What Hill Will You Die On?

[Autumnal]

It’s funny how things like that can match up in weird ways.

 

[innerdude]

The rules are inescapably the physics of the game universe.

Until I played Ironsworn in the summer of 2021, I probably would have died on that hill with you.

Ironsworn vaporizes that notion more thoroughly than a Greater Disjoining Disintegration spell.

 

[CreamCloud0]

i don't deny these opinions will probably ruffle a few feathers but i'm giving them anyway
floating asi were never "needed" for you to make your perfect weird character, be that a 'gnome barbarian who did deadlifts every day of their life' or 'the absolutely weakest orc who ever became a wizard' (although i'm not denying floating is nice for ease of optimisation)
following on from that, fixed asi do make sense and i think they are important for emphasising the strengths and theme of a species, i acknowledge that +2 dex or cha isn't the cornerstone of flavour but it contributes by giving a foundation of 'this is what these guys are meant to be about' and mechanically setting a baseline of 'this species X is inherently biologically more capable of doing thing Y' we're not comparing the spanish with germans with english here these are whole different species built different from the ground up

alignment is a good and interesting tool actually if people would stop all projecting their own definitions of what each one means onto it or using overly simplistic interpretations (also people need to gain some objectivity in judging alignment because personal bias is one hell of a hand on the scales)

 

[Aldarc]

Metagaming isn't a bad thing.

 

[Breaking Star Games]

I see the value in more narrative and more simulationist rulesets. I definitely prefer the former because I like learning lots of different systems so spending an inordinate amount of time on one to learn details rules simulating physics isn't ideal. Though if you want tactical combat with meaningful decisions and builds, sometimes you need the complexity of something like Pathfinder 2e and I enjoy that.

I think the big one for me is that dice results should always create interesting, new fiction. Nothing is worse than when the PC attempts a check and fails then nothing happens. Its really the key aspects of "No, And" or "No, But." Or PbtA GM Moves on a Miss, which are my favorite option.

 

[billd91]

• RPG rules exist to operationalize what PCs (and NPCs) want to do in a genre-appropriate game setting. They are NOT physics engines.

• Everything being input into the game by the GM, whether published scenarios, rules, or die rolls, are potentially subject to GM review because all of them are functionally arbitrary to the specific moment with the specific players at the table.

• It's not a bad thing for player choices to involve trade-offs. And that includes heritage/species-based modifiers to stats that don't perfectly align with your PC's chosen profession for the best optimized match.

• The semi-religious fervor that these "hills we're dying on" generate is not conducive to creating a healthy community and many of these debates come up again and again and, ultimately, make me dislike the community more and more depending on just how fervently people argue them.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I refuse to die on any hill. Instead, I use hills as a dumping ground for bard corpses.

Q. How many dead bards does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

A.

Spoiler

At least 48, because my basement is still dark.

 

[pemerton]

The first is "RPGs produce stories after the fact; they are not tools for telling stories."

Well, my hill lives in between your two propositions: it is possible to have RPGs that produce stories in the moment of and via the process of play. (Produce is not a synonym for permit the telling of.)

I discovered this, haphazardly and only half-aware of it, in the second half of the 1980s. Luckily some much better RPG designers than me also discovered it and wrote some good RPGs that are very good for this sort of play.

 

[Pedantic]

It is both possible and desirable to write a completely explicated system of skill difficulties without recourse to a generic difficulty table and TTRPGs should be expected to do so.

 

[ichabod]

If you and your group are having fun playing an RPG, nothing else matters.

With the usual caveats that no one is being hurt, blah blah blah.