Recent content by Mustrum_Ridcully

I love D&D 4 combat, but I agree that I would hate using it for the multi-encounter dungeon crawls, which is what many of the adventures were. Typically, we had a few set piece combats (which were usually pretty tough, maybe I should have used a few easy combats for fun sometimes), and those...

Having combat sometimes be resolvable with a single die roll certainly can be interesting. The classic movie scene where someone sneaks up on a guard and knocks them out (and they wake up safe and sound with a bit of a head-ache later) is hard to pull off if enemies have 20+ hit points and you...

Maybe Harry Potter specifically, because i think he wasn't that great with Potions, but Harry Potter Universe Wizards do a bit more than just cantrips. But clearly, they don't need to memorize their spells or prepare them usually. Though they also have rituals, I think. Wands are also particular...

True. I guess you need a system to adjudicate fleeing the scene or at least forcing an arrest and giving another chance to escape later with an almost guarantee of success. Which can also lean into a narrative mechanic... --- I can't really say that I have a favorite company to make a Star...

Independent of whether you count this as narrative control or not - if the end result is that the Smuggler with the Heart of Gold can roll himself into beating a Sith Lord in a straight fight, you probably don't do the setting justice. If your system balances the Smuggler against the Sith Lord...

It's naturally difficult to classify. The base rules of 4E are fairly simple. But the exception based design of the powers (much like that of spells) adds a lot, and more importantly, during combat, the complexity rises because you have to consider the environment more, with all the area...

And what is a drama point/benny/luck point if not a narrative mechanic? You get to narrate "Aha, but something awesome to my benefit happens."

There are many different ways for a spellcaster to work. The pseudo-Vancian magic model of the 5E flavor is just one way. Mages don't need to have something like cantrips. Shadowrun has spellcasters, and they work completely different from D&D. (I wouldn't say they are not complex, though!)...

I made a Star Wars 4E-inspired game and played a campaign with it. The concern with power level can be real. Personally ,I think Jedi Knights and Masters are simply high level characters, but there are non-force-sensitive characters that can get to that power level, too. I think one of my...

If 5e is at a 6 or 7 for some, D&D 4 must be 9 or 10? Because that's the complexity I enjoyed. But where would something like Shadowrun (3e? 4e? 5e?) or Phoenix Command fit then? I'd definitely rate 5E lower. But maybe there is an important point to what Umbran says - complexity needs to exist...

Complexity should exist to faciliate making the outcome interesting and giving the players meaningful choices. If your skill challenge for a ritual or crafting is just: "Make 6 checks, don't fail too hard", it doesn't really add as much as you'd like. Combat isn't like that - sure, you might...

I don't neccessarily agree that a simple caster should act as sort of training wheels for the "real" spellcaster. It should be its own class that does what it needs to do to be a viable class among all the other others and uses magic, filling the niche of...

Hehe, the first time I played BG 3, I missed the entire underdark part of Act 1. That's lots of quests, XPs, NPCs and stories to be ignored, but still managed to get to the end. So yeah, you can miss a lot of stuff, but it's okay. The things that I liked about BG 3 was: The characters and...

A spoiler to your spoiler:

I think sometimes defini I don't think we need a fighter of the complexity of the 0e or 3e Fighter or Thief. "Simple" I think will always be measured in comparison to other examples, we don't need something that is "absolutely simple". Maybe there are players that really only want an...