Looking back, the original articles are Tactics and Strategy have held up rather well. I'm happier with this updated three-part series than I was the original two-part one. It flows better and I think stating the definitions I was using up front is an improvement.
While the concepts haven't changed in 6 years, the examples I used have to a degree. D&D 4E in particular made a number of significant design changes that I feel merits note.
Amoung these changes was reducing its Resource Management (gone are spell slots and from the designer statements there's a reduction in expendable magic support) and increasing its Maneuver through a number of movement and position related abilities. Additionally an attempt to make its Pace of Decision more constant across the levels of character advancement was made.
As the articles should make clear, such changes should seriously altered the play of the game. And the online reaction has reflected the reality of this. The move towards Maneuver has increased the importance of battlemaps and minis, something I consider an improvement but others online have reacted with dismay. The reduction of the game's Resource Management to 'at will', 'per encounter' and 'once per day' abilities also has received a mixed reaction.
One could spend quite a bit of time on these and other changes, something perhaps I'll take up in the future. But for now, I'll simple note them as examples of how exploring the concepts I presented here can be used to examine actual game designs.
Note that I've collected the T&S series into a collected article offsite. The link is to the right with the others.
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Up to this point, I admit to thinking that reposting these articles was just for making some revisions. In light of how D&D 4e has changed in regard to T&S, however really brings some life back to these older pieces and makes for some good food for thought.
I almost wish I was blogging when 4th edition hit, I could have had quite the series examining it using this series of articles and the Layer model.
It's never too late however, since D&D is in practical terms the baseline for the table-top hobby- I'll likely end up talking about most of its features one way or the other.
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