Recent content by Umbran

So, it may be useful to notice that it isn't just individual players, GMs, or tables that move away from rolled stats. If you look outside of D&D, it is a pretty small share of games that have random stat generation.

Small clarification: then then entire table shouldn't roll stats.

Yep. And yoru experience is fair. It just probably isn't universal. This, to my mind, is the actual point of game balance. In a reasonably balanced game, mostly equitable shares of contribution and spotlight will be distributed by the action of play, with little to no effort on the GM's par...

Maybe speak for yourself on this one. There is more to collaborative games than just being present for group success. Perhaps you find that sufficiently satisfying, but it is not unreasonable for a gamer to also want their own contributions to the outcome to be significant, to get a suitable...

Er. You know, that "believe" you put in there reads as... judgey. Like, you don't actually think their position has some sound basis in their experience, or something?

I have never played with a group that felt a 3 was a playable stat. So, this would trigger whatever re-roll processes the game had established.

So, let's see... I have a Savage Worlds/Deadlands: Lost Colony campaign that I'm running that should start in January. There's a Daggerheart/Humblewood game I am playing in that should also start in January. I'm playing in a Fate Accelerated/Hollow West game that has had one session that...

There are some (like "10 Candles") that start with that premise, I feel that this is broadly incorrect. Horror can end in a TPK, but it isn't "supposed to". Before you ask about how you do this successfully, you probably want to ask why you would want to do this. Because that why should...

There's nothing intrinsically wrong with that position. I just think it has no value in terms of either critique or genre classification. I have no real desire to continue with you on the subject, especially given the next bit.... Riiight. Because, making the discussion personal when you can...

So, that is either an insult, or a high compliment, depending on what you think of Don Quixote. So, how about we take it that you mean the high compliment, seeing as insulting folks right in front of me would normally be... unwise, right? Good.

The family unification theme is the only solid bit here. Unfortunately, it isn't sufficient on its own, especially when much of the rest of the film is spent... killing people who are also likely to be members of families. The bloody, explosive deaths kind of undermine that point. The rest...

Not that I get to tell you what to do, but watching a bit more closely for the themes involved might be informative to you. I haven't seen Harold & Kumar, and have no desire to do so for sake of this silly argument. But The Nightmare Before Christmas, and even the poorly-executed and...

It would be interesting to see you argue that It's a Wonderful Life isn't an X-mas movie, given that said movie comes from a story ("The Greatest Gift," by Phillip Van Doren Stern, 1943) that is explicitly and intentionally based on Dicken's ,"A Christmas Carol." The author initially...

Yeah, but let us be honest - serious critical analysis would not find that Die Hard fits the tropes of a Christmas movie, other than the fictional events happening at Christmas time. You do realize that you can bring joy to people without the label "Christmas movie", right? So the desire to...

Yep. This is why balance is aspirational - unless you tightly constrain the play space, there's no real way to know for sure your construction is always perfectly balanced.