Three turns and out is still optional. Oddly I think the Vampire section about it makes that more clear than the Werewolf one, which seems to really, really want to be the default setting. I don’t care for it and I don’t use it in any of my games. I don’t think it’s terrible advice to keep combats short, though. That said it’s not even really a 5th original idea, it is related to Chronicles 2e’s Down and Dirty concept of finishing combat in a single roll.
I don’t really get your complaint about character creation. It’s an entirely new edition of the game, character creation changes between editions pretty regularly. It’s allegedly more “balanced” in terms of XP costs for future advancement but it’s not a difficult experience to select X 2s, Y 3s, and Z 4s and slot them in. I’m not really sure why they didn’t go with the single banner of Merits like 1e/2e Chronicles did for those abilities, I’m not sure what keeping it split into Backgrounds and Merits does for any game. I’m glad they kept Flaws around.
Death to Freebies - having two different costs for extra points spent after the standard character building is done was always silly. Does the character have a few more bits and bobs than a standard new lick/cub/whatever? That’s XP.
I get you to some extent on the no roll vs lots of rolls vs limited rolls philosophy. With the various 5th games less rolls are better because there are consequences attached to them. You can bend the rules a bit when you want to have people roll for something for fun by dropping the consequences in terms of Hunger etc. I do that from time to time. They do also offer take half for players as well, ways to have the consequences there but not for skillful characters. If Kevin’s character has 8 dice for picking a lock, he doesn’t need to roll to pop open a standard lock. But Sara’s character is a rage monster combat wombat that is only passingly familiar with picking locks, it’s more reasonable for her to have to worry about flipping her lid and kicking the door in. I think it provides a nice balance to the old and hilarious botch induced comedy that could happen without also creating a classic AD&D fighter that gets five attacks and has a 5% chance on each attack to stab himself in the face with his great axe, thus making him statistically more likely to hurt himself every turn than a level 1 wizard.
Three turns and out is still optional. Oddly I think the Vampire section about it makes that more clear than the Werewolf one, which seems to really, really want to be the default setting. I don’t care for it and I don’t use it in any of my games. I don’t think it’s terrible advice to keep combats short, though. That said it’s not even really a 5th original idea, it is related to Chronicles 2e’s Down and Dirty concept of finishing combat in a single roll.
I don’t really get your complaint about character creation. It’s an entirely new edition of the game, character creation changes between editions pretty regularly. It’s allegedly more “balanced” in terms of XP costs for future advancement but it’s not a difficult experience to select X 2s, Y 3s, and Z 4s and slot them in. I’m not really sure why they didn’t go with the single banner of Merits like 1e/2e Chronicles did for those abilities, I’m not sure what keeping it split into Backgrounds and Merits does for any game. I’m glad they kept Flaws around.
Death to Freebies - having two different costs for extra points spent after the standard character building is done was always silly. Does the character have a few more bits and bobs than a standard new lick/cub/whatever? That’s XP.
I get you to some extent on the no roll vs lots of rolls vs limited rolls philosophy. With the various 5th games less rolls are better because there are consequences attached to them. You can bend the rules a bit when you want to have people roll for something for fun by dropping the consequences in terms of Hunger etc. I do that from time to time. They do also offer take half for players as well, ways to have the consequences there but not for skillful characters. If Kevin’s character has 8 dice for picking a lock, he doesn’t need to roll to pop open a standard lock. But Sara’s character is a rage monster combat wombat that is only passingly familiar with picking locks, it’s more reasonable for her to have to worry about flipping her lid and kicking the door in. I think it provides a nice balance to the old and hilarious botch induced comedy that could happen without also creating a classic AD&D fighter that gets five attacks and has a 5% chance on each attack to stab himself in the face with his great axe, thus making him statistically more likely to hurt himself every turn than a level 1 wizard.