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What are your ideal design goals for D&D?
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<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 5181013" data-attributes="member: 58197"><p>If magic items are mere commodities, technology disguised as magic, then nothing.</p><p></p><p>That's not necessarily a safe assumption.</p><p></p><p>I incline toward the view that magic items desire masters worthy of them. Each item has its own definition of "worthy," of course, but taking the item from its previous owner, by force or guile, usually suffices for the kind of items adventurers use. (Although items created by divine magic are more likely to be devoted to a specific deity and not work for unbelievers. If it <em>does</em> work for you, better keep a close eye on your soul.)</p><p></p><p>Such items are not at all pleased to be bought and sold like chattel. If you're lucky, your newly purchased magic wand will just refuse to work for you and you'll end up with a fancy stick. If you're unlucky, it could get a whole lot worse than that. And the seller may not get off unscathed, either.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, back to the original topic:</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Accessible to newbies, but versatile enough to keep veterans engaged.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Combat that minimizes grind and number-crunching, while retaining tactical depth.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Mechanics that connect in a straightforward, intuitive way to in-world concepts.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">An open ruleset that is friendly to houseruling and homebrewing.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Modularity in the rules, so it's possible to exclude one part of the ruleset without breaking the rest of the system. In particular, the system should be able to work smoothly without any or all of the following: resurrection magic, magic items, nonhuman races, any given power source (except perhaps martial).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Classes balanced across three spheres: combat, social, exploration. Every class should have something to contribute in each sphere.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A limited, but nonzero, amount of long-term resource management.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The ability to emulate most major genres of fantasy, including both high-magic "wahoo" settings and lower-powered sword-and-sorcery ones. (Well, actually, I personally don't give a crap if it can emulate "wahoo" settings or not. I'm a low-magic type of guy. But I know a lot of folks are into that.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">New horizons opening up as characters advance. BECMI was the only set that really embraced this principle, with characters moving from classic dungeoneering in Basic, to wilderness adventures in Expert, to ruling domains and waging war in Companion, to questing for immortality in Master, to... well, I do not speak of the Immortal ruleset, but the point is that the game is designed to evolve with the characters instead of just scaling up.</li> </ul></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 5181013, member: 58197"] If magic items are mere commodities, technology disguised as magic, then nothing. That's not necessarily a safe assumption. I incline toward the view that magic items desire masters worthy of them. Each item has its own definition of "worthy," of course, but taking the item from its previous owner, by force or guile, usually suffices for the kind of items adventurers use. (Although items created by divine magic are more likely to be devoted to a specific deity and not work for unbelievers. If it [I]does[/I] work for you, better keep a close eye on your soul.) Such items are not at all pleased to be bought and sold like chattel. If you're lucky, your newly purchased magic wand will just refuse to work for you and you'll end up with a fancy stick. If you're unlucky, it could get a whole lot worse than that. And the seller may not get off unscathed, either. Anyway, back to the original topic: [LIST] [*]Accessible to newbies, but versatile enough to keep veterans engaged. [*]Combat that minimizes grind and number-crunching, while retaining tactical depth. [*]Mechanics that connect in a straightforward, intuitive way to in-world concepts. [*]An open ruleset that is friendly to houseruling and homebrewing. [*]Modularity in the rules, so it's possible to exclude one part of the ruleset without breaking the rest of the system. In particular, the system should be able to work smoothly without any or all of the following: resurrection magic, magic items, nonhuman races, any given power source (except perhaps martial). [*]Classes balanced across three spheres: combat, social, exploration. Every class should have something to contribute in each sphere. [*]A limited, but nonzero, amount of long-term resource management. [*]The ability to emulate most major genres of fantasy, including both high-magic "wahoo" settings and lower-powered sword-and-sorcery ones. (Well, actually, I personally don't give a crap if it can emulate "wahoo" settings or not. I'm a low-magic type of guy. But I know a lot of folks are into that.) [*]New horizons opening up as characters advance. BECMI was the only set that really embraced this principle, with characters moving from classic dungeoneering in Basic, to wilderness adventures in Expert, to ruling domains and waging war in Companion, to questing for immortality in Master, to... well, I do not speak of the Immortal ruleset, but the point is that the game is designed to evolve with the characters instead of just scaling up. [/LIST] [/QUOTE]
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