Recent content by GMMichael

Ah. The argument I was referencing suggested that TPKs happen more often. Which was incorrect. Happening more or more often are two different things. Average roll of a d20 is 10.5. Chance of any one result: 5%. The d20 gets called "swingy" because of that 5%. Odds of rolling a sum of 10...

But that's not how statistics work. The more you roll the dice is the more they average out. If the DM just gets more and more killer rolls because she's had more encounters, it means she's using loaded dice. The DM has way more levers than that. No. If they all miss in the first round...

So, I'm probably going to look at this through the lens of the OP, in which . . . . . . der_kluge suggests that making fun and engaging encounters is impossibly hard. This hasn't been my experience, so I know that not all RPGs need to be providing mechanisms that counteract their own combat...

I don't think that TPK/TEC (too easy combat) can both "happen so much" and do so in "low rounds of combat." Dice can look less than random over a small set of rolls. But if it's happening a lot, that's no longer a small set. My guess is human error starts creeping in at that range. This is...

Huh. I may have missed that while learning to walk 🤓 It's all about tradeoffs. Full backpacks mean lots of clanking and an action/round lost to dropping said backpack at the start of a fight. Sure you could tie your gear down to reduce noise, but then it's not readily accessible. What if...

Dangerous spells are fair game at high level. I don't have any expectation that mid level or even high level combats should be between too easy and too hard. It's combat: if you've made it to mid level, you knew the stakes going in. A boss fight is different, although I think players love to...

If there are, I'm not sure I'd want to play them. For the rules of a D&D-like to guarantee tough, but not deadly, encounters, characters would have to run on rails resembling 4th ed. D&D: all characters do the same stuff, they're just powers with different names. Expecting regular...

Are these harsh realities, or just the norm in medieval settings? Maybe not. But the dinosaurs' apocalypse led to the threat of nuclear destruction . . .

You know what's scary? A computer virus. Any number of bad things could come from it. Speaking of malware, the internet isn't such a free source of info to the PCs if their phones get hacked. With malicious actors on their phones/trackers, PCs might choose to ditch them quickly.

There's definitely a lack of understanding. That's why they invented dark matter and dark energy.

There's a lineup of people in a dungeon. Naked, in chains, trembling. Master Blaster (or their look-alikes) walks along the line, designating individuals. "You. You. . . . You." They select each PC. Only if it passes session zero. The "you have nothing / are a prisoner" trope isn't my...

This is what I was expecting when I clicked. Well, a costume, too. But OG Battlecat is cool. Disappointing too - should've had moving limbs.

Aw, I wanna take/make a crack too! Somehow, I don't think this is the Justice Perkins was seeking!

You must be seeing something I'm not. Are you suggesting the game is innovative, or that few games have a built-in online following at the get-go?

I don't buy it. A Doppler effect requires a change in frequency measured as the amount of time/space between waves (and relative velocities). Light doesn't have that. A single photon has a frequency when it's detected. There's no need for a follow-up photon, or the next crest of the wave, to...