Recent content by HywelPhillips

Anecdotally, Mike's thesis is supported by my experience with my own three gaming groups and their wider circle. Nobody (and I mean nobody) is excited for 5.5e , although quite a few of us have already bought the PHB and DMG. In fact it's more being treated as a matter of resignation ("oh well...

And the PDF is pretty reasonable, I just picked it up in that format. Without doubt the most interesting new setting I've read in years. My only question is whether to use it for the dead sand kingdoms in my current campaign or to run a dedicated game in the setting. It's OSR-centric in terms of...

The most obvious solution is pay GM's. Pandemic lockdowns forced people to play online, and isolated them from their regular groups. Paid GM's stepped in to take up the slack, and it's never been easier to find a game if you're willing to pay to play. From my limited experience these games fall...

I think the separation of setting and mechanics is a gross oversimplification for RPG's. No RPG can be played without a setting (unlike abstract boardgames). In an RPG you are inhabiting a world with your characters. The setting mechanics are modelling the physics of that world. Every...