D&D 4, 5, and Pathfinder: Mechanics vs. Story

D&D 4 and Pathfinder are more concerned with mechanics than they are story.

D&D 5 is more concerned with story than mechanics.

Of course, speaking generally. It is something I noticed while playing around with D&D 5 this weekend, and it has something to do with the at-table play of the games. This has to do with the "table play" mechanics of these three games, and the era they were designed in. This is the "what players do" at the table, if their focus is on the rules portions of the game or the DM presented story portions.

To be fair, all of them have a DM-focused part of the game, where a story is presented and the players react. What happens after this point is the flavor of the game, and determines if the game is more story focused or mechanics focused.

D&D 4 has to be the most mechanics focused of the group. I found in many of my D&D 4 games the story just sets up the fun tactical based encounters and then the players go to town battling it out with all sorts if interlocking rules, battle powers, and map-based play.

Pathfinder falls in the middle, and it still has a strong map-based component if you so choose to play it that way. It is still very mechanics focused, and I need to call this game out as having a second mechanics-based piece of the game with character design. It is just as fun to play around with Hero Lab and come up with a character design, and this is a game in and of itself unique to Pathfinder.

With D&D 5, everything feels turned around. Just like with the OSR (old school revolution) games such as Labyrinth Lord and Basic Fantasy, the game is more story based, and less mechanics based. The players don't worry too much about builds, maps, or tactics, and there is a heavy focus of narrative on the referee. There is a tight focus on "story and react" going on here, and it produces unique challenges for referees.

There is a key difference here between OSR games and D&D 5 that we will get into later.

You better have a great module and story going on. With D&D 4, let's face it, it didn't really matter if the module's story sucked. If the combats were great and memorable, who really cares about story? D&D 4 is like "Battle Chess" and if the tight tactical battle was cool and you combo-ed your way to victory against an unstoppable force, that was a great time at the gaming table. Story was just the glue between the combat maps.

With Pathfinder, story matters a little more. Some referees I've spoken to over the years have had trouble "getting players interested" in adventure paths, and this highlights a difference between play styles in the Pathfinder community. Some play heavy tactical, like D&D 4, and others play story like OSR games. Still, on the turn-to-turn action, players are checking feats, dishing out mega-damage with special builds, and the turn-to-turn mechanics to play ratio is very high in this game. It's a game where your design choices matter, and even the small ones can make a big difference. Story matters, but mechanics often have a direct role in determining the outcome of that story.

With D&D 5 story matters more than mechanics. Stories are built-in to your character via backgrounds, and also through an "inspiration" die-roll bonus when using a character's characteristics (personality, ideal, bond, and flaw). It is an interesting choice because instead of creating mathematical and "rules interrupt" mechanics for on-board play, they created soft "story mechanics" for roleplaying.

There is a lot to say on this topic, especially compared to OSR games which did not need these "story mechanics". To say D&D 5 is like the OSR games is probably not entirely correct, while it similar to the OSR games in complexity, it does have a lot in common with the more modern narrativist and story-based games out there. There is also a hard mathematical live-or-die edge to the OSR game that does not exist in D&D 5. I could write another article on this and I probably will.

While D&D 5 does have 'builds' and 'mechanics' the focus of the game is different. In games where mechanics matter more, you are building for outcomes and situations on the tabletop. His figure is here, so my X bonus gives me Y. In story-style games, you are building more for the outcomes and situations in the referee's mind. My character is "principled" so he does not take the "bribe offered" by the NPC sort of thing, bang, inspiration point awarded for good roleplaying, and the next mental challenge is presented to the group.

There still is crossover in all of these games, as there could be map-based bonuses given to D&D 5 characters, or good roleplaying bonuses given in D&D 4 or Pathfinder. But the games are built differently, to highlight one core gameplay flow as the central model of play, and these "workflows" matter and make a difference. A game's workflow determines a bunch of things, how you play it for maximum fun, what types of rules supplements add to the experience, how modules should be written for the game, and a lot of other practical concerns.

Why is any of this important? Well, once you understand they why of games, you can make practical judgments like this:

"That old-school AD&D module is going to need a lot more story and ways NPCs and situations interact with character backgrounds to make it a fun D&D 5 adventure." 

"The maps in this adventure are too big and uninteresting for D&D 4 combats." 

"This module needs more ways for Pathfinder character builds to matter in its encounters and story."

Once you understand how a game plays and what makes that fun for you, you can begin to understand what you play it for and how to maximize your enjoyment of the game for you and your group.