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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 5951176" data-attributes="member: 22424">It depends how many dials, and how embedded they are in the system. I would point out that both 3e and 4e each provide one set of options, and in each case run to nearly 1,000 pages. How many more pages would it take to provide half a dozen dials, each with a number of settings, and have all the interactions between settings work?(And bear in mind that some of those options are likely to be quite intrusive. A "low magic" variant of 3e is practically an entirely different game. Now, of course 5e isn't 3e, so probably won't have the same issue with that variant. But by the same token, it's quite likely that there will be some variant that is a very significant rewrite - "all the dials set to zero" would seem a likely candidate, as would "all the dials set to max".)Well, in extreme cases...However, what is more likely is that people will look at yet another near-1,000 page monstrosity of a ruleset, and decide to pass sight-unseen. (I know, because I'm in exactly that category.) Eventually, the sheer weight of the system reaches a point where it's just not worth bothering with - because just doing all the reading required to understand the dials makes it more effort than just house-ruling 3e (or whatever their edition of choice is).And that's something 5e is up against. It's not good enough for it to be a good game, or even to be a great version of D&D. It needs to be "better enough" than 4e to convince the majority of 4e fans that they must switch, and "better enough" than 3e/PF to convince a large number of 3e/PF fans that they must switch, and "better enough" that pre-3e versions of the game to pull in a large number of fans of old editions. And the first hurdle lies in just getting all those groups to look at the game.That's absolutely not fair, it's probably an impossibly high bar... but it's also the reality that WotC have to content with.The 4e DM in our group was a massive fan of that system, to the extent where his enthusiasm was contagious, enough even to overcome my dislike. But he was eventually turned off by the game, precisely because of what he called "the sheer weight of the system" - the available set of options reached a point where it killed his interest in the game.Hard as it is to believe, more is not always better.</blockquote>

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