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Message: <blockquote data-quote="reanjr" data-source="post: 1958160" data-attributes="member: 20740">I don't want Wizards assuming something about how my campaign works.  This is for things like [Good] and [Evil] descriptors, the fact that magic must be prepared, that wands are designed to hold multiple charges of a single spell, that there is a single language all evil outsiders share, that my campaign involves extraplanar locations, etc.I'd also like a better toolbox approach.  The current approach is to have a drill available at one store, while the bits are available at another, the power adapter at a third, and the bolts only available by mail order.I'd rather see packages of rules that could be chosen for a particular campaign to create a certain flavor.  For example, if one were to do this with spells:You might have a core spell list, another one including spells that were flashy (in case you would like an invisible magic system), a small set for teleportation magic, another one for uber-divination spells, etc.  Each of these spells would have a difficulty and a list of optional material components to decrease the difficulty if you would like to use that rule.  May of them would have variations which increased or decreased the difficulty (I've heard Arcana Unearthed has something like this, but from what I've seen, I'm thinking a bit more elaborate, like sleep being the same spell as nightmare).No assumption would be made about how spells are learned, prepared, or cast.  There would be no read magic, because magic might be able to be read by all or there may be no written form, or it may simply require years of study (a feat).  They would not have a level because then you are telling me how they are cast and prepared.  The magic system I choose will detail how to treat the difficulty levels, caster levels, DCs, etc.Every subsystem of the game (armor, weapons, combat maneuvers, class abilities, hit points and dying, etc.) would have similar option packages with information on how to integrate them.  The hit points and dying rules might have the healing spells in them, for instance.  You wouldn't find them on the core list because they may not apply to the game as you play it.This is not as hard as it may seem at first.  I'm working on something right now that integrates many of these ideas, though mine isn't designed for a class system.Campaign Settings could give you a 1 page brief on which rules packages define the setting.I also want to see more book integration, and better reference design principles.  If I get a book detailing new skills, I want it retrofitted with all the other books you've produced so far, not just the books that are supposed to have temporal synergestic marketing (Expanded Psionics Handbook and Eberron for instance).  This would have an added benefit of making the books more focused on their topic and giving us an extra assurance that the developers actually have read the rules of the game they are working on (not something I'm too sure about sometimes).  Since everything is in packages, errata for something never needs to appear for multiple books.  Just the book the rule came from.  I want a set of icons that quickly sets off what I am looking at.  If I am reading a spell that is designed to work with the traditional hit point subsystem, I want there to be an icon that indicates that this spells use is determined by choice of health system.  Or have the spell have the icon bullet off the sections that apply to each health system.Basically I want a game that I couldn't produce due to its absolute polish and integration.  Something I would never have the time to do.  Because otherwise, why wouldn't I just do it myself?And I want books that have an organizational level that exceeds that of the Word documents sitting on my hard drive.  Because I can take those any time, mark them up with a bit of XML and get a reference that is leaps and bounds beyond anything Wizards has ever produced.Why is it that I have the tools and time to do these things and they don't?  I want a 4e that can answer that question.</blockquote>

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