Unpopular opinions go here

[Jd Smith1]

I hate systems where PCs get more hit points when they level up. OK, a few extra to reflect that through experience they can fight through pain, and are better at parrying and dodging, but kobolds to be just as much a threat at a level 20 as a level 1, because Kobolds have adapted their tactics to the fact they are small and weak, and use numbers, harassing ranged attacks, traps, concealment, and other aspects to oppose small bands of Humans who invade their territory.

That's what I hate about D&D: vast numbers of humanoids, but in the end, the only difference is name and hit points.

 

[overgeeked]

Robin Laws is one of if not the best RPG designers ever. His work on HeroQuest 2E (no, not the boardgame) is stellar. The prose character creation and dynamic difficulty were decades ahead of anything else at the time. His books on GMing should be required reading.

 

[Cadence]

The 1e DMG is still the greatest RPG book of all time (even if you should ignore a lot of what it says even if you're playing 1e).

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Robin Laws is one of if not the best RPG designers ever. His work on HeroQuest 2E (no, not the boardgame) is stellar. The prose character creation and dynamic difficulty were decades ahead of anything else at the time. His books on GMing should be required reading.

I agree wholeheartedly, but is this an unpopular opinion? Have I missed something?

 

[overgeeked]

I agree wholeheartedly, but is this an unpopular opinion? Have I missed something?

Unpopular in the sense that most people playing RPGs today only play D&D and have likely never heard of Robin Laws.

 

[deganawida]

Unpopular in the sense that most people playing RPGs today only play D&D and have likely never heard of Robin Laws.

Yeah. I saw some post here the other day about Chinese geomancy (I think it was that thread, though I could be wrong), and it took forever for anyone to mention Feng Shui, which is not only a brilliant game by Laws, but also, IIRC, an Ennie winner from within the last decade (for 2nd edition).

EDIT: Yeah, it was that thread, so I was correct there. However, it was post #4, and was made same day as the original post, so I was wrong in that it took forever. Must have just been me seeing the first post and Feng Shui immediately springing to mind.

 

[Reynard]

Robin Laws is one of if not the best RPG designers ever. His work on HeroQuest 2E (no, not the boardgame) is stellar. The prose character creation and dynamic difficulty were decades ahead of anything else at the time. His books on GMing should be required reading.

Robin Laws is absolutely worth reading, but he is not the be all and end all of GMing. There are tons of designers and theorists that are as good or better than Robin Laws, especially in more recent years.

 

[Smackpixi]

just because it happened to you doesn’t make it interesting

 

[Lanefan]

These are all things I consider in my homebrew campaign settings, and one of the reasons I just can't accept standard D&Disms like "Common".

I can live with the idea of there being a Common language - it does kinda make some sense - but by no means do I insist all characters automatically know it. Players can choose it if they want, but IME most players roll their known languages randomly other than their native (or birth) tongue, which with very rare exceptions is determined by the character's species/culture.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I can live with the idea of there being a Common language - it does kinda make some sense - but by no means do I insist all characters automatically know it. Players can choose it if they want, but IME most players roll their known languages randomly other than their native (or birth) tongue, which with very rare exceptions is determined by the character's species/culture.

What common is trying to emulate is Lingua Franca, the Mediterranean trade tongue. But it completely misunderstands it by making villagers everywhere speak the damn thing.

(I suppose its also going for a weak copy of Westron as well, but Tolkien didn't make everyone in Middle Earth speak it! It was only those living in the borders of what was Arnor and Gondor.)