Recent content by pemerton

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...

Not really.

Hmm. I'm not sure the D&D combat resolution system can easily be made generic. The whole stop-motion, one attack per N seconds to deplete X hit points, approach is clearly best for melee and hand-to-hand duels. It's wonkier for archery - what actually happens when an arrow "hits" a character...

?? It's evident in the maps in LotR, and in the narration of The Hobbit which expressly refers to the world of the story as being in the author and reader's past. Patrice Louinet's critical edition of the REH Conan stories begins with a poem, Cimmeria, which is not portal fantasy but is...

Well, 4e D&D did work through this pretty carefully (in Worlds & Monsters and Open Grave). It seemed like a coherent thought process!

I was responding to this post:

There are multiple examples of "universal" systems that have been mentioned in this thread, that depart from this model: Cortex+/Prime; Hero Wars/Quest; Fate; even FitD.

If you want to play a game in which there are no Goliath PCs, or no Dwarven Wizards, then why not jus tplay it? I'm not sure why you need WotC to give you permission, or direction. Likewise with the rest rules. I mean (i) these have already been published and (ii) you seem to have already set...

I'm not that hard to enlighten! But I am wondering what RPGs you have in mind. My inference is that you're talking about games that are largely GM story-telling. Again, I'm wondering what your evidence base is - that is, what games are you thinking of?

Luckily no one has ever advanced mocking criticism of the two RPGs I've spent more consecutive years playing than any others - Rolemaster, and 4e D&D. So my gaming ego is unaffronted. <reviews nearly every post ever about RM and 4e> Wait, I think I need to edit this post . . .

I don't think anyone would regard HERO or Rolemaster as light or simple systems. But both leave scene-framing, transition from scene-to-scene, and outcomes beyond immediate kinetic consequences, or immediate interpersonal consequences, in the hands of the GM. So both are extremely vulnerable to...

What are these "light and simple systems" that encourage "playing the GM"? Or that are as close to just pass/fail as possible? The light and simple system I have the most experience with is Prince Valiant. Neither of those propositions is true of it. Whether a system admits of results other...

You seem to be positing bad GMing.

I get what you're saying, but I have a feeling that at least some aspects of genre and some aspects of playstyle overlap. I feel an ammo-tracking combat system, for instance, doesn't fit well with space opera genre, but suggests something more Tom Clancy-esque. I'm happy to concede it's...

As best I can recall, I don't think I've ever run a "generic"/"universal" RPG. But if I did, it would probably be HeroQuest Revised. Another possibility would be Story Bones (Maelstrom Storytelling without the setting).