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Here is something Vincent Baker wrote a bit more than twenty years ago <lumpley games: Roleplaying Theory, Hardcore>: After setup, what a game's rules do is control how you resolve one situation into the next. If you're designing a Narrativist game, what you need are rules that create a) rising...

Unfortunately I don't know anything about this RPG. What's its about?

Huh? I didn't say anything about Dread. The post that you quoted was about Torchbearer.

I've got doubts even about the first bit of that last sentence - there are elements of the "story" in Torchbearer, like driving off foes, and capturing them, that are pretty hard for D&D to replicate. I definitely agree with the second bit, about the difference in method and enjoyment.

I've not played Stonetop, but those who have have started some good threads that seem worth linking to here: https://www.enworld.org/threads/stonetop-or-nice-village-youve-got-there.716658/ https://www.enworld.org/threads/actual-play-stonetop-or-how-to-make-friends-and-influence-people.704678/...

What have you got in mind.? The progression system reminds me of Prince Valiant - where the players' knights gain Fame for resolving situations, winning jousts/tournaments, taking part in battles, etc. The main differences in Mythic Bastionland are (i) that you can lose Glory when you lose a...

For me, the Realm-mapping experience was like following the steps for making a dungeon/adventure location in Torchbearer 2e: the steps made sense, and it produced something that seems like it should work. I know in TB2e, the products of that procedure have worked in play. I'm still to test this...

I don't even mind their overcomplication - in fact to be honest often I love it! Luke and Thor are (in my book) RPG geniuses. But not the only ones. The Mythic Bastionland "solution" to the issue of "I've reached name level and want to rule a barony" is - I think - really, really good!

See my previous two posts. I'm not kidding when I say that I think the rules in this book are compelling and inspirational. In this paragraph, I'm contrasting with Errant because I bought it at the same time, having seen both games mentioned together, or at least close to together, in the...

I also think the way that NPC roles are handled is really strong. The integration of rules and setting is extremely tight, and in my view extremely clever. And not just for its promise to support play, but also for the way it reinforces the themes of the setting and the game.

Have you read the two pages yet on Dominion/Domains and Authority? Together with the Time rules, they create a more playable domain system than any version of classic D&D ever managed to do! And I think on balance they might be better than Torchbearer 2e's, although for me that would be such a...

Sure, but then I can assert that Brindlewood Bay players also solve a mystery - namely, of how to integrate the clues and observations and etc they have acquired, via their play of the game, into a coherent and plausible account of what happened. That's a demanding cognitive task, which even if...

I think the books/shows that CoC most closely emulates are Christie-esque, somewhat baroque, "parlour game" mysteries. Another thing that I think is completely different in RPGs (and many films/shows) compared to real life is scholarly research. And for similar reasons to the ones you give...

I don't want to be too big a party pooper in my own thread!, but am moved to post a response to this. I like the overall book design - the way the rules are laid out two-column style under generally informative headings, the way the Knights and Myths are set out in their two-page spreads, etc...

100% agreed with this. Solving a puzzle (like a crossword puzzle, or charades, or the extrapolation from CoC clues) is not like solving an actual mystery or murder. I mean, in the CoC case I can be confident that all the salient NPCs have somehow been presented to me, directly or indirectly, by...

In CoC, the players are definitely playing characters who (try to) solve a mystery. In some CoC play, that's the bulk of what the players are doing. The rest - consequences, victory/defeat, etc - is really colour that is provided by the GM and provides context for the players' play of their...

Greyhawk, and especially in the middle of the map. It's very comprehensive: in that area, you have: *Paladins vs humanoids (The Shield Lands) *Naval military adventure (Nyr Dyv) *Lankhmar or Tower of the Elephant (Greyhawk City, Dyvers, Hardby) *Pirates (Wild Coast, Woolly Bay) *Frontier...

As I posted upthread, my favourite knight errant game is Prince Valiant. So for me, this game has to clear a high bar. On paper, I think it does - I suspect that (for me) Prince Valiant's resolution mechanics are more satisfactory in a lot of contexts (it's a very flexible dice pool system, a...

Have you had this happen in play? I mean, why would players propose a solution that they think isn't correct?

@soviet That's a very interesting post! I'm not an investigator, but I am an academic lawyer. And have also worked on mainstream epistemology to the Masters research level. Which is the perspective that I'm brining to bear: the fact that truth is (typically) mind-independent is an interesting...