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<blockquote data-quote="Mishihari Lord" data-source="post: 2937396" data-attributes="member: 128">IMO D&amp;D isn't elegant.&nbsp; Morgan gave a bunch of good reasons, but for me I think of it more in terms of the mathematical definition - simple and powerful.Does it make a difference?&nbsp; Yes and no.&nbsp; Elegant systems are much easier to learn, because they accomplish a wide variety of tasks very well with just a few simple rules (that's the definition).&nbsp; If you already have&nbsp; the PHB and DMG memorized, elegance doesn't make a bit of difference.&nbsp; That's why on a board like this you'll hear a lot of &quot;Elegance?&nbsp; who cares?!&quot;&nbsp; People who care enough about D&amp;D to spend time on a message board are almost all going to be knowledgable about the rules.&nbsp; This also explains why many other games strive to be elegant:&nbsp; D&amp;D has such a good thing going for it in terms of brand equity and network externalities that if someone is going to be lured into trying a different sytem, it had better be easy to learn.&nbsp; IMO it would be a very good thing for D&amp;D rules to be more elegant.&nbsp; An easy to learn system combined with the power of the D&amp;D brand could bring a lot of new people into the hobby.After reading mearls' post, I stand corrected in that there are other advantages to elegant systems besides just in learning them.&nbsp; However, I still believe that ease of learning the system is the biggest advantage.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mishihari Lord, post: 2937396, member: 128"] IMO D&D isn't elegant. Morgan gave a bunch of good reasons, but for me I think of it more in terms of the mathematical definition - simple and powerful. Does it make a difference? Yes and no. Elegant systems are much easier to learn, because they accomplish a wide variety of tasks very well with just a few simple rules (that's the definition). If you already have the PHB and DMG memorized, elegance doesn't make a bit of difference. That's why on a board like this you'll hear a lot of "Elegance? who cares?!" People who care enough about D&D to spend time on a message board are almost all going to be knowledgable about the rules. This also explains why many other games strive to be elegant: D&D has such a good thing going for it in terms of brand equity and network externalities that if someone is going to be lured into trying a different sytem, it had better be easy to learn. IMO it would be a very good thing for D&D rules to be more elegant. An easy to learn system combined with the power of the D&D brand could bring a lot of new people into the hobby. After reading mearls' post, I stand corrected in that there are other advantages to elegant systems besides just in learning them. However, I still believe that ease of learning the system is the biggest advantage. [/QUOTE]

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