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Message: <blockquote data-quote="3catcircus" data-source="post: 7896913" data-attributes="member: 16077">And I consider "the rules informing the game world" to definitely be a problem.  In previous editions, they tried and failed to link all of the different settings together - it isn't hard to understand the idea that each campaign setting (Oerth, Faerun, Eberron, Krynn, Athas) could all be handled together using Spelljammer within a single universe while Planescape could tie them all across.  The problem was that they just produced way too much content rather than a single all-in-one setting book - even during the 3e days when WotC was smarter about market research than TSR.  Part of the problem is trying to bolt-on different rules in different campaign settings rather than expanding or modifying the existing rules.  But that isn't the fault of the campaign setting - it's the fault of a core that doesn't particular work all that well to begin with - its always been primarily designed to work in an idealized western european medieval fantasy setting with very well-define PC and NPC "roles."  At its basis, it can't actually even emulate a high-fantasy Lord of the Rings.  For example, going back to the earliest iterations of D&D there is no way you could emulate Gandalf wielding Glamdring and it wasn't until 5e that you can come close to doing it.  Just about any class-less skill-based RPG rules can emulate this easily.So - in every D&D edition, when they try to use the rules to force the campaign setting they're going to be fairly unsuccessful.  2e was a little easier in this regard because of the large emphasis on story rather than rules, but 3e and 4e are exceptionally bad - everything gets bolted on in an ever-increasing set of rules.  5e has (rules-wise) been a breath of fresh air, going back to a streamlined set of rules that allows a DM to hand-wave or make up a rule on the spot to emulate a particular effect.</blockquote>

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