Recent content by JConstantine

Eberron or Forgotten Realms? Either way, the answer is yes. Generally speaking, I use the Realms when I want to indulge in the clichés and tropes, and Eberron when I want to subvert them.

I kinda have the same gripe from the opposite direction. I adore Eberron, and I hate that things that originated there have been ported into other settings because it makes Eberron less distinct. Which rather goes to show that Keith Baker was ahead of the curve.

When I first became aware of Eberron, I wasn't particularly interested because it felt too modern, with the lightning rail and whatnot. I wanted classic fantasy, and was busy devouring Forgotten Realms lore. Over time, my tastes broadened and when I rediscovered Eberron, I fell for it hard. I...

That's what I'm getting at, though. I specifically don't have a fixed preference for level of "inherent protagonism", as you put it, (like the example you gave with @Micah Sweet) that informs the games I run and play. I get enthused about a premise for a campaign, and that informs what level of...

Even with this clarification, I'm going to agree with @DrunkonDuty in that, for me, it depends on the game. In a Forgotten Realms game, with the likes of Elminster, Laeral Silverhand, Drizzt and the Companions of the Hall, etc., your standard PCs are arguably less special than their peers...

In the online RPG discussion space, Mothership is certainly brought up more than Alien, but I think this is less about Alien's audience being collectors, and rather that the Alien IP works against the game as much as for it. From what I've seen, there's a false perception that in Alien, you're...

So, I suspect a potential reason some people seem to be struggling to grasp rolling for effect vs intent, may be due to viewing through the lens of a system designed for effect (i.e. approach, or task resolution). I think a system needs to be designed with intent/goal in mind. I'm reminded of...

Another vote for ambiguous population sizes. Sigil is the City of Doors; it has multiple people arriving and leaving, both deliberately and accidentally, every day. There's no way an accurate census could be taken no matter how much a given Faction wanted to.

Speaking of fae, another thing that differentiates Arthurian Legend from D&D-esque fantasy that's worth highlighting specifically is not simply the scale and prevalence of magic, but where it comes from and who utilises it. Magic is the domain of fae and other other-wordly entities, and pagans...

That's just Britain in general. Tis a silly place.

There is somewhat of an ugly undercurrent of "might makes right". With Greek myth, heroes being successful typically meant they had the favour of one or more of the gods, and this attitude seems to have carried over into Christendom: that if one was successful, clearly they had the favour of...

And in this manner, he truly is the once and future king. For Arthur to defend Britain against the Saxons, it would have to be c. 490 AD, though it's worth noting that Geoffrey of Monmoth's Historia Regum Brittaniae and Chrétien de Troyes' assorted works were both 12th Century and the...

As I understand it, it's generally accepted that Malory was indeed a prisoner as he claimed (though debate as to precisely who), so it's likely he wrote it to while away the time.

You've kind of touched on what I was going to say. I use different techniques depending on the game I'm running to try to evoke more of what the game is about. I've never run a mecha RPG, but describing the scene/situation via the HUD is precisely what I'd do in that situation. Blades in the...

While "Black Knights" are often the villains - or villeins - it should be noted that antagonists in Arthurian Legend aren't always such obvious enemies. The Lady of the Lake exploits Merlin's love/lust for her to have him teach her all he knows, then uses magic to capture and either kill him or...