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Hic rhodus, hic salta; if you think it’s so easy then go spit out something great (no, really.) People say the same thing about prose writing, photography, and modern art, because they can imagine doing the basic physical action; if people started out with perfect manual dexterity then they’d...

Obviously, some media (film, photography, architecture) are more dependent on external tools than others (dance, standup.) This isn’t otherwise considered relevant to legitimacy. (Ironically trad art is probably closer to film than dance on this scale.) Since it’s a new medium, you obviously...

In the old GDS/GNS senses of the term, OSR - and this includes not just the big tomes like WWN or OSRIC but the little pamphlet-length games like Cairn and the “no written rules at all” wing in the FKR - is very and explicitly simulationist. That is, the game is supposed to simulate “what would...

Peterson’s Elusive Shift pretty thoroughly debunks the idea that there was one canonical playstyle in the early era; basically as soon as different groups of nerds got their hands on OD&D they used it for “GM tells everyone a story,” analog Diablo, deep method acting, tournament play, West...

The classic fantasy heartbreakers - on Ron Edward’s’ original definition, which involved basically a “better” basement version of dnd, with at least one really neat idea, but with certainty that it could beat the original and little experience from the designer with other games - is really a...

“Mercantile” is indeed probably a better name, but my read on the cultures here is that only in a minority of cases do they represent a whole civilization - more often a way of life that you grew up in and that may well be a minority subculture within the greater social fabric. This isn't...

Since reading Save the Cat - a book on screenwriting that prescribes a very particular plot structure - I’ve noticed myself enjoying mediocre movies less, because you can tell that the writers’ room was just taking the initial broad concept of the film and filling in the “expected” plot beats...

Personality 1. The banshee is vain and demands that all pay tribute to her beauty. 2. The feirshee is more than properly humbled and seeks to hide his beauty from the world. 3. She is repentant and seeks to bring out the beauty in everyone (regardless, perhaps, of whether they want to or not.)...

Personality 1. The Azer is aware that the Prime Material Plane is flammable and extremely fastidious about keeping her distance, lest she damage anything. 2. He is intensely curious - and credulous - about the techniques by which common materials were produced. 3. She is the Azer equivalent of a...

Hardly a proper entry 1. A lamp which communicates by Morse Code or by shining a spotlight on certian things. 2. A chair that awkwardly shuffles around. 3. A swinging chandelier that communicates, fights, and bargains by dropping glass or golden figurines, or by rustling. 4. A door with a...

Personality Trait 1. The Aarakocra repeats phrases and sounds like a parrot. 2. She constantly interprets signs and portents. 3. He carries a bag of bats to snack on, and will offer them to whoever appears hungry. 4. She has taken a vow of silence, and can only communicate through...

Precisely so. Also, the other utility for Paizo is that it owns the IP. Had it owned FR or Greyhawk, there wouldn't be a great deal of point in creating another.

One of the design goals for Eberron was indeed "everything that has a place in D&D has a place here." But Eberron also has a lot of distinctive elements beyond that, from the organizing fact of the political situation to the light magitech to the mechanical changes to allow for greater moral...

If you have a passion for early modern North Africa? Quite a bit. (With the "Moorish Pirates" premise in particular you would in fact want a great deal of diversity beyond North African expies just to represent the original premise, but.) Late medieval Western Europe gets to not be a "trope"...

I don't really have any positive requests - I really love the Sword & Planet suggestion, and there are tropes that I tend to go back to in my own world-doodles, but there's an infinite number of world premises that a determined person could do well. Rather, what I would want is (1) a strong...

D&D's always had an interesting thematic tension between high fantasy and S&S - which you see most prominently in all the talk of heroism and defeating Evil in a game about murdering people and looting their corpses. I'm not sure the authorial intent is for these all to go into one game -...

Some quick thoughts: I don't think dwarves add anything to the setting; they feel kludged in. Halflings would be kludged in too. Shifters, by contrast, feel more at home; they'd be bodies coinhabited by a human and a spirit who'd fallen in love with them, perhaps, and turn into jaguars...

Demogony The Serpent Nation rules the world with a howl and serrated claw, the open violence at the heart of organized society. They know know family but their city nor mother nor father but the Tisroc - even the wayward children. They worship with blood and fire, which are the same to them -...

The Lord of the House of Dawn sets down the bone poker and resumes his brush. This mixture will have a little less tar and a little more blood and aspics' spit. He has cried less into it; he thinks perhaps the problem is a surfeit of melodrama. On the skin before him are zigs that ward from fire...

LG Celestials might be obligated to give a pact to one who fulfills certain conditions, due to rules made long ago - what first starts off as a decree of justice or incentive for good behavior later becomes an esoteric path to enlightenment and power. Perhaps, long ago, the priesthood of...