WotC WotC needs an Elon Musk

[Cordwainer Fish]

This thread got interesting, but has a headline with a horrible idea

And since it began the headline has been aging like athlete's foot.

 

[Micah Sweet]

No they aren't, that's the point. They can feel realistic to people who have never been in a fight to the death (which hopefully includes most of us), and to be fair how they feel is more important than actual realism anyway. But in an actual life or death struggle, your brain is very good at ignoring injuries that would impede you, so they tend to take you out of the fight entirely or do nothing - exactly what hp model.

The sole exception in general seems to be injuries which incapacitate a particular limb, denying you the use of that limb for the rest of the fight while not necessarily taking you right out of it. But scaling generalised penalties - not realistic in the slightest.

The problem is that in real life, after the fight all those injuries really start to affect you, and in 5e they don't. Maybe doing something with the fatigue/strife rules (or in vanilla 5e, exhaustion) would help with that.

 

[Micah Sweet]

given it is antithetical to fun fights I would recommend against it as d&d is supposed to be fun.

That is a matter of opinion. As I've said, plenty of games have had death spirals, and I don't recall them all being considered un-fun.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Agreed.

While there might have been a time D&D was assumed to involve risk mitigation, success though superior numbers and avoiding fights, those days have long been in the rearview of the game and it has instead been interested in high-flung action, bold decisions and resources that refresh quickly. It's the difference between a game where the PCs are assumed they won't directly engage their foes and one that does. In short, D&D rules have morphed based on how D&D is actually PLAYED.

Just because the game isn't about those things anymore doesn't mean they weren't fun. If that were true, we'd all be playing the same thing. Present game design is not always better, and different preferences are good.

 

[Nikosandros]

Just because the game isn't about those things anymore doesn't mean they weren't fun. If that were true, we'd all be playing the same thing. Present game design is not always better, and different preferences are good.

Indeed. And there are many, quite succesfull, OSR games that embrace risk mitigation as the MO of the players.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Indeed. And there are many, quite succesfull, OSR games that embrace risk mitigation as the MO of the players.

that does not mean that the majority of 5e player would like it, some people liking something is not hard we got over 8 billion we got plenty of people to like anything.

 

[codo]

D&D is not a reality simulator. Like almost all games that involve combat, it's a fiction simulator.

I think this is ultimately the source of 90% of the disagreements on this forum. People argue about different aspects of the game because they have a fundamentally different view of what the game should be. Is it trying to emulate reality, Tolkien, or Dragonball Z?

 

[Oofta]

I think this is ultimately the source of 90% of the disagreements on this forum. People argue about different aspects of the game because they have a fundamentally different view of what the game should be. Is it trying to emulate reality, Tolkien, or Dragonball Z?

The best thing about D&D is that it is not strictly designed to implement a specific style of fiction or genre. The worst thing about D&D is that it is not strictly designed to implement a specific style of fiction or genre.

D&D can do a fair range of different styles and I think it does a decent job, even if it means you may need to implement some optional rules from the DMG or make your own house rules. But at the same time it won't be as good as a game targeting a specific genre. That flexibility works for me, I'm wrapping up a dungeon-crawl based campaign and we just had an intro session to our next city/intrigue setting because some people couldn't make it. The games had a different feel, tone and goals but it's still D&D Which to me is a big benefit.

But it's probably not going to represent Tolkien style story as well as, say, The One Ring. I'm okay with that. After half a century D&D is kind of it's own genre.

 

[Nikosandros]

that does not mean that the majority of 5e player would like it, some people liking something is not hard we got over 8 billion we got plenty of people to like anything.

I made no claims about the majority of 5e player. I object to the idea that 5e way is better. It's simply different. Personally, I like variety and having different options.

 

[codo]

The best thing about D&D is that it is not strictly designed to implement a specific style of fiction or genre. The worst thing about D&D is that it is not strictly designed to implement a specific style of fiction or genre.

D&D can do a fair range of different styles and I think it does a decent job, even if it means you may need to implement some optional rules from the DMG or make your own house rules. But at the same time it won't be as good as a game targeting a specific genre. That flexibility works for me, I'm wrapping up a dungeon-crawl based campaign and we just had an intro session to our next city/intrigue setting because some people couldn't make it. The games had a different feel, tone and goals but it's still D&D Which to me is a big benefit.

But it's probably not going to represent Tolkien style story as well as, say, The One Ring. I'm okay with that. After half a century D&D is kind of it's own genre.

Being the first game out of the gate, and managing to become incredibly popular before it got any real competitors, led to D&D trying to be everything to everyone. Surprisingly it actually manages to do a pretty good job at it, if you are willing to use some optional rules and do a little tinkering.

I wonder if it would be a good idea for the new 1D&D DMG to have a set of different rules to support different playstyles. You could have a short section explaining some different playstyles for new DMs, and then have bundles of suggested optional rules to support the different playstyles.