flavourful" change in another way that IS adhering to the core mechanic. I also don't see how other, socalled "unbiased" designers, have any greater chance of understanding the game "I" play than Sean? Is Monte Cook unbiased? Gary Gygax? Mike Mearls? I doubt it. The three designers mentioned, whom I share a great deal of respect for and whose work I generally like, may not be stating their bias as bluntly as Sean (though Gygax is known to express his opinions very directly too), but I find it hard to believe that they are designing games anymore for "me" or "you" than Sean. I guess they are simply designing games with the best of their ability and following their creative instincts. But surely creativity and most personal tastes can be expressed inside the exisiting core mechanics?I also don't see how his opinion is keeping him from being helpful? Personally I find people with strong opinions ten times more helpful than those who never express a firm opinion. Even if I strongly disagree at least I know his position and that just makes life easier for me. I RL I actually find people without firm opinions more suspicious than those who have them (unless I'm quite positive that the lack of a firm opinion is down to insecurity, shyness, or the like, in which case I sympathise). As a side-note, I find people with strong opinions more interesting and entertaining (the press release had me chuckling, but that may be just me), even our sportsstars are mostly dull as cardboards these days. If "sneak attack" was intended the way Sean claims it to be intended, then I say: "Leave it at that, and invent something else to cover the effect of the feat you desire in your game." If the "core" system has one core definition for a "sneak attack", then use THAT definition for everything concerning sneak attacks. You want some sneak attacks and critical hits to affect robots? Fine, do as FFG did and create robots like the soulmechs who have vulnerable parts in their - albeit articifical - anatomy. Of course, you should be able to do whatever you please with the rules in your OWN game and nothing is stopping you (unless Sean is planning on expanding his business with an army of rules enforcers and govern the industry with an iron fist  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f60e.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":cool:" title="Cool    :cool:"  data-smilie="6"data-shortname=":cool:" /> ). With the flexibility that seems to be inherent in the current d20 system, I see no reason why you should change the basic principles of the original mechanics when there seems to be plenty of space to create a similar effect by not doing so. I, of course realise, that no human being is probably able to catch every little discrepancy but I'm happy as long as they keep trying.  Sean seems to want to "preserve and defend" that core mechanic and I find that commendable, and hope I would feel the same even if I felt differently about his stance . I interpret it as a gesture of professionalism and a sign of his faith in the original conception of the system, even if it sometimes comes off as overly meticulous, nitpicky, or downright abrasive.I think we'll just have to agree to disagree, and now I better head off to bed before I get caught up in this thing (luckily that happens rarely).-Zarrock</blockquote>

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