Unpopular opinions go here

[deganawida]

Having recently started a new 5E campaign, I was reminded how empowering it is to get out the machete and start cutting away anything that doesn't fit into a campaign. Yeah, you could have everything in the books in a setting (I run a Ptolus campaign that does, for instance), but much of the time, campaigns are improved by having focus.

Having a lot of optional stuff is very empowering in that regard, because once you start chopping the other stuff away, you can end up with something nicely customized for the kind of game you want to play.

That’s the way to do it, my gnomish friend. All these games are only limited by our imaginations, or our lack of. Cutting things out and adding your own stuff empowers one to make the game one’s own, which is why RPGs will always be more fun in the end than other interactive entertainment not of a physical nature (IMNSHO, of course).

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Green Ronin's Book of the Righteous or 4e D&D's approach to building a generic pantheon.

I didn’t use it for pantheon building, but I considered it to be the BEST 3.X take on making priests & holy warriors for divine beings and forces.

 

[James Gasik]

I didn’t use it for pantheon building, but I considered it to be the BEST 3.X take on making priests & holy warriors for divine beings and forces.

A book I still refer to today is Primal Order.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I only have a couple of the Primal Order books, and they’re a treasure. Ditto the old Central Casting books.

 

[Aldarc]

I didn’t use it for pantheon building, but I considered it to be the BEST 3.X take on making priests & holy warriors for divine beings and forces.

I still go back and read BotR for the pantheon it created. One thing that I highly appreciate about it is how every entry tells the story of a myth associated with the god, because some of those stories are super catchy. These are the elements that really helps flesh the pantheon out.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I still go back and read BotR for the pantheon it created. One thing that I highly appreciate about it is how every entry tells the story of a myth associated with the god, because some of those stories are super catchy. These are the elements that really helps flesh the pantheon out.

Roger E. Moore is still the GOAT for his work with the "point of view" articles in Dragon magazine back in the day. The religious myths he made up for the elves, orcs, gnomes and kobolds (and to a lesser extent, dwarves) are still a core part of the game.

It took far too long for anyone else to try and come up with something similar, and none of the subsequent attempts -- which weirdly seem to be mostly centered on the religious beliefs of dragons, which will only come up in a game rarely in comparison -- have ever clicked in the same way.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

The very curated world we create is for us as DMs not the players.

When a kid desperately wants to play a bird person it’s better to have them be the only one from a very faraway land than say there are no bird people at all in my world.

It’s not the same as having them in every village and town; they are exceptional.

The enjoyment of the limitations of the world is usually for the DM…

 

[CreamCloud0]

The very curated world we create is for us as DMs not the players.

When a kid desperately wants to play a bird person it’s better to have them be the only one from a very faraway land than say there are no bird people at all in my world.

It’s not the same as having them in every village and town; they are exceptional.

The enjoyment of the limitations of the world is usually for the DM…

the real unpopular opinion here is 'why can't they try to find something to interest them that's within the curation rather than needing to be something from outside it?'

 

[aramis erak]

Games aren't languages, they're media. I don't want to be locked in to watching season 57 of The Office or season 12 of The Walking Dead: Another Location. I want to have new things to enjoy.

The many games do have significant variations in Jargon... not to mention attributes and other abilities...

For example (going back to the late 1970s and 1981)

Entry	D&D	AD&D	Traveller (77)	RuneQuest (78)	Starships & Spacemen (78)	TFT (81)
The guy playing NPCs	Referee	Dungeon Master	Referee	Referee	Starmaster	Game Master
Atts	Strength Dexterity Constitution Intelligence Wisdom Charisma	Strength Dexterity Constitution Intelligence Wisdom Charisma	Strength Dexterity Endurance Intelligence Education Social St.	Strength Constitution Size Intelligence Power Dexterity Charisma	Marksmanship Intelligence Technical Sk. Contact Sk Psionic Charisma Str/Con/Hits Loyalty	Strength Dexterity IQ MA (move) AdjDex
Skills system?	No. Yes for Thief	Kind of. Yes for Th, Bard, Assassin	Yes, single digit	Yes, Percentile	No.	Talents - most boolean
Dice Notation	3-18 3d6 1d20	3-18 3d6 1d20	2D 4D+3 5D-2 1D-1D	3D6 1D20	1-6 pts 4-24 pts Three 6 sided dice one 20 sided die	1+3 3-2 3d+3
Class and Level?	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Core Setting?	No	No	Yes	Ues	Yes	Yes,

That's pretty superficial, but it illustrates a couple things...
D&D was changing terms to remain unique.
Traveller, RQ and TFT all encourage fairness in the GM. RQ does, too, bit not as strong.
Many terms got changed.

 

[aramis erak]

A teriyaki burger with pineapple?

Carl's Jr has one!