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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8667530" data-attributes="member: 82106">Right, the problem that arose with that was the old 'nothing works with anything else' problem. So, for example you can't make a magic item in AD&amp;D that adds to your to-hit and your initiative roll, because for some unfathomable reason they use different sized dice. If you have a part of the game that is basically not using formal mechanics, then you obviously cannot apply anything of that sort to it at all! I mean, how do you handle 'Charm Person' in classic D&amp;D? There are as many ways as their are DMs! The crazy part with AD&amp;D was, it HAS a set of social rules, reaction tables, morale, obedience, etc. but it doesn't interact with any spells whatsoever! (maybe the DMG lists a modifier or two for specific spells, I don't recall OTTOMH). 4e shows the true power of the opposite, you can basically describe any sort of possible fictional effect using its mechanical 'language' to make it function in the process of play. I mean, I'm not averse to the argument that &quot;no rules are best for X&quot; particularly, but I have little regard for the notion that very different rules work well for different things. You gotta cross a pretty high bar to convince me that's for the best in any given case. I mean, in terms of D&amp;D's just rolling different dice in every situation, FEH! Every toss of dice can be translated to some probability, and all probabilities have a common scale, and can generally translate pretty well to things like a d20. This is really fundamentally why when I wrote my own game, I just stuck to the basic d20 format, it just works, there's very little point to other formats.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 8667530, member: 82106"] Right, the problem that arose with that was the old 'nothing works with anything else' problem. So, for example you can't make a magic item in AD&D that adds to your to-hit and your initiative roll, because for some unfathomable reason they use different sized dice. If you have a part of the game that is basically not using formal mechanics, then you obviously cannot apply anything of that sort to it at all! I mean, how do you handle 'Charm Person' in classic D&D? There are as many ways as their are DMs! The crazy part with AD&D was, it HAS a set of social rules, reaction tables, morale, obedience, etc. but it doesn't interact with any spells whatsoever! (maybe the DMG lists a modifier or two for specific spells, I don't recall OTTOMH). 4e shows the true power of the opposite, you can basically describe any sort of possible fictional effect using its mechanical 'language' to make it function in the process of play. I mean, I'm not averse to the argument that "no rules are best for X" particularly, but I have little regard for the notion that very different rules work well for different things. You gotta cross a pretty high bar to convince me that's for the best in any given case. I mean, in terms of D&D's just rolling different dice in every situation, FEH! Every toss of dice can be translated to some probability, and all probabilities have a common scale, and can generally translate pretty well to things like a d20. This is really fundamentally why when I wrote my own game, I just stuck to the basic d20 format, it just works, there's very little point to other formats. [/QUOTE]

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