maxinstuff
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Post by maxinstuff on Nov 7, 2016 13:45:20 GMT -8
Designers are not some mythical god. They don't have some secret knowledge. All the great ones started out with the same exact idea in their head. "I like this game, but this rule here doesn't really work for me. I think I can do it better." But they have also applied a lot of time, effort, and in many cases experience too.
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Post by ayslyn on Nov 7, 2016 14:15:01 GMT -8
Designers are not some mythical god. They don't have some secret knowledge. All the great ones started out with the same exact idea in their head. "I like this game, but this rule here doesn't really work for me. I think I can do it better." But they have also applied a lot of time, effort, and in many cases experience too. At the time they started? The same can be argued about any field. New ideas from people who haven't been blinded by "what works" spark innovation in every field all the time. The designers that I know personally would all tell you to start tinkering and quit kvetching.
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maxinstuff
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Posts: 1,939
Preferred Game Systems: DCC RPG, Shadowrun 5e, Savage Worlds, GURPS 4e, HERO 6e, Mongoose Traveller
Favorite Species of Monkey: Proboscis
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Post by maxinstuff on Nov 7, 2016 15:56:47 GMT -8
The designers that I know personally would all tell you to start tinkering and quit kvetching. Ok, and now I get selfish - why tinker when plenty of people are doing such good jobs of it already Sounds like something that would take time away from prepping/playing games.
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Post by ayslyn on Nov 7, 2016 18:09:31 GMT -8
The designers that I know personally would all tell you to start tinkering and quit kvetching. Ok, and now I get selfish - why tinker when plenty of people are doing such good jobs of it already Sounds like something that would take time away from prepping/playing games. Now you're just moving the goalposts. ^.^ This is my position on the matter. If you want to house rule, do so. If you want to play RAW, do so. Just don't let "I'm not good enough," be your excuse.
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maxinstuff
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Posts: 1,939
Preferred Game Systems: DCC RPG, Shadowrun 5e, Savage Worlds, GURPS 4e, HERO 6e, Mongoose Traveller
Favorite Species of Monkey: Proboscis
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Post by maxinstuff on Nov 7, 2016 20:40:02 GMT -8
Now you're just moving the goalposts. ^.^ What can I say, I'm a lazy gamer
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Post by uncommonman on Nov 8, 2016 7:35:10 GMT -8
It would be interesting to have a list of house rules people use and more so a list of what rules people use in systems with optional rules (Gurps etc.)
I wonder what conclusion could be drawn from this information.
Example:
DnD critical hits.
I can imagine a large percent of all groups use some kind of house ruling for this.
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Post by Kainguru on Nov 8, 2016 7:52:05 GMT -8
It would be interesting to have a list of house rules people use and more so a list of what rules people use in systems with optional rules (Gurps etc.) I wonder what conclusion could be drawn from this information. Example: DnD critical hits. I can imagine a large percent of all groups use some kind of house ruling for this. The old ADnD 2e Players Options. Fantastic crit hit tables including one for offensive spell effects. Aaron
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2016 1:16:15 GMT -8
Designers are not some mythical god. They don't have some secret knowledge. All the great ones started out with the same exact idea in their head. "I like this game, but this rule here doesn't really work for me. I think I can do it better." But they have also applied a lot of time, effort, and in many cases experience too. And unless you talk to them, you will likely never know what their intentions were. It is true that RAW is the game that is universally understood as 'X'. You can learn something of the game designer by playing the game, but that only takes you so far. What is great about some titles is that they give you guiding principles for their games. "Say yes or roll" is a great example. The idea of 'better' is a hard one to quantify. Better for whom? Unless you know the goal of the game (which is where design goals and talking to the designers comes in handy) you can't make a better version of 'x'. Instead, you can only make a different version of 'x'. Some people may hail it as better or worse, but if you have no set goal posts there can be no better.
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Post by Yeoman Colubris on Nov 23, 2016 8:26:36 GMT -8
In my experience, how much to house rule really comes down to the social contract. It's part of the "which game do we play" and "lines and veils" conversations. The rules extensively serve the setting & how the game feels. If you want to play the Setting As Written (SAW) it behooves you to play RAW unless you find something actually broken or unavailable in the RAW. If you want a slightly different setting (darker, magical-er, action-y-er), some of the rules might need tweaking. That's not saying the rules are broken, it's that you and your group are trying to accomplish something specific. There is a line of thinking that goes something like this: Once you start using a house rule, you are no longer playing the game that was written. You are saying something about the system is broken, or doesn't work, so you need to change what was written to make it work for you, but by definition, you are no longer officially playing that game. I agree that there is a certain threshold of changes where 5e stops being 5e and becomes something different, but I would argue that threshold is pretty high. Nobody says, "I don't play Monopoly, I use a free parking variant." It doesn't stop being Monopoly because of a rule change, but it may change some features of the game that everyone should be aware of.
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sbloyd
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Post by sbloyd on Nov 23, 2016 9:15:47 GMT -8
I never used Forgotten Realms totally RAW, because any rube could pick up the books and see everything.
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Post by joecrak on Nov 29, 2016 6:26:32 GMT -8
In my experience, how much to house rule really comes down to the social contract. It's part of the "which game do we play" and "lines and veils" conversations. The rules extensively serve the setting & how the game feels. If you want to play the Setting As Written (SAW) it behooves you to play RAW unless you find something actually broken or unavailable in the RAW. If you want a slightly different setting (darker, magical-er, action-y-er), some of the rules might need tweaking. That's not saying the rules are broken, it's that you and your group are trying to accomplish something specific. There is a line of thinking that goes something like this: Once you start using a house rule, you are no longer playing the game that was written. You are saying something about the system is broken, or doesn't work, so you need to change what was written to make it work for you, but by definition, you are no longer officially playing that game. I agree that there is a certain threshold of changes where 5e stops being 5e and becomes something different, but I would argue that threshold is pretty high. Nobody says, "I don't play Monopoly, I use a free parking variant." It doesn't stop being Monopoly because of a rule change, but it may change some features of the game that everyone should be aware of. And that opinion would change person to person. I'm just speaking from my experience talking to quite a few designers, who go in with the mindset and belief of: "The designer designed it to use these rules for a reason, and if I can just change the rules of the game on my own, then I'm not really playing the game." There's also the mindset of: "If I can change these rules, and it makes no difference to what was originally written, then that tells me the rules never mattered in the first place." System matters is a big thing for many designers.
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