Should game designers remain neutral when designing D&D?

[Sage Genesis]

In a 3e game that no one track encumbrance Str looses a lot of meaning, and you may not realize how that trickles down the balance chain. The wizard puts an 8 in str because it is useless to him, but then carries 3 spell books full of spells, a magic staff, 5 potions, a dozen scrolls and 3-5 wands most of the time, plus treasure and extra cloths and components... you don't realize how much that all adds up.

Intended as a lighthearted little sidenote:
If you look up the weights of those items it turns out that actually it's not all that hard to stay under the light load limit with all that. A dozen sheets of paper weighs next to nothing and potions come in tiny little vials that hold two tablespoons worth of fluid. Wands weigh about as much as a spoon. No grown man (or halfling) ought to collapse under the weight of three to five spoons.

I suppose if the treasure is particularly bulky then you may have to stow some of that junk in a backpack and accept a medium load penalty. So, like, you will walk a little slower until you dump your backpack at the start of combat. Not really a big problem.

 

[Mark CMG]

The problem is that Fate IS a style of D&D...if we define D&D as a Medieval Fantasy Game with Elves, Dwarves, Dragons, Magic, and High Adventure. Which is about the only thing all the editions of D&D have in common.

Within that framework there are nearly infinite permutations of rules that will still qualify as D&D(IMHO) but will have completely different playstyles. Fate fully qualifies as one of those permutations. Though, it's not the one I'd pick since it is a little too far out of my playstyle.

I can play D&D with Hero System, GURPS, Palladium Fantasy, Fate, 13th Age, and likely a number of other games. D&D just gets to be D&D because it is made by WOTC.

You're not wrong.