Mechanics of 5e don't reinforce its heroic fantasy, one of the issues Draw Steel aims to solve. So I ask thee @mattcolville.bsky.social : what if a TTRPG was built bottom-up from those same D&D 5e mechanics? What would that look like? Is that even a productive exercise? - ThreadSky

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ceison.bsky.social • 1 day ago

Mechanics of 5e don't reinforce its heroic fantasy, one of the issues Draw Steel aims to solve. So I ask thee @mattcolville.bsky.social : what if a TTRPG was built bottom-up from those same D&D 5e mechanics?
What would that look like? Is that even a productive exercise?

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jesteroc.bsky.social•22 hours ago

I don’t get your question. If a system was built bottom up on 5e mechanics you would get 5e. Or did you mean something else?

ceison.bsky.social•22 hours ago

Call of Cthulhu reinforces "cosmic horror", its mechanics make you feel powerless and eventually insane. Matt argued that D&D 5e mechanics don't match its premise of "heroic fantasy". I ask: what feelings could these mechanics evoke instead, starting from the ground up?

jonassilveira.bsky.social•19 hours ago

I think 5e is at its best at survival dungeoncrawling in the early levels, so what you might get would be something like Shadowdark.

jesteroc.bsky.social•22 hours ago

But CoC. was designed to get you that feel. D&D felt simulationist because it was built from a wartime simulation mindset. 5e was designed to feel like that with a bit of streamlining. So that is what you get. Simple generic oatmeal fantasy.

jesteroc.bsky.social•22 hours ago

You seem to be saying. Take these core building blocks and use these to build a RPG. Well if that is all you will do then you will get the same RPG in my mind.
The better question would be what does 5e accomplish, then starting from scratch are there better rules to accomplish the same thing

ceison.bsky.social•22 hours ago

That's exactly the feedback I hoped to get! I'd argue that "a new coat of paint" (and a couple of tweaks, maybe) could also do the job. Or maybe I should just play Draw Steel

ceison.bsky.social•22 hours ago

Aaand that's why I'm wondering if mine is a fruitful undertaking! Probably not, but fun to me nonetheless!

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