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Message: <blockquote data-quote="nedjer" data-source="post: 5346844" data-attributes="member: 83796">The 3 Level Starter Set remains the 3 Level Starter Set because it leads directly to brand dummification/ dependency.Long, long ago all we had was a 3 Level Starter Set and the PH was several months away from the UK. So we built on what was there by extending the basics. 4th -7th level followed with a growing realisation that one little book could template an entire RPG.As with 1-3, this made for a game where players still didn't have enough spells, nifty skills and magic items to dispatch anything more than a few orcs unless they were prepared to come up with solutions from outwith the rule set, e.g. the magic missile wasn't going to take out six stirges, but those fishing nets and some bait could fix them good. Play was a) exciting b) fast and c) interpretive.This was blown out of the water, in turn, by the PH and DMG. Instead of reaching for novel solutions everyone reached for the manual and then began the dummification. No more netting and cooking crunchy stirges. Just, fireball, that's them obliterated and what's the next monster I can use the rule set to beat up on.The think 'horse' was placed behind the grind 'cart' and before long players, (who'd been sweating it over a couple of trolls), were power-gaming, win-mentality, optimal advancement, rules-lawyering fiends. So much so that one group went from playing 5th-6th level to taking on Demigorgon in a matter of weeks. (Of course they 'won').The 3 Level Starter Set, therefore, avoids the 'danger' that players will realise that they can go their own way with relative ease, and that a lot of the most exciting play results from loosen and tightening the reins, instead of simply lashing everything down.Unsurprisingly, publishers live in fear of the 5 or 7 Level Starter Set, as players would get used to being more interpretive and improvisational, have longer to decide whether or not to invest in manuals, and be far better placed to switch systems or design their own extensions.For a large publisher, the profitable approach is seen (mistakenly) as double-dummification, where the combination of rules (as litany) and brand (as prophet) mesmerises the otherwise intelligent player into believing that yet another manual actually adds more to the game than they could add by themselves.So, when was the last time you told a player she/ he could try out their new tattoist-pitfighter sub-class, or chucked a rainbow phase spider into play with adaptive defenses, or let your players discuss the best way to cook a stirge with the orcs who consider them a rare delicacy worth the effort of trading? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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