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Why yes, I do…

I think the warlock mechanics could fit an action adventure game well - lots of spamming Eldritch Blast and invocations. A couple of uses of bigger powers (spells) per level before they reset.

I think it depends on where a company gets it money from. Smaller RPG companies with one tent-pole property kind of need to keep generating content that will sell, and that usually means player content, typically new classes or the equivalent. That tends to mean the game starts to sag under its...

Speak for yourself. I have more empathy than that.

I think that is key. In my opinion of immersion, the player is looking at things from a first person perspective.

There is a desire to avoid temptation in both the player and the character in GURPS, that does not hold in Fate where the character wants to avoid temptation but the player seeks it out for reward in the form of Fate points.

Seems like your mileage does indeed vary then 🙂

I disagree; GM decisions based on in-world phenomena and likely cause / effect count as simulation in my book. YMMV :)

I’m not @Micah Sweet but I can give a solid example of the point. Consider a character who is an alcoholic. This is probably a strong driver of behaviour and (assuming being in recovery) it might well make sense for the character to avoid situations where they are tempted to succumb to their...

@Celebrim , @The Firebird , @pemerton - while you all make very reasonable points about the codification of play, my point was that this is not a feature of simulationist games but rather a trend with games of all kinds. So it isn’t a defining quality if simulationist play in my opinion.

I don’t think those logically follow from each other, although I agree some people go that route. As evidence, I would offer Kriegspiel, which was a war simulation used for training real officers by the Prussian Army very successfully. It is most definitely a simulation with no need to consider...

I think it is useful to remember George Box when thinking about simulation: “all models are wrong, some are useful”. It’s often applied to physical laws like Newtonian Physics versus General Relativity - both will tell you what effect gravity will have on a body and while General Relativity...

That sounds more like a specific counter-punch to Runequest (subject to the exact publication dates) which brought in mechanics similar to what the quote mentions. Runequest’s pitch was essentially ‘more realistic than D&D’ and this is a pitch of ‘yeah but D&D is more fun to play’.

Savage Worlds is a hodgepodge of influences, to be sure. I don’t think being genre flexible is a barrier to being strongly simulationist. GURPS is probably the poster-child for strongly simulationist games, though even it has bits which move away from that ‘platonic ideal’.

Verisimilitude is very important to me, however I don’t see that as intrinsically simulationist. A good set of narrative mechanics would create verisimilitude for a specific genre, and good supers games often fit into that space, for example. For me, a more defining feature of sumulationist...

That’s cool, and thanks for replying @TreChriron. I have many fond memories of RM, it was the system we used for one of the best and longest running campaigns I ever played in. I am curious about the new version, however I have two pretty full sets (2e and Standard System) which stops me from...

The Broken Empires (kickstarter link) is due for general release mid-2026 and non-backers can pre-order for that time

Small digression - did you play the earlier additions? If so, how do you feel RMU improves them?

How to make combat fun is an interesting topic, might be worth a thread of it’s own.

‘Convert the fluff, not the crunch’ - it’s the maxim I operate by.