Whisper72
Explorer
On many places on this and other fora, I see people who are ecstatic about this new feat or that other prestige class. Whole web-pages seem to be devoted to the production of new feats and classes, and the content of many commercially produced 'campaign aids' and other forms of 'accessories' consist for a large percentage of those same prestige classes and feats.
At the same time, you hear people going on about the need for more focus on role playing versus roll playing and aversion for min/maxers, the threat of CRPGs versus tabletop gaming, the lack of soul in the new DnD editions vis-a-vis 1st edition (A)DND etc. etc.
Am I missing something here, or do others share my feelings:
To my view there is no need for more classes beyond the original ones in the core rules books. All the rest is putting roles that should come about by playing and adequate player and DM judgement and adjudication into numbers in stead.
It is the very proliferation of feats and classes which almost forces people to min/max and approach the game from a very mechanic/mechanistic, ruleslayerish and CRPG-like way where you build your PC not through roleplaying, but throught 'engineering' the 'correct' or 'appropriate' PrC's, feats etc. into your PC to get the 'feel' you want.
'Bullocks' is my gut-reaction to this. The correct feel of the PC comes about by roleplaying in a certain way. If the focus of the whole group is to play the game for fun and by adhering to 'Character', then I do not need some feat to try to behead a monster. I can simply state what I try to do to the DM, and if I hit by a nice margin, the DM can adjudicate that I accomplished what I tried.
The whole trend of putting numbers and rules onto everything reduces the role of the DM. Indeed, with everything cast into rules that can be programmed, the whole game begins to look like a CRPG. It is the way the game is evolving itself that threatens to destroy the very creativity that it used to demand of players and DM's alike in the old editions. THAT is the very problem of the lack of 'soul' in the new editions.
Am I the only one who thinks so? Am I missing something here, and do I see things the wrong way?
An 'old-school' DM who still swears by only needing the DMG1, MM1 and PHB1 to have the most fun with (A)DnD
At the same time, you hear people going on about the need for more focus on role playing versus roll playing and aversion for min/maxers, the threat of CRPGs versus tabletop gaming, the lack of soul in the new DnD editions vis-a-vis 1st edition (A)DND etc. etc.
Am I missing something here, or do others share my feelings:
To my view there is no need for more classes beyond the original ones in the core rules books. All the rest is putting roles that should come about by playing and adequate player and DM judgement and adjudication into numbers in stead.
It is the very proliferation of feats and classes which almost forces people to min/max and approach the game from a very mechanic/mechanistic, ruleslayerish and CRPG-like way where you build your PC not through roleplaying, but throught 'engineering' the 'correct' or 'appropriate' PrC's, feats etc. into your PC to get the 'feel' you want.
'Bullocks' is my gut-reaction to this. The correct feel of the PC comes about by roleplaying in a certain way. If the focus of the whole group is to play the game for fun and by adhering to 'Character', then I do not need some feat to try to behead a monster. I can simply state what I try to do to the DM, and if I hit by a nice margin, the DM can adjudicate that I accomplished what I tried.
The whole trend of putting numbers and rules onto everything reduces the role of the DM. Indeed, with everything cast into rules that can be programmed, the whole game begins to look like a CRPG. It is the way the game is evolving itself that threatens to destroy the very creativity that it used to demand of players and DM's alike in the old editions. THAT is the very problem of the lack of 'soul' in the new editions.
Am I the only one who thinks so? Am I missing something here, and do I see things the wrong way?
An 'old-school' DM who still swears by only needing the DMG1, MM1 and PHB1 to have the most fun with (A)DnD