Recent content by pemerton

I've GMed a fair bit of Marvel Heroic RP. It is one of the RPGs that I have in mind in which the rules do not primarily (or even really at all) determine how the setting functions, nor it is one where the GM plays the setting. In MHRP, the GM present scenes - either Action or Transition scenes...

I've GMed plenty of ship travel. That hasn't generally required knowing the weight of things.

Agreed. I've GMed a lot of RPGs that include warhorses. I can't recall when, if ever, the question arose of how much a warhorse weighs!

I think this is pretty controversial. Unless I've wildly misunderstood, I can think of plenty of RPGs where this is not true. Describing the GM's role in a RPG like Burning Wheel or Prince Valiant or even (as I experienced it) 4e D&D as playing the setting seems misleading to me. Framing scenes...

Why do RPGs have rules? Here are the key points in the OP of that thread:

You probably know this old Forge thread: [IaWA] Breaking Bad Habits It's all pretty good stuff, and - which is something we spoke about after the game - Vincent does talk about not setting stakes. When it comes to best interests, here's an interesting suggestion that Vincent offers, to help...

No, that was someone else: D&D General - Melf's Guide to Greyhawk: The Shield Lands

It's not part of the game to puzzle out best interests. These are public: the game depends upon everyone knowing what the situation is. There's no hidden board. (Unlike, say, classic dungeon-crawling D&D.) For the game to work, me (as my character) pursuing my (character's) best interests needs...

This slightly meandering post is prompted by playing a session of In A Wicked Age today. When we were discussing the session afterwards, @thefutilist pointed me to an old Vincent Baker blog: anyway: Creating Situation: a practical example The best line from the blog is actually in one of the...

What RPG do you have in mind that this is not true of?

Huh? This is what you said: And this is what @Campbell said: They're not "pretty much the same thing". They're very different things.

5e has a rather generic way of assigning mediaeval/fantasy skills to a PC; and then a lot of very detailed rules for assigning primarily combat abilities to PCs that are mediaeval/fantasy abilities. And has a fairly tight combat resolution system, provided that the combat is a melee or skirmish...

So 5e D&D is a generic RPG rule set? But BitD isn't? I'm not sure what the basis is for the ostensible contrast.

@Campbell said it best, years ago:

I dunno. I recently reread Ghost Tower of Inverness. I don't think it's that good. Castle Amber has some interesting ideas, but a lot of filler. When I adapted the Moathouse from T1 to Torchbearer, I cut out a reasonable amount of slog. One of the better old adventures I've converted and run...