I’m somewhat familiar with D&D, having played it a bit and read the rulebooks about 40 years ago and not since. So I recognised at once that Planecrash was set in a D&D-like world. The system of alignments, character classes, ability scores, and levels, and so on were familiar. I had never heard of Pathfinder but now know that it’s the specific D&D-like rules and world in which Planecrash is set. Beyond that I don’t care what the exact rules are (of Pathfinder or D&D).
From that point of view, are any of the defects you have in mind still recognisable as defects?
The story of the munchkin 2-year emperor is clearly a failure even for someone with no knowledge of the specific D&D rules that it violates. The fact that the author flouted several rules that were in the way of his plot just makes it worse, it turns it into tennis with the net down, but the plot as it stands was already pretty bad.
I’m somewhat familiar with D&D, having played it a bit and read the rulebooks about 40 years ago and not since. So I recognised at once that Planecrash was set in a D&D-like world. The system of alignments, character classes, ability scores, and levels, and so on were familiar. I had never heard of Pathfinder but now know that it’s the specific D&D-like rules and world in which Planecrash is set. Beyond that I don’t care what the exact rules are (of Pathfinder or D&D).
From that point of view, are any of the defects you have in mind still recognisable as defects?
The story of the munchkin 2-year emperor is clearly a failure even for someone with no knowledge of the specific D&D rules that it violates. The fact that the author flouted several rules that were in the way of his plot just makes it worse, it turns it into tennis with the net down, but the plot as it stands was already pretty bad.
Please see my reply to Eliezer for one example of the sort of thing I have in mind.