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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 8224978" data-attributes="member: 7006">My votes for this one were pretty much the same as my votes for the last one, with the exception of retaining Advantage/Disadvantage because I think that was the best new universal mechanic 5E adopted and I want to make sure we keep it rather than return to the olden times of stacking piles of modifiers. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />The one thing I do note is that D&D is most assuredly it's own thing and has so many things that are specific to this game that there's no reason NOT to retain them... even if there might be something "better" elsewhere.  Because those things that we might say are "better" already have other RPGs that can give us those things.  So if we want those things that badly... I am a proponent of just pushing people towards those other RPGs rather than try and jerry-rig D&D into becoming those other things.Too often it feels like some people are playing D&D because it's the "Granddaddy Of Them All"... when case in point their desires for what they want in an RPG would be much better served playing something else.  And yet people instead keep trying to push this square D&D peg into every round RPG hole.  I just want to assure those people that No, you don't need D&D to get you what you want... there are so many other wonderful games out there for you that would work better.  Please don't be afraid of trying them out.***This is where I think the OGL and the d20 System ended up doing a disservice to many game-players in the last 20 years. Because it inspired so many designers and companies to create or adapt old and new games alike using this one specific D&D / d20 / style of design for all kinds of styles and genres which do not lend themselves to being their best selves. Call of Cthulu doesn't get better by making it a d20 game and having characters level up and become more powerful.  In fact it's almost the antithesis of that game's raison d'etre.  Likewise, the change of 7th Sea to Swashbuckling Adventures took away so much of its quirkiness and authenticity of design towards the specific aesthetic that game was going for.  And I doubt there are many people who think WotC's d20 Star Wars game is better than the original West End Games d6 version. Because in all these cases... the better version was designed specifically for ALL the parts of what the game was trying to emulate in its genre and story. Rather than trying to take the various mechanics of the d20 system and hammer them into all weird shapes in an effort to do the same.And what this ended up teaching us unfortunately was this idea that with a lot of elbow grease... you can make ANY game a D&D / d20 game.  Even when it really shouldn't.  And thus rather than looking outside of D&D to find what we want, we'll just keep smashing D&D to pieces and gluing it back together into these Frankenstein monsters to "get what we want".  And I think a lot of the gaming populace just has it in their head that this is what we have to do.  When really it's the last thing we should be doing because the Frankenstein sum is NEVER greater than its parts.Except for Mutants & Masterminds.  That's the one exception that proves the rule.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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