Recent content by Mustrum_Ridcully

It might be hard to narrow it down to individual mechanics, because there have been many games and many things tried. I think a "modern" or "contemporary" game often have a certain level of intentionality in how the game will be played a the table, typically with a goal to emulate a certain...

I was also thinking of Torg when I wrote my post. Torg also had the initiative deck with the drama and the standard scene side. The deck would be drawn to determine which side would act first and hand out bonuses or penalties, stuff like setbacks (suffer some stun damage or maybe an equipment...

I think the best approximation towards a solution I can come up with: If the narrative goal is that force points use happen if the tension is the highest, you need a way to gain force points by getting into the tension, or somehow track that tension and only allow spending the force points if...

The pessimist in me worries that maybe the audience cannot recognize the value because AI slop still can manipulate us very effectively emotionally with words. I guess the question is - at what point is the AI slop is so sloppy that even though it hits all the right key words to get us...

Predictions are difficult,especially when it comes to the feature. If it is a pendulum, of course it swings back. But is it? I don't know, but I have one argument for it: RPGs seem to have reached a broader appeal than they used to. If that is true, then games will have trouble becoming...

Yes, that is kinda a problem with skill feats in general, and it existed with feats 3rd Edition D&D and Pathinder 1, too. Finding non-combat feats that don't just suddenly act as if they forbid ordinary things from being done without the feat. Splat books could give a lot of scool stuff, but...

I never noticed the nacelle attachment points, but I think the nacelle mounted phaser banks I did notice.

Oh god, how much I hate the very idea of ghost heat. It seems there were so many better approaches to do it ,that would probably also feel more plausible. Grrhh. --- One thing that bothers me a bit about Battletech is that Mechs die too easy. I don't mean that they get to defeated too easy...

I am not sure how much that was aimed at the Foundation and how much it was aimed at the Empire. In the end, it is the Empire that attacks Kalgan and then gets its fleet blown up. That might be important to ensure a Foundation controlled by her can safely engage the Empire (especially since...

I thought similar. It felt very much like that - you basically had some sort of mercs working for oppressively powerful corporations, but also opposed to them. The interesting twist was maybe how the hosts kinda added a bit of 3rd party to the mix.

It feels kinda dumb going from "almost death" to "almost uninjured" several times during combat. On the other hand, if you don't have in-combat healing, hit points go only down during combat, and the tension is basically only at the end, because that's when you see whether you'll make it or...

Oh gosh, here come the cheesy puns.

That is kinda what I wonder about. Just like we could maybe theoretically envision something like silicon-based instead of carbon-based life based on carbon and silicon being in the same column on the periodic table. But when we look more closely, we find that silicon-based bonds do lack some of...

Nice study, but I don't know ,these pure-maths model might make good articles, but with the same methods, we also get the world being a simulation in a bunch of simulations which is probably at the end of its lifetime (or at least humanity's lifetime), and we better help get evil AGIs because...

In Hexxen it makes a difference because it affects how good your can parry (and often more damage means worse parry) is, but you can basically switch between weapons as often as you like.