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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7027947" data-attributes="member: 82106">I honestly think the main 'headwind' for homebrew comes from a consideration of the design goals and coherency of the system in question. OD&amp;D for example literally says right on the tin, &quot;this is a set of guidelines that is useful in setting up a fantasy miniatures campaign&quot;, so its virtually telling you it isn't even complete (which is true) and that you can/should/will extend, adapt, etc as required to meet your own needs. OD&amp;D also doesn't give you any specific indication of a coherent style of play, play procedures, conventions, or even any advice at all.4e, OTOH, is highly coherent. It certainly mentions homebrewing and modification, but it only talks about 2 minor forms of such, reflavoring things and rules modifications or additions (which it pretty much frowns on). While 4e didn't articulate its goals and methods well in a lot of cases, it certainly tells you how to play, advises you extensively about the use of rules, play procedures, and its goals (get to the fun, say yes, etc). In the face of a coherent game, most DMs and players will try to honor the design goals implicit in that game. They may not understand them, inadvertently undermine them, or sometimes choose certain specifics to ignore or change, but they usually set out to experience the game in a way that was intended. This was also true of OD&amp;D, but you had to fill in a lot of blanks, so it was less likely you'd arrive at what Gygax played himself (and this was why he wrote AD&amp;D in the first place and added the infamous &quot;this is the official rules&quot; statement). I know this is true for me. In fact I have very little tendency to make significant changes to rules systems. I will just pick a different system if I don't like one. I never changed any rules in 4e and only ignored a few or shifted how they mapped to fiction (IE making a long rest happen after a week instead of a day in the wilderness, mechanically it still worked as per the rules).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 7027947, member: 82106"] I honestly think the main 'headwind' for homebrew comes from a consideration of the design goals and coherency of the system in question. OD&D for example literally says right on the tin, "this is a set of guidelines that is useful in setting up a fantasy miniatures campaign", so its virtually telling you it isn't even complete (which is true) and that you can/should/will extend, adapt, etc as required to meet your own needs. OD&D also doesn't give you any specific indication of a coherent style of play, play procedures, conventions, or even any advice at all. 4e, OTOH, is highly coherent. It certainly mentions homebrewing and modification, but it only talks about 2 minor forms of such, reflavoring things and rules modifications or additions (which it pretty much frowns on). While 4e didn't articulate its goals and methods well in a lot of cases, it certainly tells you how to play, advises you extensively about the use of rules, play procedures, and its goals (get to the fun, say yes, etc). In the face of a coherent game, most DMs and players will try to honor the design goals implicit in that game. They may not understand them, inadvertently undermine them, or sometimes choose certain specifics to ignore or change, but they usually set out to experience the game in a way that was intended. This was also true of OD&D, but you had to fill in a lot of blanks, so it was less likely you'd arrive at what Gygax played himself (and this was why he wrote AD&D in the first place and added the infamous "this is the official rules" statement). I know this is true for me. In fact I have very little tendency to make significant changes to rules systems. I will just pick a different system if I don't like one. I never changed any rules in 4e and only ignored a few or shifted how they mapped to fiction (IE making a long rest happen after a week instead of a day in the wilderness, mechanically it still worked as per the rules). [/QUOTE]

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