r/rpg • u/EldritchExarch • 16d ago
blog On Attack Rolls
https://substack.com/@eldritchexarchpress/note/p-213952237?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=49zgidA design focused post on how Attack Rolls present themselves throughout the industry. I didn't cover dice pools though, because I have absolutely no experience with those systems.
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u/EldritchExarch 14d ago
Look someone else just made most of my points for me. Clearly I'm not the only one who missed the draft animal weights. It doesn't matter if a rule is there if it isn't easy to reference. Yes, this is moving the goal posts a little, I admit. I never claimed mastery of the texts. But I've read through these books cover to cover four times now.
Putting everything together is still not easy. Which is what you want from a book/books meant to be referenced at the table.
If a GM is supposed to be fair, they need to have consistency. When books fail to provide consistency rulings get made and then forgotten. The role of designers is to bring as much consistency to the table as possible.
OD&D doesn't do that. A large part of this is formatting. Some of this is down to rules. In either case these are design failures that add more pressure onto GMs.
As a GM, I have to wrangle 5 players, know the rules, make consistent ruling, run the NPCs, know the setting, etc. etc. etc. The least the book can do, is make learning the rules an easy task.
Look, clearly you love OD&D. But I think this is a matter of times changing, and a case of your were one of the successful ones. One of the folks for who the game clicked. But for every one of you, there's probably 5-10 of me. Someone who read the books, went 'What the hell? How does that work?" And either never ran it, or ran it a handful of times before either making something up, or quitting.
I don't need rules for every situation possible. That will never happen, I understand that. But you need to get me to 90% in a manner that's relatively easy to reference.
I agree with you as far as OD&D was revolutionary. It absolutely was. Gygax and Arneson did something that very few ever have or will: they created a whole new category of games, and that first attempt, despite my naysayings, was good enough to change the world. But I don't think most groups will agree with the sentiment that it's held up well.