Recent content by Neonchameleon

I thought I'd also expand on something. My current gaming club, The RP Haven thrives based on short campaigns (four quarter-long campaigns a year). We're only fifteen years old, and up to eleven branches (not counting the online branch) and happy to help set up more. The short campaign model...

My first instinct here is that it's certainly a cool basis but I don't like armour as a choice for this subclass; it feels as if armour should be Relic + Bone or even Splendour rather than Blade. Torchbearer looks inspiring. Getting into the gritty details of the domain I see a lot to tweak...

I love them and most of my recent campaigns, both run and played have been short ones although I've kept groups together for years on end running chained campaigns. I also find D&D and especially D&D 5e very bad at them. I'd rather use something more narrative (e.g. Apocalypse World, Blades in...

For non-fantasy I'm going to suggest Apocalypse World. Also does Scum and Villainy (which is not Star Wars, honest!) count as non-fantasy? For that matter does Blades in the Dark?

Oh and just to confirm what you asked about: The XP for GP rules were specific rules for dungeon crawling. I'm not sure why you are saying that it makes it 'no longer gritty'. What ripped out what mechanical grit there was from 1e dungeon crawling was the deprecation or removal of the hireling...

D&D has never in any edition been genuinely gritty. Hit points are anti-grit. Gritty is Call of Cthulhu, WFRP, or even Blades in the Dark where you have to live with consequences. The only consequence in D&D that's on the table 95% of the time is death (and here comes Sigby, brother of Rigby)...

Exactly this. The main mechanical changes I recall were the deprecation or removal of XP for GP and of hireling rules, both of which strongly work with gritty dungeon crawling, and the addition of "Non weapon proficiencies" But the tone changed dramatically while most of the mechanics didn't

Xp for GP is a fundamental default rule in 1e and deprecated into a very much optional rule in 2e. And deprecating this rule (and a couple of its relatives) ripped the heart out of the gritty dungeon crawling In 1e roughly 80% of your experience came from loot not fighting. If you could trick...

Honestly? Because 1e is a solid game of gritty dungeon crawling mercenaries out for liit with rough edges, 2e is a complete mess where the rules are written for high fantasy action adventure while still using 95% rules for gritty mercenaries robbing dungeons. (And most "1e" fans IME play B/X...

To me this says your knowledge of modern systems stops in about 2010. Because there was a vast leap forward in using mechanics to encourage characterisation starting in about 2010 with games like Fate Core, Apocalypse World, the Cortex Plus games, and others. And Daggerheart has basically...

Your perception [edit: that game lines are smaller not that there are fewer games as well] is absolutely right IMO - but on the flip side I can count many more indies with solid reps than I could in the 90s or the 00s. And games have got a whole lot better at focusing on a theme than they were...

I have three metrics for success. Commercially: Did it make break even? Design wise: Can I see myself running or playing this over using Fate, GURPS, D&D 5e, or the nearest existing PbtA game? Socially: Three years after release is anyone in my extended gaming network running or even talking...

That's basically what most narrative games (almost all the GM'd ones) do. The old school narrative games are all about cutting the cruft that gets in the way for a light and fast experience then relying on players and GM to go cinematic. The new school ones add lightish rules that enhance the...