Opt-In Subsystems

Just a thought: maybe more complex rules should be presented as opt-in player options rather than as universal rules for all players, not all of whom will actually be interested in using them. I brought this up in my post about magic, that maybe only players whose characters have a certain feat would have the ability to spend HP to cast spells.

This has so many benefits: it makes complex subsystems opt-in, which is important when a ruleset doesn't use classes to partition player options; writing down a character special ability doubles as writing down what would otherwise be a rule; and it centers player choice rather than rulebook prescription, even opening the door to abilities and features unlisted.

So what else besides magic, which (like I said) has often been locked behind certain character classes for similar reasons as above, would also benefit from being similarly locked behind piecewise character features? How about variable weapon damage, however that would look? Collecting food from the wild? Crafting and alchemy? Again, just a thought! :)

Something else: in the comment section of the post above, Vladar brought up short ruleset called Into the Dungeon: Revived. Oh my God. This is so close to the ideal D&D in my head. Like, specifically my ideal D&D. It has five levels. Character powers are represented as feats, of which you get one per level. Like, that is it. I think there are still some bits I would handle differently or trim, but ITDR is so, so, so close to perfect that I am just so excited about it.

... Wait, as I was writing the above it turns out that Vladar IS the author of ITDR!! That is so cool. It's wonderful and all y'all should check it out! :))

Edit: Had to remove a Discord screenshot that I copied/pasted because Firefox pastes all images as big fucking 64-bit ones that lag the blog. But it’s me on 5/21 sharing a screenshot from ITDR and saying, “This exists already?!”