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<blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6724660" data-attributes="member: 6787650"><p>Think about how 5E would approach the scenario if the players said, "We want to build a treehouse!" You've basically got three options that fit within the 5E idiom and PHB/DMG guidelines: either just say, "Okay, you build a treehouse"; or say, "Okay, but it costs 100 gp for materials and two weeks for construction", pulling the numbers out of your hat; or rule that it's some kind of ability check, "Okay, but you have to make a DC 15 Intelligence check or it will fall down." All of this is completely fine for a game in which building a treehouse is worth only sixty seconds of player attention before you go on with the important work of killing monsters and taking their loot, and arguably that's all D&D ever was or ever was designed for. Except, that's not how I remember AD&D, so I'm fairly confident that it should be possible to spend 40+% of your time on things besides murderhoboism in D&D, without resorting to "Mother May I?" and DM fiat for 40% of the time. Player agency requires consistency, which means it should have rules support.</p><p></p><p>For example, by PHB rules it's impossible for a blacksmith to make a profit. He spends 50% of the selling price on materials to make his stuff, and he gets free living expenses while he makes it, then he sells the stuff for 50% of the selling price. That's fine as a quick-and-dirty PHB option, but it's not appropriate for a game wherein players are actually interested in commerce, as well as Fireballs. And GURPS would work fine for a commerce game, but it lacks Fireballs, and the synergistic potential to have a game of mercantilism and Fireballs in which you adventure to dangerous places with valuable cargoes and make a ton of money, not because you took that money off the bodies of dead monsters, but because you're the only one who can survive the journey through the Straits of Therdan and all the sahuagin that infest it. That game should be within the D&D idiom, but 5E doesn't currently support it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="FormerlyHemlock, post: 6724660, member: 6787650"] Think about how 5E would approach the scenario if the players said, "We want to build a treehouse!" You've basically got three options that fit within the 5E idiom and PHB/DMG guidelines: either just say, "Okay, you build a treehouse"; or say, "Okay, but it costs 100 gp for materials and two weeks for construction", pulling the numbers out of your hat; or rule that it's some kind of ability check, "Okay, but you have to make a DC 15 Intelligence check or it will fall down." All of this is completely fine for a game in which building a treehouse is worth only sixty seconds of player attention before you go on with the important work of killing monsters and taking their loot, and arguably that's all D&D ever was or ever was designed for. Except, that's not how I remember AD&D, so I'm fairly confident that it should be possible to spend 40+% of your time on things besides murderhoboism in D&D, without resorting to "Mother May I?" and DM fiat for 40% of the time. Player agency requires consistency, which means it should have rules support. For example, by PHB rules it's impossible for a blacksmith to make a profit. He spends 50% of the selling price on materials to make his stuff, and he gets free living expenses while he makes it, then he sells the stuff for 50% of the selling price. That's fine as a quick-and-dirty PHB option, but it's not appropriate for a game wherein players are actually interested in commerce, as well as Fireballs. And GURPS would work fine for a commerce game, but it lacks Fireballs, and the synergistic potential to have a game of mercantilism and Fireballs in which you adventure to dangerous places with valuable cargoes and make a ton of money, not because you took that money off the bodies of dead monsters, but because you're the only one who can survive the journey through the Straits of Therdan and all the sahuagin that infest it. That game should be within the D&D idiom, but 5E doesn't currently support it. [/QUOTE]
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