Recent content by Helpful NPC Thom

ANSWERS. 1. Because it's a game. Spellcasters get lower HD for balance reasons. Characters who are more likely to take damage (fighters, barbarians, clerics, etc.) get higher HD. From a diegetic perspective, the barbarian is a savage fighter who is adept at turning potentially-lethal attacks...

Things I like: Non-combat conflict resolution. Things I dislike: Lineages. Romance plots. Weirdo races. Power creep. Lack of non-caster options. Yes to all of this, and frankly, I'd love a good OSR-ification of D&D 5e. Make the rules really basic. Battlemaster should just replace fighter, tho.

I think making ranged attacks utilize Wisdom is a swell idea, and it's one I've toyed with quite a bit. Dexterity is useful enough.

When I play stupid characters, I am roleplaying my lived experiences (as a stupid).

To comment on the original post more seriously, I think the GM's voice should take precedence over the other players' as a matter of his privileged position. However, allowing the players more opportunities to speak and author the game is a viable strategy, though it is going to depend heavily...

Good point. All game sessions will now involve manacles and waiver forms.

I speak exactly 31% of the time and no more. If I've allotted four hours of game time, I speak for 74.4 minutes exactly. Once my 74.4 minutes are done, I remain totally silent until the players get uncomfortable and leave.

Implying the Imperium of Man are the bad guys, what a garbage take.

The Misc. forum is the stuff of legends.

Then would you mind clarifying? I think we're miscommunicating.

@Ovinomancer, I'm not suggesting that the Dragon Capture move is out of the blue, not foreshadowed, or done without fictional context, which seems to be the implication here: It's not a Quantum Dragon, so to speak, so much as it is there exists a dragon within the fiction and as part of that...

An example: GM: [Hard Move] The dragon swoops down and grabs Bob in its claws. With a flap of its enormous wings, it lifts him off and flies to its nest. Player: As it's flying away, I want to aim and shoot to get it to drop Bob. GM: You're unable to scramble to your feet and line up a shot...

Also, for those who haven't played a good PbtA game, it is difficult to describe how the play process differs from D&D because it's more than the sum of its parts. The mechanics are interlocking and structured to create a gameplay experience in a way that modern D&D mechanics do not. Masks...