Recent content by Xamnam

For the vast majority of my games where this question is relevant, exceptional feels too strong of a word for where I want them to start. However, I do want them to be interesting, competent, capable. They're not uniquely special, I just want them to be Level 1, not Level 0.

Well hey, maybe grousing here did something, I just got my initial shipment and tracking email!

So very anxious to receive my copy.

I'm always naming the different types, but depending on how much energy I have and where in the evening we are, I might parcel out individual values, or just combine them all into a lump sum.

I'll start by saying your point's fair, and I understand the argument! I think it's a very worthwhile goal to make sure the text of the book does not come across as final, complete, and limiting. However, to treat your example too literally, 10 is far too short of list to serve as compelling...

Not if that's not what the game/system/table/campaign is seeking to emulate.

Honestly, all of them, but the three setting books are definitely most interesting, and HotB is distinctly behind everything else.

Honestly, I probably use New vs. Old more than any other distinguishers. But, if it comes to the poll options: 2024 / 5e24.

Here's the list from the world generator for my homebrew world, ordered roughly by prevalence: It doesn't cover Tieflings, as they don't have a significant local territory, and it is certainly not exhaustive beyond that. Any of those would be fair game for a player to roll up a character as...

I think using the words real, or objective are a huge red herring (pun obviously intended) in this discussion, hence why I put them in scare quotes. Yet, to me, both sides of this conversation are terribly clear in what they're trying to communicate about mysteries, and I do not understand why...

Things, facts, and details can have an "objective" / "external" / "real" / "factual" existence if the frame of reference being used for that language is that of the characters within said setting.

I'm largely on the same page as you, but there's certainly room for where the stuff that would spark your interest to learn more/everything that's been written about a creature or faction also unfortunately happens to be the stuff missing from this specific entry. There's no way of precisely...

I'm about 50/50 on saying either TTRPGs or A game like D&D, depending on how interested I think the other person is / how much of a conversation I feel like having. I don't think I've ever used D&D to refer to some completely other game, like Kleenex for tissue.

I really like this answer, because it covers two separate issues very neatly. Both on the interpersonal level, making sure people are engaged, having fun, not bored or tuning out, and then on a fictional level, delivering scenes that matter to the characters (and players), reflecting their...