Ashrem Bayle
Explorer
WARNING: This is going to be long.
A few years ago I witnessed a gaming event that was the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back". We were playing a 3.5 D&D game. It was a serious campaign, and we had all really gotten into our characters.
We had come upon an enemy encampment. There was a guard tower, at the top of which was a guard on watch. He had a bell which he would ring if he saw anything. So the rogue hatched his devious plan. He drank an invisibility potion, scaled the outer wall of the tower, and stealthily sneaked up beside the guard. His goal was to eliminate the guard silently so the others could approach.
The guard stood there, unaware of the rogue, looking out over the surrounding area. But what could the rogue do? His only option was a sneak attack. So he did it, inflicting a nice chunk of damage. But the guard wasn't killed, and on his next action, he rang the bell.
The player became very frustrated, and rightfully so. The guard was a mook. A nobody. A "red shirt". But as we looked over his stats, there was no way the rogue could have eliminated him silently. He was a few levels lower than the rogue, but a "one-shot-kill" was still quiet simply impossible. All that preparation and cleverness, by the rules as written, meant nothing.
The player had imagined his character as a silent blade in the night, killing his foes swiftly and silently if he could get the drop on them. Now that character concept was shattered as he realized he'd never get the chance to play that way, no matter what. The rules would never allow it. He'd never get the "one-shot-kill" against an opponent close to his own level.
...
After that I sat down at my computer with a very ambitious goal. I was going to rewrite the D&D Player's Handbook to better satisfy my need for more realism and detail. After about 60 pages into my outline, I realized the end result really wasn't going to be D&D anymore at all.
So I came to the conclusion that what I really wanted wasn't D&D, but another game altogether. So I started searching around. The game I was looking for had to meet certain criteria:
1. Highly customizable characters.
2. The ability to create characters that resembled real people more so than "video game" characters.
3. Lethal combat. No matter how great a warrior was, a commoner with a knife had to at least be a minor threat.
4. Combat needed to have options. "Fighters" needed as many cool tricks as "Wizards".
5. No Vancian magic system. Magic needed to be more flexible.
6. Interesting critical hits and failures.
7. Interesting combat. I wanted more options for different combat techniques.
8. And the most important thing: Players needed to be rewarded for being clever and strategic in a manner more meaningful than just "+2 to hit for flanking".
In the end, I settled on GURPS. It hit all of the above criteria and was designed around the idea that you can build everything around real-world simulation, and it can be done without dragging the game to a snail's pace.
And it does, and it does it well.
So a little over a year ago I dropped my D&D 3.5 campaign in favor of GURPS. I reveled in the "simulationist" aspects of the game, and I've had a lot of fun with it.
Now 4th edition is coming out, and I find myself interested. Oddly enough, I'm interested because it's not going to be realistic at all. It looks like 4e is going to be an action packed, high adventure, over the top, geek-fest. It is the exact opposite of what I was looking for when I turned to GURPS. And I'm excited about it.
Am I giving up GURPS? No way! Heck, I just finished writing a formal outline for a GURPS book that may actually get published. My point is, you can have your cake and eat it too.
For the "simulationists" who are frustrated with the direction 4e is going, take a step back and re-evaluate what it is you really want. Don't be afraid to look into other game systems that may better suit your tastes. Why tie yourself down to D&D?
That said, I plan to play D&D in addition to other game systems. For my hardcore story-driven fantasy and sci-fi games, I'm using GURPS. For my modern day horror, I'm using World of Darkness. And for my more light hearted monster slaying, I'll be using D&D 4e.
The point is, don't dismiss 4e because of the direction it's taking. Try to accept it for what it is, enjoy it, and simply look elsewhere for more "simulationist" gaming. I absolutely understand your frustration. I felt it too. D&D was a sort of "comfort zone" that I didn't really want to leave.
But eventually that's what I did, and I'm a lot happier for it.
A few years ago I witnessed a gaming event that was the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back". We were playing a 3.5 D&D game. It was a serious campaign, and we had all really gotten into our characters.
We had come upon an enemy encampment. There was a guard tower, at the top of which was a guard on watch. He had a bell which he would ring if he saw anything. So the rogue hatched his devious plan. He drank an invisibility potion, scaled the outer wall of the tower, and stealthily sneaked up beside the guard. His goal was to eliminate the guard silently so the others could approach.
The guard stood there, unaware of the rogue, looking out over the surrounding area. But what could the rogue do? His only option was a sneak attack. So he did it, inflicting a nice chunk of damage. But the guard wasn't killed, and on his next action, he rang the bell.
The player became very frustrated, and rightfully so. The guard was a mook. A nobody. A "red shirt". But as we looked over his stats, there was no way the rogue could have eliminated him silently. He was a few levels lower than the rogue, but a "one-shot-kill" was still quiet simply impossible. All that preparation and cleverness, by the rules as written, meant nothing.
The player had imagined his character as a silent blade in the night, killing his foes swiftly and silently if he could get the drop on them. Now that character concept was shattered as he realized he'd never get the chance to play that way, no matter what. The rules would never allow it. He'd never get the "one-shot-kill" against an opponent close to his own level.
...
After that I sat down at my computer with a very ambitious goal. I was going to rewrite the D&D Player's Handbook to better satisfy my need for more realism and detail. After about 60 pages into my outline, I realized the end result really wasn't going to be D&D anymore at all.
So I came to the conclusion that what I really wanted wasn't D&D, but another game altogether. So I started searching around. The game I was looking for had to meet certain criteria:
1. Highly customizable characters.
2. The ability to create characters that resembled real people more so than "video game" characters.
3. Lethal combat. No matter how great a warrior was, a commoner with a knife had to at least be a minor threat.
4. Combat needed to have options. "Fighters" needed as many cool tricks as "Wizards".
5. No Vancian magic system. Magic needed to be more flexible.
6. Interesting critical hits and failures.
7. Interesting combat. I wanted more options for different combat techniques.
8. And the most important thing: Players needed to be rewarded for being clever and strategic in a manner more meaningful than just "+2 to hit for flanking".
In the end, I settled on GURPS. It hit all of the above criteria and was designed around the idea that you can build everything around real-world simulation, and it can be done without dragging the game to a snail's pace.
And it does, and it does it well.
So a little over a year ago I dropped my D&D 3.5 campaign in favor of GURPS. I reveled in the "simulationist" aspects of the game, and I've had a lot of fun with it.
Now 4th edition is coming out, and I find myself interested. Oddly enough, I'm interested because it's not going to be realistic at all. It looks like 4e is going to be an action packed, high adventure, over the top, geek-fest. It is the exact opposite of what I was looking for when I turned to GURPS. And I'm excited about it.
Am I giving up GURPS? No way! Heck, I just finished writing a formal outline for a GURPS book that may actually get published. My point is, you can have your cake and eat it too.
For the "simulationists" who are frustrated with the direction 4e is going, take a step back and re-evaluate what it is you really want. Don't be afraid to look into other game systems that may better suit your tastes. Why tie yourself down to D&D?
That said, I plan to play D&D in addition to other game systems. For my hardcore story-driven fantasy and sci-fi games, I'm using GURPS. For my modern day horror, I'm using World of Darkness. And for my more light hearted monster slaying, I'll be using D&D 4e.
The point is, don't dismiss 4e because of the direction it's taking. Try to accept it for what it is, enjoy it, and simply look elsewhere for more "simulationist" gaming. I absolutely understand your frustration. I felt it too. D&D was a sort of "comfort zone" that I didn't really want to leave.
But eventually that's what I did, and I'm a lot happier for it.
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
