Has 5e succeeded in emphasizing Rulings, Not Rules

fearsomepirate · October 02, 2018, 11:14:16 AM

Quote from: Daztur;1058476It's also about not going out of your way to make rules that don't require any GM adjudication. My acid test for this is the command spell. IIRC in 3.5ed and 4ed you couldn't make up any verb you wanted because that would require the GM to have to adjudicate what the monster would do if you told them something strange. Which is bullshit. That's pretty much my acid test right now for whether an edition of D&D is worth playing or not.

Here's my acid test:
1. D&D won't survive if middle school boys won't play it
2. Middle school boys won't play a game if mind control spells won't let you force a monster to shit its pants

S'mon · October 02, 2018, 11:55:10 AM

Quote from: fearsomepirate;1058683Here's my acid test:
1. D&D won't survive if middle school boys won't play it
2. Middle school boys won't play a game if mind control spells won't let you force a monster to shit its pants

It is true that my 11 year old would rather be playing an M-U in BECM Classic D&D and wreaking havoc. He'll settle for 'balanced' 5e, but we've been playing Swords & Wizardry recently where to much rejoicing his MU-4 just destroyed an entire enemy fleet.

Hemlock · October 02, 2018, 01:25:40 PM

Quote from: S'mon;1058690It is true that my 11 year old would rather be playing an M-U in BECM Classic D&D and wreaking havoc. He'll settle for 'balanced' 5e, but we've been playing Swords & Wizardry recently where to much rejoicing his MU-4 just destroyed an entire enemy fleet.

What happened?

S'mon · October 02, 2018, 06:35:16 PM

Quote from: Hemlock;1058701What happened?

Playing Melan/Gabor Lux's The Barbarian King, he (Generik the Wizard) gained a one-use Control Winds power from a Druidic standing stone. He had earlier acquired a carpet of flying in the office of a Modron official who (the Modron sourcebook notes) doesn't know what it is, but I gave his M-U a Save to detect magic from it - he did & bought the 'rug' for 50gp.
Returning to Modron from the valley of the barbarian kings, Generik & Sigurd the Skandik saw the (evil) Skandik fleet sailing up the Roglaroon. Two invisibility spells on MU & carpet = flying invisible Generik creating a hurricane-force wind over the Skandik fleet.

RPGPundit · October 04, 2018, 04:56:32 AM

I would agree in principle, and yet 5e has caused a revival of interest in D&D in the youth demographic.

selfdeleteduser00001 · October 04, 2018, 06:00:53 AM

Yuppity yup

fearsomepirate · October 04, 2018, 10:51:57 AM

Quote from: S'mon;1058690It is true that my 11 year old would rather be playing an M-U in BECM Classic D&D and wreaking havoc. He'll settle for 'balanced' 5e, but we've been playing Swords & Wizardry recently where to much rejoicing his MU-4 just destroyed an entire enemy fleet.

I was citing this as a successful example of 5e. Command in 5e is just a single word. It gives examples, not an exhaustive list. If I were 11, I would certainly be commanding monsters to "poop." However, as I am old and mature, I prefer instead to order the monsters to "defecate."

RPGPundit · October 11, 2018, 06:02:21 AM

The kids who played in my gonzo DCC campaign really loved being spellcasters. I think that the twist on the normal vancian magic, where you roll to see if your spell works (and how well it works) and get to keep casting a spell until you fail a check, worked really well for them.