Here's one of the most interesting sentences regarding the rules of the game from the Introduction.
"As with any other set of miniature rules they are guidelines to follow in designing your own fantastic-medieval campaign. They provide the framework around which you will build a game of simplicity or tremendous complexity - your time and imagination are about the only limiting factors, and the fact that you have purchased these rules tends to indicate that there is no lack of imagination - the fascination of the game will tend to make participants find more and more time." (emphasis added).
I don't believe that many modern games are intended to be guidelines that the players build upon. Certainly not 3e or 4e from WOTC. I enjoy both of those games...under some very specific conditions, but the rules are not presented as a framework or guidelines to build upon and both are already "tremendously" complex.
Here's another sentence that just rocked my brain.
"Number of Players: At least one referee and from four to fifty players can be handled in any single campaign, but the referee to player ratio should be about 1:20 or thereabouts." (emphasis added, underlining original).
Two things. The first is, I haven't seen the term "Dungeon Masters", they use the term referee. I'm not sure that is significant, but may lend some idea of what the DMs actual role is intended to be.
Second, The number of recommended players is staggering. The most I've ever 'refereed' in a single game was about 10 or 12 and it nearly killed me. We we're playing 2e, but still. I cannot imagine the complexity of a 20 player 3e or 4e game. Think about that. The 4e XP budget for 20 1st level characters is 2000. That's a level 13 monster as a solo. An encounter would take hours and much of it would be players waiting for their turn.
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| It was a great session, we almost finished rolling initiative. |
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| bask in the glory of the first D&D campaign map |
Going back to the "Referee" job, here are the steps OD&D has for preparing for the Campaign.
1. Draw out a minimum of half a dozen maps of the levels of his "underworld".
2. People them with monsters of various horrid aspect, distribute treasures accordingly, and note the location of the latter two on keys, each corresponding to the appropriate level.
3. Allow the players to make their first descent into the dungeons beneath the "huge ruined pile, a vast castle built by generations of mad wizards and insane geniuses".
Really? That's it? That's all? I don't need a shiny plot line more than "crazy dudes made a thing, it's all run down now...go wreck that thing". Seriously? The whole thing is a paragraph long. the 3.5 DMG "Running a Game Session" section is 8 pages long, two columns. Tremendous complexity perhaps?
The whole classes section is somewhat familiar and immensely frustrating. Why can't dwarves be magic-users or clerics? grumble, hiss. Why are they limited to 6th level? grrrr. Why can't elves be clerics? limited to 4th level fighting-men and 8th level magic-user? ugh. The text even seems to wonder why anyone would want to play a halfling.
Alignment has no good/evil axis. Just Law, Neutrality, and Chaos...but really Law kinda equals good and Chaos kinda equals evil.
I'm in love with how simple the spells descriptions are. For comparison (and yes, hinting back to "tremendous complexity"), here is the entire description of Detect Magic from OD&D.
Detect Magic: A spell to determine if there has been some enchantment laid on a person, place, or thing. It has a limited range and short duration. It is useful, for example, to discover if some item is magical, a door has been "held" or "wizard locked", etc.Here's the 3.5 SRD for the same spell.
Detect Magic
Divination
You detect magical auras. The amount of information revealed depends on how long you study a particular area or subject.
Level: Brd 0, Clr 0, Drd 0, Sor/Wiz 0 Components: V, S Casting Time: 1 standard action Range: 60 ft. Area: Cone-shaped emanation Duration: Concentration, up to 1 min./level (D) Saving Throw: None Spell Resistance: No
1st Round
Presence or absence of magical auras.
2nd Round
Number of different magical auras and the power of the most potent aura.
3rd Round
The strength and location of each aura. If the items or creatures bearing the auras are in line of sight, you can make Spellcraft skill checks to determine the school of magic involved in each. (Make one check per aura; DC 15 + spell level, or 15 + half caster level for a nonspell effect.)
Magical areas, multiple types of magic, or strong local magical emanations may distort or conceal weaker auras.
Aura Strength
An aura’s power depends on a spell’s functioning spell level or an item’s caster level. If an aura falls into more than one category, detect magic indicates the stronger of the two.
Lingering Aura
Spell or Object Aura Power Faint Moderate Strong Overwhelming Functioning spell (spell level) 3rd or lower 4th-6th 7th-9th 10th+ (deity-level) Magic item (caster level) 5th or lower 6th-11th 12th-20th 21st+ (artifact)
A magical aura lingers after its original source dissipates (in the case of a spell) or is destroyed (in the case of a magic item). If detect magic is cast and directed at such a location, the spell indicates an aura strength of dim (even weaker than a faint aura). How long the aura lingers at this dim level depends on its original power:
Outsiders and elementals are not magical in themselves, but if they are summoned, the conjuration spell registers.
Original Strength Duration of Lingering Aura Faint 1d6 rounds Moderate 1d6 minutes Strong 1d6×10 minutes Overwhelming 1d6 days
Each round, you can turn to detect magic in a new area. The spell can penetrate barriers, but 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt blocks it.
Detect magic can be made permanent with a permanency spell.
I give you, Tremendous Complexity.
Interesting note. The 3.5 player's handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master's Guide (cover-to-cover) are 964 pages. OD&D is 116 between the first 3 booklets and 8th of the length. I'd love to see 5e ripped down to 'guidelines', 'framework', and fit in under 150 pages. That would be groovy.
I think alot of the complexity you are seeing is the result of GM's who aren't able to make the hard calls of a referee.
ReplyDeleteThe first tabletop game I played... didn't even have a book, it was all done off the cuff from the memory of one scout. So the play was much more like the old text adventures than many modern games, you formulated what you wanted to try and the GM told you the result. Now when you have players that don't know the rules, you get some pretty interesting actions taken that an experienced player wouldn't do. But those make for great story/memories that others do not.
I had a similar experience.
DeleteThe alteration of the role of DM is a common criticism of 3.X and 4e. There is a rule for just about everything and the DM is often expected to know it. There are relatively few places where it is left up to the DM.
I'm not sure if that was intended to 'help' less skilled DMs or just simply the designers writing their methods of adjudicating common issues. Doesn't matter.
Regardless, it's unnecessary. The 'problem' is self-correcting without the extra rules. I'm not convinced they improve a poor DM or that they help a good one. I challenge a poor DM will simply not have players (eventually) and a good one doesn't need them.
Example: I knew nothing of magic items and my low level character found a stack of un-identified wands. A more experienced me would have gone to great lengths to preserve their casts and identify them properly. Young nearly 20 years ago me? Nah I would just whip a random one out and point it at anything that seemed interesting. Big monster, random wand, fluffy bunny.... random wand. Monster got dazzling colors... bunny got massive fireball.
ReplyDeleteThere is something entertaining about early and immature actions that people take. While fun, it's not something that lasts. We all eventually figure out how to approach situations that are more effective in any game.
DeleteI've run entire games that basically revolved around the insanity that is 2e's Deck of Many Things. Not real plot or anything, just draw the next card, hope you didn't die.
That kind of crazy pointless stuff is fun sometimes, but it has a very short shelf-life. Pretty quick people are going to look for more. As adults, it rarely works very long.
I encourage it, if the group and campaign are set up for that kind of jump-the-shark stuff. But once it dominates the game, the campaign's lifespan begins to shorten. That's not always a bad thing though.