Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="JesterOC" data-source="post: 4400448" data-attributes="member: 42841">Edna,&nbsp;While your post is nice and you seem to have thought a lot about this. I think you are wrong about this subject.&nbsp;The ability to alter a game as you see fit for your gaming group has little to do with the bitterness of the infinite flame wars that erupt here all the time.&nbsp;I have seen flame wars just as caustic in magic the gathering forums where, the rules are just as strict as chess. I have also seem pretty bad hateful arguments on RTS computer game forums, and those rules are enforced by machines.&nbsp;The main reason you see this stuff is the nature of anonymity. People will write things to people on forums that they would never say to a person on the street. Mainy because the guy on the street has a chance to inflict bodily injury to the speaker.&nbsp;When I played D&amp;D in high school we played pretty much RAW, no one I knew had house rules other than for some magic items they invented. But we knew better to assume that those magic items would be accepted if we played a pickup game at a con. We were able to realize that house rules are for the group and core rules was for when we played with strangers.&nbsp;Also D&amp;D is not the only game that has tons of house rules. The number of varioutions of the Free parking space in Monopoly that I have seen is in the double digits. I have seen people rewrite Axis and Allies to make it &quot;more historically correct&quot;! These house rules don't hurt the games because people know they are &quot;HOUSE&quot; rules.&nbsp;I agree with the huge amount of research that has been done by wizards to determin what makes people play D&amp;D, what makes them stop playing D&amp;D, and what people want out of D&amp;D.&nbsp;I don't have any knowledge of what Wizards thinks people want out of D&amp;D but judging from the rules of 4E here is what I think they are betting on.&nbsp;0) D&amp;D needs to appeal to more people. 1) D&amp;D can't live without DM's so the DM workload had better be minimized as to not intimidate folks for even trying.2) Every choice that needs to be made should have a meaningful impact on your character. 3) There should be no bad choices that reward rules lawyers over people who just want to 'have fun'4) Make the available character races the more interesting.&nbsp;(I added the last one because so far the 2 new players I have introduced to D&amp;D have opted for the Tiefling, and the Dragonborn. So I think they hit that one on the head.)&nbsp;If 4E can do these things and many more things that I am sure I did not include in the list, then I think D&amp;D is here to stay. If not it is WarCraft from here on.&nbsp;JesterOC&nbsp;p.s. The RPGA already has some pretty strict rules that handles most all organized play.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="JesterOC, post: 4400448, member: 42841"] Edna, While your post is nice and you seem to have thought a lot about this. I think you are wrong about this subject. The ability to alter a game as you see fit for your gaming group has little to do with the bitterness of the infinite flame wars that erupt here all the time. I have seen flame wars just as caustic in magic the gathering forums where, the rules are just as strict as chess. I have also seem pretty bad hateful arguments on RTS computer game forums, and those rules are enforced by machines. The main reason you see this stuff is the nature of anonymity. People will write things to people on forums that they would never say to a person on the street. Mainy because the guy on the street has a chance to inflict bodily injury to the speaker. When I played D&D in high school we played pretty much RAW, no one I knew had house rules other than for some magic items they invented. But we knew better to assume that those magic items would be accepted if we played a pickup game at a con. We were able to realize that house rules are for the group and core rules was for when we played with strangers. Also D&D is not the only game that has tons of house rules. The number of varioutions of the Free parking space in Monopoly that I have seen is in the double digits. I have seen people rewrite Axis and Allies to make it "more historically correct"! These house rules don't hurt the games because people know they are "HOUSE" rules. I agree with the huge amount of research that has been done by wizards to determin what makes people play D&D, what makes them stop playing D&D, and what people want out of D&D. I don't have any knowledge of what Wizards thinks people want out of D&D but judging from the rules of 4E here is what I think they are betting on. 0) D&D needs to appeal to more people. 1) D&D can't live without DM's so the DM workload had better be minimized as to not intimidate folks for even trying. 2) Every choice that needs to be made should have a meaningful impact on your character. 3) There should be no bad choices that reward rules lawyers over people who just want to 'have fun' 4) Make the available character races the more interesting. (I added the last one because so far the 2 new players I have introduced to D&D have opted for the Tiefling, and the Dragonborn. So I think they hit that one on the head.) If 4E can do these things and many more things that I am sure I did not include in the list, then I think D&D is here to stay. If not it is WarCraft from here on. JesterOC p.s. The RPGA already has some pretty strict rules that handles most all organized play. [/QUOTE]

Verification