I think the play test rules are hit and miss. The new magic system is great and makes the magic fit the tone of the game, the new saves are decent and the modified Skill system is good. All weapons doing the same damage, Strength only affecting how much you can carry (buy a mule and lose almost all dependence on strength, as my players have demonstrated), forced individual initiative and the new parry rule are things I’m not as much of a fan of.
Totally fair. The weapon damage and then the interaction between weapon type and armor is fiddly as well. I think Parry and the Holding Action is something I am looking forward to seeing in action more, we did not really use it much.
I am okay with Strength for the most part. Our LotFP characters are basically senior citizens by levels 5-6 and removing to hit with Strength and Dexterity elevates fighters. That leaves, to your point, carrying capacity and opening doors/gates. My OD&D/Basic games have a little door action, but in LotFP the emphasis just isn’t there, so we have not missed it.
In the 17th century I would expect unattended mules would be good targets for theft, or lord knows what the horror monster would do to one if you tried to walk it across the cornfield in Tales from the Scarecrow. But I get your point, and if one ever finds themselves gaming around to make a mechanic work better, in this case elevating carrying capacity importance by fucking with mules, it is probably means the mechanic is questionable. Good points all around.
Guarding your shit while you are in the dungeon/haunted house/whatever is why you have hirelings. Players in my campaigns did that before we started using the playtest rules and they will likely do it if we go back to not using them. It also nixed one of the neat ideas on the character sheet, that of having five equipment rows spell out "+1 encumbrance". So it has made the encumbrance rules far fiddlier and the character sheet less useful, and the great encumbrance system was one of the strengths of LotFP.
LotFP currently lacks any and all rules for jumping, and sometimes its adventures seem designed as if jumping is impossible ("oooh, a pit that's ten feet wide, however shall we get across that?"). Strength could be used for jump distance, as well as opening stuck doors, without going back to influencing armor penetration. Dexterity on the other hand still affects fights, as it controls initiative, and initiative is really important (striking first often means striking last as well). So this has elevated Dex in relation to Str for Fighters. There must be something else Dex can govern. Because in general I agree with you, freeing the classes up from depending too much on ability scores has been good.
I do like what Charisma, Constitution, Intelligence and Wisdom do though.
Agreed, I love those other four.
With the play test rules reducing each ability to a single purpose, I considered dumping the ability score names altogether. At this point they are just a single item derivative, so why not use the name of what they do?
Strength replaced by carrying capacity, dexterity replaced by initiative, constitution by hit point die, etc.
The benefit is it further disassociates characters from traditional ttrpg characters, which is helpful when approaching weird fantasy. The detractor is obviously the pucker factor of eschewing ability scores, which isn’t much of a factor for me personally. As I am typing this though, I think I’ve made up my mind to try it for the next game. Thanks for the conversation.
RE: jumping…off the top of my head I think I did something like 10-encumbrance points in feet for a standing jump, with 50% increase to that number for a running one. But yes, they lack jumping rules (although they do have excavation rules!). In LotFP I do not do a lot of the traditional dungeon delving things like stuck doors, jumping, swimming, etc unless it is under major duress.
Earlier I mentioned parry when I should have said guard. Still have parry burned into my brain!