Mearls wrote:You don't want to just declare that your character used to be the cook from the king's court, you wanted the skill bonus to back up that claim. If D&D is going to quantify combat prowess, it should quantify noncombat actions, if not as well, at least to some degree. A valid expectation.
No cocksucker i do NOT want some skill bonus, because i dont even want a skill system to begin with.
the reason D&D quantifies combat is because it is something ALL must agree on how to resolve. it unifies all games when that cleric couldn't use a "battleaxe".
yes, after 6 articles you are in love with skill-systems. the problem is they dont help. the character becomes just a thing on the sheet to track with such things as opposed to a person in the world that the player experiences through that character.
How many ranks of "underwater basket weaving" do you want Mearls?
There is no way to make a working economy for the game that everyone will agree upon, because the game cannot design every town for every game. every NPC wont be some part in a larger overall machine that works based on some formula. this right here, as proven by WBL, means you cant really have a skill system either as most of the skills deal with the economy.
cooking is what people do when they are hungry or want money. you dont need even a simple skill system to cook food in the game because everyone should already be able to cook something to eat. special bonuses to health and such are what magic is for, not some masterful cooked meal that thinks it is magical and restores more health. just make it a meal created by magic.
still does Mearls know what D&D is about?
Mearls wrote:the key words there really are "for that game."
the problem is that many people dont sit down with beer and pretzels and just want to play a game, they want an emersive world, but not a simulationist one. they want SoD and verisimilitude, not just something "for the game".
number in the real world dont have to make sense "for the game" so AC used to be lower numbers are better. in the game it still works because the numbers cannot be seen.
healing surges are "for the game", but the problem is that when playing the game, they dont make sense to people and are innate magical means to heal.
you cant do this "for the game", you need to make sure the game is "for the players", and remember that skills or other subsystems have to be able to work on the broad scale and not remove people "from the game". when those subsystems cannot be made sense of, you have done something wrong. when the function doesnt work "in the game" when played, you have done something wrong.
There's a reason that 4E's "everything is Core" idea is meaningless garbage.
