Re: (TFT) DND 5th edition. The lipstick on the pig paradigm.

[Joe Hartley <jh@brainiac.com>]

On Wed, 28 Mar 2012 17:05:35 -0400
Joel BoardgameRpger <joel.siragher@gmail.com> wrote:
> Im not doing it. Im not. I already have the other 4 editions. First edition
> works just fine. Its elegant and its got depth.
> 
> In the last half year ive sunk (using fingers to figure it out) 60 hours on
> dnd 1st edition, and now I play tft twice a week.
> 
> I cant think of a reason to try dnd 5th.

WotC is essentially in the same boat as Microsoft with Word, in some 
ways.  They had a core product which was very usable, and have kept 
adding to it in ways that may or may not be good in order to have a
new product to push to the customers.  By the time Word 97 came out,
you pretty much had everything you'd need in a word processor in that
program.  But MS wouldn't sell any upgrades if they said "that's it,
we're done" so there are things in there that no more than .01% of
the user base will ever need, and you had a gratuitous user interface
change that really isn't any better than the previous UI, but is
different.

(A)DnD keeps changing, adding rules, and even changing much of the
underlying system at times.  Some of this is done from a desire to 
make the game better, but we've also seen pure marketing at work at
times in its history.

As I've said numerous times since I started this list, my beef with the
DnD variations has been that they turn into roll-playing games rather
than role-playing games.  I've always liked TFT for the simplicity of
its abstraction of both physical and magical combat.

Some folks over the years have modified the TFT rules to add things like
more realistic combat, basing hit points on where a blow may have landed
and that sort of thing.  It's never been of interest to me, because I
really like the TFT  battle mechanics.  They're simple, but not *too*
simple, and the game moves along without bogging down in some of the
marathon sessions I've seen where the DM is rolling dice for a half-hour
or more in a single confrontation.

This was even an issue in the DnD community, with the early dichotomy
of basic and Advanced DnD.  I know a number of people who still play DnD,
but more and more they seem to either remain in earlier editions or 
move to a simpler system, like Brett mentioned.

-- 
======================================================================
       Joe Hartley - UNIX/network Consultant - jh@brainiac.com
 Without deviation from the norm, "progress" is not possible. - FZappa
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