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By masters, do you mean mechanics?

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply hiding was bad. I thought it might be to eliminate a bias towards one idea or another. Thanks for explaining.

Ok. So I assume you feel it is better to withhold the information about the game. Is this so people aren't led down a specific path of thinking? If so, I get it. But, it does seem a bit counteractive to what you are trying to accomplish. The questions I proposed attach themselves directly to a...

But they directly attach themselves to the core mechanics of a game. They are not options - they are choices that must be made. And it is definitely better to make them prior to deciding the core mechanic than after.

No offense, but I don't see how you can come up with a core mechanic without first determining what kind of game you want. Slow combat or fast combat? Modifiers or straight rolls? Universal mechanics or partial mechanics? etc.

To be fair, it was never about realism, but rather the sense of realism. There is a huge difference between the two, and everyone's line shifts as they grow in experiences.

When I did my skills, I definitely pooled many of them together. It makes so much more sense to me. My History/Religion skill is an example. If you know your history, there is a good chance you know a bit about religion too. Nature/Creature is another one. If you have studied nature, there is a...

No offense, I am not sure it's a win or lose thing. It's a situation where, I believe, the OP learned that the definition of "railroading" is broad, and it can be interpreted in many ways.

Speaking of mechanics, a long time ago we greatly enjoyed the MERP systems style of combat. It was D100, but you could take your skill and subtract a portion of it to modify any attacks against you. For example, if I had a 55% in one handed weapons, I could just use 33% of it to add to my roll...

We've been using Daggerheart for our latest campaign. The 2d12, aside from increasing critical successes (as opposed to a d20), does feel interesting. And feelings are where it's at for RPG games. The critical success mechanics, of automatically doing max damage + your normal roll of the die is...

If you design your own RPG, I really, really, really believe the idea of mechanics is attached to two very specific things: 1. The mechanics will highlight the parts of the game you want most. 2. The mechanics will be framed by your own personal biases. I have a third, but it doesn't apply to...

I am confused what that has to do with improvising a decision. You did this every week. People knew the exact question that was going to come up. So they can prepare, get ready, and have something on hand. Seeing a battlefield suddenly change dynamics and having twelve spells at your disposal...

I think the bold is an important caveat. But with a game like D&D, that has not been what I see. There are just too many variables, and even if someone pays attention closely, the dynamics of the battle can change on one player's turn. Then there is all the option you have; from which spell to...

God I have used King's Road a lot! :) As for me, I would say the most used items are: 1. Campaign world map 2. My pair of red GM dice 3. The miniature "Rosie Cusswell" 4. And I have used the book "The Gamemaster's Book of Non-Player Characters" quite a bit when prepping lately.

I think we had this discussion before, but that was the one thing that bothered me with the 2024 edition. I thought the 2014 edition did such a great job interconnecting the monsters to other monsters and the ecosystem in which they lived. This followed the path of the PHB species, where it was...

Even just narratively speaking, five seconds is not a lot of time for some people. I mean, just going around the table and asking someoe to describe their character, especially a specific part of their character like their boots, still takes quite a lot of players a good amount of time to come...

Wizard71, The OP has backtracked and said he used all the wrong words to describe the scenario. This was after much criticism that it was railroading by quite a few people. Take it for what it is.

Thanks. I will check it out. What about players that have difficulty remembering exactly what they can do, or always get confused about action economy? What about players that sometimes deal with choice paralysis? I mean, I get it. If you look at any criticism I have of any game, half of it...

Yea, I have run a V;tM game. I have run another campaign of Vampire for eighteen players (fun, but ugh! and never again). It still didn't run that way. But to each their own. I would love to see video of a session that does this (as I have never seen one in play).

100% of the time. Like, no one player ever leans over to another player and says, "Can I get you some coffee?" or "Did you take that spell when we levelled?" or "This is too easy, I think the DM has a trick up their sleeve," or "Nice roll!" I am not doubting it, and definitely do not disparage...