Recent content by Pedantic

Maybe 3e has grooved itself too hard into my brain, but intuitively it does really feel like that's not a lot to ask. My experience doesn't bear it out though.

I felt similarly and it's the game norm in A5E. I designed an updated character sheet when I was playing that game to reflect this, having players sweep for ability bonus at the top, then scan down to a list of skills with proficiency and circumstance bonuses/effects listed, but I was surprised...

I've found A5E's expertise die a reasonable compromise, though it didn't go as far substituting that mechanic as it could have. Restricting all the helpful type bonuses down to 1 die, that just upgrades from a d4 up to a d8 barring specific class features provides a little more design space...

Yeah, my problem with that was how casually Mearls threw it out as a truth of the medium, instead of a design decision. There's some truth in that RPGs tend to leave the goal open ended, either as an exercise for the GM or the players, in the form of adventure design or player directed victory...

Role-playing, to my eyes, is primarily an metagame way of setting the goals of play. It's essential in a role-playing game that otherwise lacks a win condition, and deeply unwanted when that condition is baked into the rules structure itself. The closest I get is in translation game events back...

Personally I think turkey is mostly overrated, but it can be salvaged with careful brining. There's much more exciting fowl, but tradition and availability will out.

I think you're better off writing like 4 charismatic mammal species, and then doing the big book of slightly more specific animal people later, but that's definitely a matter of taste. The person who wants to be an anthro wolverine isn't going to like being identical to an anthro wolf and will...

Different resource models for different classes is absolutely a good start. I personally think running Fighter/rogue powers through general systems is also good, like having them do skill checks or modify weapon properties, etc. One risk with your recharge model above (and in general, if you...

I think the big 4e mistake (aside from naming them "Healing Surges" which nearly suggests the inverse role they serve, Trespasser's Endurance is a much better name), was tying them to a daily/per rest refresh schedule. Adopting something like the 5e gritty rest schedule, with a limited pool of...

I pulled this section out, because I think you're broadly right here (in that there's a rejection of adventure path style or sometimes even Hickman revolution altogether play structures) but the specific elements you call out are in incompatible tension. You can't both leave blanks and create a...

I feel like we're on the verge of rehashing the same points all over again. "Play to find out" is a strong signal that you as a player of this game should be looking for enjoyment in surprising outcomes; the bit that is delightful is watching novelty that no player could have anticipated unfold...

I feel like we're talking past each other. The GM fudging point is orthogonal to what I'm talking about; the sentence I quoted above homes in on the bit I'm focused on well. The point of play is gambling and enjoying a mutually surprising outcome, not in trying to make the most effective series...

I don't actually see a contradiction. All of your examples turn over agency to chance; the player does not know and cannot force an outcome, and the enjoyment is presumably in learning which outcome does occur, not in making choices to achieve a specific outcome. I think the phrase is trying...

I've taken to reading it as an admonition, instructing players not to care about making a specific state come to pass.

Unfortunately, my lived experience is very different. I'm down with your design goal to inject variety, but I think the current state of 5e has led to a class of players who just don't see a reason to internalize the rules structure, and we're in a world where the "I attack" fighter with a...