Monday, August 20, 2007

(Over?)simplifying rules

One of the parts of the 4th Edition teaser that really hit home was when they all had to go their books to look up the rules on grappling. Our group has done exactly that, on grappling and various other rules.

There are certainly rules that need to be simplified, or easier to commit to memory. We really enjoy that various combat options that are provided with 3.0/3.5, such as tripping, grappling, disarming, etc. but when they're not used often, they do cause a delay in play. The upcoming Rules Compendium sounds like it will at least provide all of these esoteric rules in one nice, convenient place, but one must wonder why they're releasing such a thing so close to the release of a new set of rules.

My worry, of course, is that they're going to make the game too simple. But where's the fine balance? Let's hope that Wizards of the Coast, being professional game designers, can find that balance.

1 comment:

Griff said...

Hopefully they'll simplify in terms of minimizing the number of die rolls and types of modifiers.

Grappling as an example has what? Five die rolls? More?

Then there are size modifiers, morale bonuses, circumstance, etc...

A little simplicity could be a good thing.