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Too many cooks (a DnDN retrospective)
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<blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 6056749" data-attributes="member: 54877"><p>To blend KM's Crystal Ball with what I've said above, I'll note that I was on record some time ago for four books core. This appears to be very much like the image in the ball, but it's got a key difference. What I proposed for the four books:</p><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">BECMI-style completely playable game with a subset of classes, spells, monsters, etc.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">PHB that extends player material for above, no repeats.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">MM that extends monsters for above, no repeats.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">DMG that extends advice and DM tools for above, no repeats.</li> </ol><p>However, critically, all of this is developed in tandem, playtested in tandem, delivered fairly close together, and so forth. That's because options that aren't fully first-class citizens as options don't tend to be very good options. They get less attention from design and development, less love from playtesting, and so it goes. Moreover, using that design, there tends to be 20 bad options built instead of 3-6 good ones. (You see this more in spells, magic items, etc. than classes and races, but the effect is felt everywhere.) If there are 4 or 5 expertise-based fighting styles for fighters from the get go, most of them will at least be useful in certain situations. If there is one default but 15 options, I guarantee that most of the options will have serious flaws because of how they interact with the default. It's the essential nature of "insufficiently explored and tested option".</p><p> </p><p>You'll note that this is a third way to prevent the presentation from driving design decisions, though on the surface it might look very similar to what the old farseeing glass showed. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite8" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":D" /> Technically, it would be theoretically possible to have an initial launch of the core 3 books with all defaults, while also developed the first round or options in supplements to fit with that seemlessly. Practically, I don't think WotC can do it, and I don't think the playtesting public can handle it cleanly. Three core books of around 200 to 300 pages each is simply too much "default" to have.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Crazy Jerome, post: 6056749, member: 54877"] To blend KM's Crystal Ball with what I've said above, I'll note that I was on record some time ago for four books core. This appears to be very much like the image in the ball, but it's got a key difference. What I proposed for the four books: [LIST=1] [*]BECMI-style completely playable game with a subset of classes, spells, monsters, etc. [*]PHB that extends player material for above, no repeats. [*]MM that extends monsters for above, no repeats. [*]DMG that extends advice and DM tools for above, no repeats. [/LIST]However, critically, all of this is developed in tandem, playtested in tandem, delivered fairly close together, and so forth. That's because options that aren't fully first-class citizens as options don't tend to be very good options. They get less attention from design and development, less love from playtesting, and so it goes. Moreover, using that design, there tends to be 20 bad options built instead of 3-6 good ones. (You see this more in spells, magic items, etc. than classes and races, but the effect is felt everywhere.) If there are 4 or 5 expertise-based fighting styles for fighters from the get go, most of them will at least be useful in certain situations. If there is one default but 15 options, I guarantee that most of the options will have serious flaws because of how they interact with the default. It's the essential nature of "insufficiently explored and tested option". You'll note that this is a third way to prevent the presentation from driving design decisions, though on the surface it might look very similar to what the old farseeing glass showed. :D Technically, it would be theoretically possible to have an initial launch of the core 3 books with all defaults, while also developed the first round or options in supplements to fit with that seemlessly. Practically, I don't think WotC can do it, and I don't think the playtesting public can handle it cleanly. Three core books of around 200 to 300 pages each is simply too much "default" to have. [/QUOTE]
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