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Character gen, narrative dice, confusion.

I think there may be some overlap, but neotrad is precisely different because traditional play always has the assumption in the background that the GM's prerogatives supersede the players'. When push comes to shove, the GM's ideas for the game world / continuity will take precedence, period...

Definitely agree with this. My stress levels are higher and overall life enjoyment noticeably lower when I go without my RPG group for more than a month (we typically play every two weeks).

Stop spending money on systems I'm never going to play. I'm realizing more and more that I derive no value from stuff that's never going to hit the table. In the past I've bought stuff thinking, "Oh it'll be nice to have that as a reference for some other thing I'm doing." Or thinking that...

The strongest overarching theme of Star Wars, in my mind, speaks to the ways in which those in power choose to wield it. So for me, the backdrop of the Star Wars Galaxy is most interesting when it addresses those issues. I've long felt that the greatest misstep of Eps. VII, VIII, and IX was...

Please please please please, when someone suggests Dungeon World for a Powered by the Apocalypse option, please please substitute Ironsworn instead. It actually delivers on the promise that Dungeon World only partially realized, IMHO. Also, Shaintar or Pathfinder for Savage Worlds, Fantasy...

Well obviously the big tension between RPG play and performance is that performance largely assumes there's a script, and if you go off script, it breaks the performance. Which would beg the point, why are you playing an RPG, with its random chance and die rolls and fickle GMs and players just...

Yeah, it's almost as if neotrad sees it as strictly performative. Much the same way TikTok is performative. In fact, I think that's a pretty good comparison, the more I think about it. Neotrad = "RPG play as TikTok". The main point of the exercise is to perform for an audience using a crafted...

And I should follow up by saying, there's absolutely nothing wrong with just wanting to be Batman. It's totally valid. There's absolutely value in using RPGs as an escape, to just show up, roll some dice, and "be Batman" every other Thursday. And I can see from the neotrad perspective...

Perhaps a slightly less pejorative way of describing neotrad play, using an ever-popular Batman meme --- "Always be yourself. Unless you can be Batman, then be Batman." It's really easy to picture a player looking at an RPG and saying to him/herself, "I just want to be Batman." And in the...

I read this last week, but didn't really fully grasp the implications until I re-read it earlier this morning. This is more interesting / provocative than it might seem at first glance. So, just to make sure I'm following what "neo-trad" play actually means --- as I understand it, "neo-trad"...

This brings up a very interesting point --- how open is the "average" player to modifying an internalized view of their character based on something like a failed action declaration? My character isn't as "hard" as he thinks he is could be (and very well might have been) an interesting turning...

One of things I've noticed over the years is that the most memorable characters are usually memorable based on what they do within the campaign. There doesn't seem to be a strong correlation between character internalization and being memorable. The things a player does with a character are...

There's a strong overlap between these answers, I'd think. "Stakes mattering," at least in my experience, almost always involves connectivity to the game world through relationships and goals.

I very much agree with you about not trying to shoehorn too much into a character profile/personality up front. There's a definite feeling out of a character's general persona as he/she starts interacting with the rest of the group and the game world. There's little details you start to see that...

I had an interesting experience a few weeks ago. We were building level 5 characters for a very, very short 5e, 3-session mini-adventure. And I'm not sure what happened, but I somehow stumbled on a really interesting character concept and personality that resonated with me. I ended up playing...

So much this. I can't +1 this enough. *Honestly, this right here is one of, if not the biggest turn-off for me around the World of Darkness products from the '90s / early 2000s. The first 20+ pages of every book is a long, meandering, generally mediocre (or worse) block of prose trying to...

Have been noticing this exact problem with the FFG Star Wars rule sets. Have you seen how thick those books are? Edge of the Empire is 445 pages. Age of Rebellion is 460. And this is full-size 8.5x11 pages with tiny, miniscule font. The font is so small I can hardly read it if I'm wearing my...

So after a sharp right into PbtA GM-ing with Ironsworn this year, I'm going to be running an FFG Star Wars game starting in January. And I'm actually a bit nervous about it, because I haven't flexed those GM muscles in a while. In the "Apocalypse World" thread from earlier this year, I brought...

I've owned the hardcover since 2011, but have never played it. However, I've read through the system 5 or 6 times, and based on my reading, it's the only iteration of the d20 OGL rules I'd ever GM ever again. The monster templating system is pure genius, and all the races+classes are rich with...