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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 4003431" data-attributes="member: 42582">Fair enough. But it depends a bit on what the "it" denotes in the phrase "what it is". Do you (and perhaps Shemeska) really think that any major changes to the cosmology amount to making it no longer what it was?No, I'm arguing that the most important thing to a game designer (which is what WoTC employees are) is to make a game that is playable and (therefore, hopefully) popular. And I've given some reasons to explain why I think 4e will be more playable than the Blood War.Whereas I'd rather have something which readily engages, in play, with thematic and philosophical issues which speak to my prior enculturation. This makes it less necessary to read through a whole lot of tedious backstory before I play the game.I don't think this cookie-cutter accusation is quite fair. Reading W&M, a fair bit of thought has gone into this, and there is a unique cosmology. But by drawing on obviously well-known real-world tropes, I think it definitely adds to playability for the reasons given above.Exactly. D&D is not a story, it is a game. The interest in the game elements has to emerge in play, not in reading source books. I don't think the Blood War satisfies this demand, as too many of the answers (such as, for example, the nature of evil) are answered before play even commences. I think the 4e changes to the cosmology are intended to allow the answers to cosmological questions (whether these be thematic moral questions, or simply gamist questions like "Is my dude tougher than Orcus?") to emerge in play. As befits a game.</blockquote>

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