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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6066435" data-attributes="member: 2067">There's quibbles, but I think we're pretty much on the same page as long as you agree that I can find 4e combats more fiddly than previous e combats and not be disingenuous or insulting. <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=";)" />I think this kind of interfaces with branding and how people tie up intimately with "D&D" in a way that they don't with other brands, but I don't see any reason we need external gatekeepers to tell us when "D&D" ends and when some other game begins. Is d20 Call of Cthulu D&D? How about [notranslate]Pathfinder[/notranslate]? OSRIC? Mutants and Masterminds? Gamma World? Birthright? Adventurer Conqueror King? For me, the answer to that is: "Well, is it D&D to you? Then it's D&D. Even if it's Star Wars d6."I don't think anyone needs to cut down strict dividing lines. In a lot of ways, it's like putting down strict dividing lines in genre. Is Star Wars space opera? Sci fi? Science-Fantasy? Is this kind of music post-punk, post-rock, indie, noise-fusion, instrumental, or experimental? Well, it's a subjective, academic distinction that has no real authority outside of an individual's understanding. Elegance is overrated, IMO. If you want an elegant game mechanic, flip a coin. The way to capture attention and to initiate flow is to have complexity with significance in areas that you're interested in, and to have the game constantly turning you back to those areas. Since different people are interested in different areas, there's no one-size-fits-all solution. Some folks are interested when combats are quick and deadly. Some folks are interested when combats are cinematic and tactical. Some folks want one for one game and one for the other. There doesn't need to be an authority pronouncing one or the other to be What D&D Is. It can be up to the individual table.Aye, that's true. At the same time, some folks like those unified mechanics, others don't. I think it's a feature of there being different kinds of players with different needs. I'm a homebrew machine, you can't STOP me from tinkering with rules. But not everyone is. Some folks would rather get a book on roleplaying in fantasy Africa than to have to research African myths and legends and compose unique classes and abilities themselves. Personally, I'd rather pay someone who is already smart about those things to make game rules for me than have to make them myself, just as I'd rather pay someone to make me a chair than go harvest and chop and sand the wood myself and make a chair. Kinda. I'd probably package it a little differently, but that's what it'd be. I'd package it as a basic fantasy game for anyone who wants to pretend to be an elf for a few hours on a Saturday afternoon (ie: include a simple skeleton of rules that is stripped-down, basic D&D: fighter/wizard/cleric/dwarf/elf/human, GO), combined with a bunch of pages of extra options (ie: include the most common additions that people will want: halflings, gnomes, dragonborn, paladins, thieves, warlocks), and maybe even some more advanced options just to see what's possible (tweaking hp, tweaking how common magic items are, tweaking the magic system) in the DM's guide. And in that book would be the basic core rules and math that any DM could use to tweak their games for their own tables...and, ideally, that any potential publisher could use to make their rule systems for others to gather up if they choose.</blockquote>

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