Recent content by Neonchameleon

And I am disagreeing. I personally find that the WoD's lore is among the best of the 20th Century settings. But we've come a long way in the past 30 years in getting the benefits out of good lore without burying it in extruded content. But why did oWoD lore work? And more to the point why did...

The history of D&D especially in the TSR era. oD&D and Keep on the Borderlands is basically a fantasy Western with the orcs and co standing in for Native Americans - and that's before we get into e.g. Mystara.

I'll second that. Most D&D races that stay true to their racial characteristics are neither more nor less than a Star Trek (TOS) Planet of the Hats. Also adventurers pretty much by definition are weird and strange, having turned their back on their species normal way of life for the life of an...

But who is saying that "Lore does not matter and reason for lore does not matter"? I might have missed someone but as far as I can tell literally no one (and certainly not me) is saying that. However I am outright saying that good lore engages players and bad lore loses them. And that a lot of...

Quite the reverse. Races are part of how players get to personalise their characters. They are more intimately connected with the parts the players engage in than geographic features that the players are never going to see; the players don't carry geography around with them. Meanwhile magic is...

It's barely a trade-off. There are only about three hours in a session. And with K and that group I can either have a mediocre tactical session or an excellent dramatic session. My tastes are diverse. The only time it becomes a problem is if I've got e.g. J and R at the table. J is a great...

Meanwhile for me what I get by actively letting everyone create is never what I want and is 90% of the time actively better than what I'd have picked on my own. We aren't setting down for a meal fundamentally prepared by a chef none of us have ever met. We're a team working together. And I can...

I'm sorry to hear that, but ironically the only time I've seen it matters in play for one of the "classic Tolkien races" is with a dwarf who had a miner's conservatism and lack of toleration of mistakes because they'd grown up knowing that it wouldn't just be them but their entire mine Finding...

We still haven't given a reason why RenleyRenfield exists. Or for that matter Neonchameleon. Indeed the only person round here who is in any way essential is @Morrus because without him there would be no ENWorld in its current form. But the simple fact is that we all do exist. It's not that it...

Just to put things into perspective I'm simultaneously running two Daggerheart games right now for two groups with no one else in common - and for those who don't know Daggerheart there are 18 playable ancestries in the core rules, and the world's presented are half a dozen pages of guidelines...

Fate points are only abstract in the sense their effect isn't specified until you use them. And are abstract in that way so they CAN simulate all the different ways things could happen. Fate Points are therefore a great sim tool.

Except that hit points don't represent damage. Things and people that are damaged are weaker and less capable. Hit points represent your ability to ignore physical consequences.

If it's not fun it's not a good game. And I you've put your finger on an issue with simulationism - all we have is guesses backed by some research.

First Rolemaster is second in my sim game list (behind, of course, GURPS) and is definitely underappreciated. But the problem it has in terms of complexity is that due to the required tables for the combat you can not master Rolemaster to the point you can run without looking things up in the...