That's definitely a huge issue with D&D. I often feel WoTC is cargo-culting elements from earlier iterations of D&D without understanding the point of them. I find the OSR has sometimes been useful in examining and explaining what is/was the point of hex-based mapping in early D&D. 5e in particular is often in a weird halfway house where it includes elements from various iterations in a mish-mash that doesn't work well together, and those elements only partially developed - 1e random encounter charts plus 3e/4e style challenge-based encounter-building, say, or random treasure table but no treasure-by-monster-type simulation. I find I have to pick & discard elements to get the game I want (a game I really like), whereas Moldvay-Cook Classic or 4e D&D both work as written and only break if you try to use them for something different (eg my initial attempt at a sandbox 4e game).
Saturday, 20 June 2015
Derived Forms
Uqbarian wrote: the issue of derived forms often adopting the trappings of their antecedents without recognising their structural functions.
That's definitely a huge issue with D&D. I often feel WoTC is cargo-culting elements from earlier iterations of D&D without understanding the point of them. I find the OSR has sometimes been useful in examining and explaining what is/was the point of hex-based mapping in early D&D. 5e in particular is often in a weird halfway house where it includes elements from various iterations in a mish-mash that doesn't work well together, and those elements only partially developed - 1e random encounter charts plus 3e/4e style challenge-based encounter-building, say, or random treasure table but no treasure-by-monster-type simulation. I find I have to pick & discard elements to get the game I want (a game I really like), whereas Moldvay-Cook Classic or 4e D&D both work as written and only break if you try to use them for something different (eg my initial attempt at a sandbox 4e game).
That's definitely a huge issue with D&D. I often feel WoTC is cargo-culting elements from earlier iterations of D&D without understanding the point of them. I find the OSR has sometimes been useful in examining and explaining what is/was the point of hex-based mapping in early D&D. 5e in particular is often in a weird halfway house where it includes elements from various iterations in a mish-mash that doesn't work well together, and those elements only partially developed - 1e random encounter charts plus 3e/4e style challenge-based encounter-building, say, or random treasure table but no treasure-by-monster-type simulation. I find I have to pick & discard elements to get the game I want (a game I really like), whereas Moldvay-Cook Classic or 4e D&D both work as written and only break if you try to use them for something different (eg my initial attempt at a sandbox 4e game).
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