Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="rounser" data-source="post: 5392193" data-attributes="member: 1106">Agreed...both D&amp;D (pre-WOTC varieties) and AD&amp;D are whimsy city.&nbsp; I was reading up on an Amulet of Caterpillar Control last night (for when you need to control 4-24 caterpillars, naturally), and the penny dropped on just how much has been left behind in the road towards codification.&nbsp; It's like we have the wild and woolly D&amp;Ds (e.g. 0e, Hackmaster, or some DIY edition-spanning houserule hybrid) at one end, and the &quot;game design theory informed&quot; D&amp;Ds at the other end (3E, 4E).There are many reasons why the Amulet of Caterpillar Control would be left on the cutting room floor given the current D&amp;D design philosophy.&nbsp; In fact, I'd venture that it may not even be conceived in the first place under such a mindset.&nbsp; This is a shame in some ways, and cutting through the cruft in others.For me, there is a disconnect between how people imagine their campaigns (epic, Shakespearian even) and how they eventually get played (at least one silly player bringing the tone to another place entirely, and everyone having fun through that anyway).&nbsp; In some ways, then, whimsical D&amp;D is the more honest D&amp;D, reflecting how many or most of us actually play the game, rather than reflecting the ego of the well-intentioned (yet arguably deluded) DM in presenting an epic and photorealistic world and campaign arc, doomed to be brought down by bored players quoting Monty Python.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="rounser, post: 5392193, member: 1106"] Agreed...both D&D (pre-WOTC varieties) and AD&D are whimsy city. I was reading up on an Amulet of Caterpillar Control last night (for when you need to control 4-24 caterpillars, naturally), and the penny dropped on just how much has been left behind in the road towards codification. It's like we have the wild and woolly D&Ds (e.g. 0e, Hackmaster, or some DIY edition-spanning houserule hybrid) at one end, and the "game design theory informed" D&Ds at the other end (3E, 4E). There are many reasons why the Amulet of Caterpillar Control would be left on the cutting room floor given the current D&D design philosophy. In fact, I'd venture that it may not even be conceived in the first place under such a mindset. This is a shame in some ways, and cutting through the cruft in others. For me, there is a disconnect between how people imagine their campaigns (epic, Shakespearian even) and how they eventually get played (at least one silly player bringing the tone to another place entirely, and everyone having fun through that anyway). In some ways, then, whimsical D&D is the more honest D&D, reflecting how many or most of us actually play the game, rather than reflecting the ego of the well-intentioned (yet arguably deluded) DM in presenting an epic and photorealistic world and campaign arc, doomed to be brought down by bored players quoting Monty Python. [/QUOTE]

Verification