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Some things I don't care for in the D&D culture
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<blockquote data-quote="GMMichael" data-source="post: 6652004" data-attributes="member: 6685730"><p>A good point earlier: fifth edition has stepped away from a lot of this. Some additional thoughts:</p><p></p><p>Seeking a balanced ruleset should be a goal of the designers, but their primary goal should be making the game fun and playable. I wasn't behind the scenes in the design of 5e (although some reasons why I feel like I was <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?356713-Game-Designers-Balance-These-Stats&p=6341958&highlight=modos#post6341958" target="_blank">can be found here</a>), but I'm guessing that they didn't put "balance" as high on their list as they did on, oh, 4th edition. It's the players, really, who are the perpetrators of balance-seeking and lawyering, not the game.</p><p></p><p>Realistic portrayals: this is very much on the designers. If you provide a formula for determining how many concubines a character may have, you'd better expect that rule to be followed verbatim. If, however, you say something to the effect of, "the player is free to design his character's harem as long as it is within the bounds of the GM's campaign concept," then the burden of realism is dropped on the GM and players, not the book.</p><p></p><p>Speccing and builds: I'd like to point at 2nd edition's class handbooks for this. Ever since I saw the Gladiator kit, I wanted to make my fighter cooler. And I suspect that other players did too, which is why D&D provided those options. WotC's a business. Businesses sell stuff. If people go back to Starbucks time and again, just because they can build their own coffee-beverage, you'd better believe it can happen in RPGs too.</p><p></p><p>I really don't find that these issues are unique to D&D. Players look for a game that they'll like. Optimizer-type players are likely to avoid a game that provides zero character-speccing options. But if you raise the D&D flag, guess who will rally around you!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="GMMichael, post: 6652004, member: 6685730"] A good point earlier: fifth edition has stepped away from a lot of this. Some additional thoughts: Seeking a balanced ruleset should be a goal of the designers, but their primary goal should be making the game fun and playable. I wasn't behind the scenes in the design of 5e (although some reasons why I feel like I was [URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?356713-Game-Designers-Balance-These-Stats&p=6341958&highlight=modos#post6341958"]can be found here[/URL]), but I'm guessing that they didn't put "balance" as high on their list as they did on, oh, 4th edition. It's the players, really, who are the perpetrators of balance-seeking and lawyering, not the game. Realistic portrayals: this is very much on the designers. If you provide a formula for determining how many concubines a character may have, you'd better expect that rule to be followed verbatim. If, however, you say something to the effect of, "the player is free to design his character's harem as long as it is within the bounds of the GM's campaign concept," then the burden of realism is dropped on the GM and players, not the book. Speccing and builds: I'd like to point at 2nd edition's class handbooks for this. Ever since I saw the Gladiator kit, I wanted to make my fighter cooler. And I suspect that other players did too, which is why D&D provided those options. WotC's a business. Businesses sell stuff. If people go back to Starbucks time and again, just because they can build their own coffee-beverage, you'd better believe it can happen in RPGs too. I really don't find that these issues are unique to D&D. Players look for a game that they'll like. Optimizer-type players are likely to avoid a game that provides zero character-speccing options. But if you raise the D&D flag, guess who will rally around you! [/QUOTE]
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