Recent content by FrozenNorth

This is a category fallacy. If anything, the opposite happened. I was excited to create and play the game, but lack of interest from some of the players wore down my interest.

Pretty every campaign I start does something different though. And it’s pretty rare that the something is minor. Most recently, I tried GMing a sandbox campaign. It fizzled due to lack of interest from both my players and me.

From my perspective, having a decently high number of campaigns that fizzle out isn’t a bad thing. As I DM, I try to improve my craft by trying different approaches, different genres and different rulesets. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t and there is no shame in recognizing that...

Fair. I think the rulebook’s validation of campaign frames and modding the ruleset supports your point.

Currently reading Band of Blades and though I haven’t played it, it seems to qualify. The strongly intended playstyle is military fantasy/horror with high character lethality, and its mechanics deliver. « Military fantasy » The players play the leadership of a mercenary company that was...

I agree, which is why I said it’s ironic. If you select your players from people you already know and people who are physically proximate to you (it being understood that there are people for whom this isn’t an option), they may have different taste in games than you do. But on the other hand...

Or do you agree 8 times out of 8?

Which is ironic, because though I definitely consider VTTs a good thing, particularly as it allows people to find groups in otherwise challenging circumstances, as someone who does both, roleplaying in person remains preferable to roleplaying by VTT.

I think this is an interesting hypothesis, but the posters most AGAINST « stats being there just for rolls » are ALSO the most traditional players.

I like the idea of a low-Wis character that warns the party away from threats that don’t exist.

You’re posting like « people should play their attributes » is what other posters are taking issue with. It really isn’t. They take issue when the DM (or another player’s) conception of mental attributes is interpreted narrowly, when their conception is imposed on other players, or when other...

An 8 Int is slightly below average. I played an 8 Int rogue in 4e. He was uneducated and intellectually incurious, and I told the DM that he had not learned to read. Still pretty « street smart ». If the DM had told me that because the character came up with practical plans, I was «...

You’re free to introduce examples from other RPGs, but I don’t think it’s fair to ignore examples from the currently most played RPG.

I agree with this with the further point that you kind of have to lean into the fuzziness. In D&D, the wizard may be an Arcana savant, but have no idea of the name of the current king, because he doesn’t care. Even without History proficiency, he still has a +4 to History rolls. Conversely...

This is focussing on the wrong part of the issue. « People should play their stats » is uncontroversial. There may be some argument about what playing your stats means, but this is ultimately subjective and not really disputed. Some people view Intelligence as principally either magic...