D&D General Why Editions Don't Matter

[J.Quondam]

"System doesn't matter." Yeah. That's why we have dozens of variations, hundreds of spin-offs, and a bazillion threads where people will voluntarily die on their chosen hill time and again.

I'M NOT DEAD!! YOU'RE DEAD!!

 

[Jacob Lewis]

I'M NOT DEAD!! YOU'RE DEAD!!

 

[Vaalingrade]

Stands on hill, waving the Hero System flag, surrounded by the bodies of literally fives of his fellow Hero fans.

It is the superior system. Just a nightmare to run because, in it's largest flaw, NPCs are built like PCs. And what makes for a fun character creation, leads to days of literal worldbilding.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Days? Only days? You're not trying hard enough. ;-)

But in seriousness (what passes for serious when discussing gaming) this is what game supplements are for.

Also, I have a lot of spare time...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Stands on hill, waving the Hero System flag, surrounded by the bodies of literally fives of his fellow Hero fans.

View attachment 261936

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Late to the discussion, to me, system definitely matters. There are versions of D&D I will play or run. There are editions I will play but not run. There are versions I won’t play or run.

Part of it is mechanics I simply don’t care for. Some of it reflects my tastes and preferences in the characters I want to play these days.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The “rest” isn’t missing, it’s not needed. It doesn’t need to be the same from campaign to campaign, much less table to table!

You seriously want tables and mechanics for all of that? That doesn’t sound obnoxious and tiresome at all?

Stuff like that is why I despised 3.5 so much I stopped playing altogether for several years.

Either way, it isn’t any kind of evidence regarding how common it is to feel like the rules are “incomplete”. You’ve just shown that it’s possible that you see anything less than a game that would make GURPS GMs feel overwhelmed with detailed rules as “incomplete”.

Let’s just say I find that notion untenable.

You know, there is a level in between the two extremes you describe. A little more guidance in some parts of the game would be nice. I like tables and charts.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Scene framing has never existed in any form of DnD.

You are basically saying that no version of DnD is playable.

Oh, I don't know. There's at least a couple of posters here who talk about scene framing all the time in the context of 4e.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I think you might misunderstand me. I'm not saying I want more crunch, or that I'm uncomfortable making rulings, or that you're a bad wrong DM for doing so. I'm actually very comfortable making rulings and inventing stuff -- it's part of the fun of the game, for me.

What I'm saying is: I want to know when and under which circumstances to do these things. Like, here's some text from a game called Wanderhome, picked randomly from my folder of PDFs.
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This text explains how to start playing the game. It's a bit vague about who gets to say what (maybe a flaw, but whatever), but it's pretty clear that you start the game by establishing a scene as a group, and gives you some tools to do that.

In 5e, establishing the location is a DM's responsibility, I guess? I'm fine with that. How do I do that, though? Am I allowed to start my PCs in a jail cell with no stuff, or do they get some say in it? How do I decide if and when monsters attack? Can my players influence where we go in the next scene, or do they have to go where I tell them?

This is the kind of basic stuff I'm talking about when I say 'joining the dots'. Experienced DMs will have their own answers to these questions, but new ones often struggle.

To be fair, every pre-made adventure answers those questions.

 

[Yora]

Editions matter a lot. At least they do in D&D, where most editions are really completely different games.