Recent content by Desdichado

Yes, I realize that that's the default position that most people have, which I'm suggesting I know that I'm unusual for rejecting outright. In such a game run by me, there wouldn't ever be a hook that led to a full-on dungeon crawl.

I suppose now we get to the point where we get to hear about how the word "mood" isn't actually being used in the way that it's normally used. I was starting to miss that phase of the discussion. Look, nobody thinks that in the kinds of games y'all are describing that your character wakes up...

Yeah, I think that's a pretty good slightly more detailed explanation of what I mean when I say that I'm not old school, but I am old fashioned. It's the principles of OSR play vs the actual rules of OSR play that I like. The actual rules I tend to not like. Tim Kask explained it in more...

@Dannyalcatraz Railguns don't have to be any bigger than todays light weapons; pistols, carbines, rifles, etc. All it takes is a more efficient power source to generate electromagnetic energy from smaller battery.

eh, don't read too much into that. My wife complains about this about me a lot too. Strong words is just how I talk. Everything is dramatic and extreme and superlative. Except it's not really. I just talk that way, and I have for almost fifty years now, so I think the behavior patterns are too...

Well, I mostly meant it as a joke. But that's another possibly weird affectation of my personal taste; I actually think PC v PC is a lot of fun if the players buy into it. How many books, movies, TV shows, etc. have you watched where a somewhat adversarial relationship between two or more...

I'm not talking about tone and theme. And I'm not talking about classes, races and sourcebooks. I agree with you 100% on that. I'm talking very specifically on the idea that if the players don't build a "balanced party" then their chances of failure increase, because the game the GM has in mind...

I will point out that I'm making this statement from the perspective of a gamer who sees himself primarily as a GM rather than as a player. Obviously, I've done loads of both, but my stance on this is based on my GMing.

From my perspective, the question is backwards. Why is the GM thinking that he's going to run a dungeon crawl with a party of all wizards? Again, I admit to having extremely strong preferences towards the concept of player sovereignty including "making the character that you want to make, if...

I didn't say it was GENERALLY superior. I went out of my way to provide context on my preferences so that it would be clear that superior in this case meant superior to me with regards to my preferences. All of that context, which I notice you don't quote. Hmm... I suppose in hindsight that...

I'm interpreting, maybe, a difference between PvP and PCvPC here....

Uh... what? Again, filling in the blanks. Pointing out that I have preferences, and talking a bit about what they are hardly qualifies as saying that they're superior. Except with regards to a game that I PERSONALLY would enjoy, of course. This seems like projection to me, or at least some kind...

I recognize that my EXTREMELY strong feelings on this regard are unusual, so I don't try to harp on it too much. I'm a very strong believer in the ideas of GM sovereignty and player sovereignty. Building the characters that you want to is one of the hard and fast rules of player sovereignty that...

While this is true, I think it's also equally true that a stated and clear design goal of 3e (and even AD&D, for that matter) to take trust somewhat out of the equation by minimizing the impact of DM judgement and fostering a reliance on rules-as-written. In the D&D-sphere, that's been true...

Mostly, a non-adversarial DM looks at his group of players, and wants to have a good game with them, so he accommodates to at least some degree what makes the game fun for them. An adversarial DM is one who refuses to do that, for various reasons, including his holding on to ideas about how the...