Recent content by Gorgon Zee

I started a long answer and then realized it boiled down to two words: "Not Simulationist". Older systems used mechanics as a way of trying to simulate a physical reality. Modern mechanics do not have that as their goal. They may want to generate a narrative, elide things they consider...

So, I think this might be a core reason Force Points are giving you issues -- and why others can run for years without seeing such issues. If the main reason your players play a TTRPG is to overcome challenges without drama, it's going to be really hard to use rules designed for drama. If they...

I really am unsure what you mean here. In a game that is a railroad, the tracks very much do go somewhere. If they only mostly go somewhere, that's exactly what every single game in the world does and so cannot be railroading unless everything does. I absolutely believe that people ere always...

But in real life, a hit doesn't require damage be done. In fencing and many martial arts, you just have to contact a person and it's a hit. In football people hit each other and they do not do damage. I'm fine with a hit doing no damage (like in fencing) or some stress or temp damage (as in...

Star Wars Saga: If it does hit point damage, it's energy and luck. If it does wounds, it;'s blood. D&D: It depends on the source of the damage. Alien RPG: When the Alien stabs you either it's tail, or a grenade goes off beside you it's only luck until you have to roll on the random death table...

No, but it typically has the potential to be. If I have a simple adventure that requires the players to choose to bargain with A, fight B and marry C, then that is a railroad as I am requiring the players to do certain things -- they have lost freedom to act and must follow my plot. If they do...

I think you'll find most people DON'T think of it as a quantitative term. It's intrinsic in the metaphor -- a railroad has a direction that you CANNOT avoid going. There is no qualitative aspect to a real-world railroad: Tracks do not "mostly" go in a direction or "suggest you head to New York"...

OK. I think I have this now. Bloodtide plays characters who prioritize their survival "far above" everything else. Any other consequence the GM might put into play is effectively trivial to them. That does make their argument consistent, but if feels very alien to my experience. It also feels...

It's kind of amusing that this argument that games need character death to be fun is in the D&D group, famously a system where death is simply a gold piece tax and maybe a negative to actions for a scene or two. Bringing this thread back on track, I might claim that a GM killing a character is...

The statement that the only thing that matters in an an RPG is whether or not you die is a very foreign one to me. For me, the core of a successful RPG campaign is all about how characters evolve over time -- mechanically and/or narratively. I can easily conceive of a fun RPG campaign with...

I think for me, the in-game "you have X turns to achieve a goal" is something I think of a resource management issue. So, for example, in The One Ring, when you have a council scene, you geta fixed number of chances to try to influence the other party until they run out of patience. D&D4E's...

13th Age Montage Scenes: I run those in any system that has any form of checks. If the system has a meta-currency, I'll use a montage scene to refresh them, but it's trivial to run anywhere. The One Ring Travel System: The core elements I use are (1) each player takes one of a set of roles (2)...

Strangelove is the Kubrick film I have watched most often. I can’t say if I feel it’s the best of his movies, but it’s the one that I enjoy the most. Darkly delicious, capturing a moment in time perfectly. It has several of the most memorable quotes of any of his films. And it has Peter Sellers...

QUEEN OF THE DAMNED is a weak film but a fun book. Not sure you can get into it without reading the previous ones, but pop-culture vampires are definitely a thing!

Beyoncé High Concept: Global Pop Icon & Cultural Powerhouse Trouble: Living Under the Spotlight Other Aspects: “Sasha Fierce” on Stage Creative Perfectionist Philanthropist with a Queen’s Heart Skills: Great (+4): Performance Good (+3): Rapport, Resources Fair (+2): Athletics, Empathy...