Recent content by Benjamin Olson

I hate juggling enemy and npc stat blocks, and most issues of game complexity for me are basically issues of whether the stat block is so complicated I actually need it at hand, or so simple it gives me no support for characters doing anything off-script.

These accounts are really not mutually exclusive, at least once you make allowances for the sort of simplifications involved in explaining something to an interviewer.

Clearly it can. I just don't think doing so makes a game simpler. When something people are likely going to want to try in their "you can try anything" games is made class specific (or other type of build specific) it seems to make things simpler, by limiting actions for everyone else and...

I voted 4, but not all complexity is built the same. Simplifications can lead to making system mastery harder. In 5e D&D, for an example I was just thinking about earlier today, disarming an opponent is an optional maneuver of Battlemaster Fighters, rather than something there is a general rule...

If there was a planned metaplot seeded in multiple books its a shame it didn't at least get a resolution, but I don't think it was a good idea in any case. Like if Chris Perkins was my DM and planted seeds for a future campaign through like five or six different campaigns, and we actually got to...

Right, because shopping and comparable mundane concerns are not a big part action-adventure movies in general. And that's fine for an RPG leaning into just being a movie. If you want the max cinematic version of Star Wars ttrpg I think I already mentioned the knock off Star Wars options for...

Very much agree. Star Wars has amazing production design and it's a core part of the franchise's appeal. People want specific weapons, spaceships, etc. And since a core part of that production design is being a run down, lived in, and kind of beat up galaxy where a lot of the machines a...

I don't know. What makes him so good?

Okay, well basically a lot of people buy them thinking a published campaign will make their DMing life easier, and ultimately feel like it has in fact been made harder by time they have unpacked a long and complicated WotC campaign, that often at least has parts that seem written more to be read...

I mean, I do think giving every class that doesn't have one a flavorful non-combat ability or two would be an improvement, but mostly I think combat needs to be radically simplified from where it has gotten in 2024 5e. 2014 5e was already a struggle, and now we've got weapons mastery, no...

Was going to suggest creating a pinball themed wizard subclass, but someone already did it.

I think virtually all of D&D is pigeonholed as only doing combat. Fighters just get the worst of it. They don't get spells (one of the major mechanisms into which mechanical support for non-combat play is lumped). They are always at or near the bottom in terms of getting skill access, with...

They didn't (except in the sense that there is a few months time skip between each season). With season 2 taking place in October-November of '84 (with a Winter Ball sequence in December) and season 3 taking place in the Summer of '85 the space between seasons 2 and 3 where this is set is (I...

I've run Lost Mines 3 and a half times, and working on getting together a group for yet another time. I think it is the best published campaign for 5e, especially with Icespire Peak available in the same region for the same level with lots of highly modular pieces to insert to the table's...

I also wouldn't want a module written by William Shakespeare. Trying to improvise or expand anything in Iambic pentameter seems like a nightmare, I suspect his adventures would be very railroady, and of course the name attached would make it so famous and revered that I'd feel obligated to give...