Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
The Fate of the Smol
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 8568549" data-attributes="member: 8461"><p>Because the entire point of rules is to enforce limitations, i.e. things you can't do, and some of those limitations are going to go toward supporting a sense of verisimilitude insofar as making choices appear to have meaningful impacts.</p><p></p><p>If you want to have a "halfling titan" who regularly beats goliath bodybuilders in arm-wrestling contests, there's nothing narratively wrong with that idea. But as it stands in D&D 5E, if we take it as a truism that a goliath bodybuilder will have a Strength of 20, then that means the best your halfling can do will be to beat them 50% of the time, since even if they also have a Strength of 20, that's the maximum Strength they can have under the rules (and even then, the goliath's powerful build feature will mean that they outclass your halfling in terms of lifting and carrying).</p><p></p><p>The simple truth of the matter is that no RPG supports all character ideas, nor do they attempt to, and the further you push past the intended goals of the system the more you'll find that your character idea doesn't fit the game very well. If you love superheroes, for instance, your attempts to play The Flash in your D&D 5E game won't be very satisfying. Neither will playing Goku if you're a fan of shonen manga. </p><p></p><p>It's the difference between the ideas of "you can be whatever you want" and "you can <em>attempt</em> to do anything." The latter is the RPG credo that I'm familiar with, but more and more people seem to want it to be the former, and chafe at finding out that it's not as expansive as they thought.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Alzrius, post: 8568549, member: 8461"] Because the entire point of rules is to enforce limitations, i.e. things you can't do, and some of those limitations are going to go toward supporting a sense of verisimilitude insofar as making choices appear to have meaningful impacts. If you want to have a "halfling titan" who regularly beats goliath bodybuilders in arm-wrestling contests, there's nothing narratively wrong with that idea. But as it stands in D&D 5E, if we take it as a truism that a goliath bodybuilder will have a Strength of 20, then that means the best your halfling can do will be to beat them 50% of the time, since even if they also have a Strength of 20, that's the maximum Strength they can have under the rules (and even then, the goliath's powerful build feature will mean that they outclass your halfling in terms of lifting and carrying). The simple truth of the matter is that no RPG supports all character ideas, nor do they attempt to, and the further you push past the intended goals of the system the more you'll find that your character idea doesn't fit the game very well. If you love superheroes, for instance, your attempts to play The Flash in your D&D 5E game won't be very satisfying. Neither will playing Goku if you're a fan of shonen manga. It's the difference between the ideas of "you can be whatever you want" and "you can [i]attempt[/i] to do anything." The latter is the RPG credo that I'm familiar with, but more and more people seem to want it to be the former, and chafe at finding out that it's not as expansive as they thought. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
The Fate of the Smol
Top