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... which was probably not written by Robin D. Laws. It's fully possibly Laws has other views on scenario design. It's also quite likely that he's realized his earlier mistakes. I'm explicitly talking about what he wrote in Esoterrorists and, to a lesser extent, on See Page XX during the...

Which dragons are you comparing it to? I only own one of WotC's Huge Dragons (the Elder Iron Dragon), but the black dragon from Paizo appears comparable to it in every way.

Once mapping of any kind if taking place -- whether objective through a battlemap or subjectively through verbal descriptions -- you're unlikely to get lost. It doesn't take much accuracy for a map to give you enough information to successfully get you back to the exit. So, IME, you'll usually...

Note, as mentioned above, that the system doesn't do that. That is what Laws' advice tells the GM to do, though. What is true, however, is that if you ignore Laws' advice about how to construct scenarios (i.e., by including multiple leads and redundancy) the entire "auto-find the clue" mechanic...

The problem is that this is a very specific iteration of the general problem "cannot follow clue". The "cannot follow clue" problem can be the result of several things: (1) They mechanically fail to find the clue (2) They don't look for the clue (3) They don't look for the clue in the right...

Okay. So they still haven't fixed the problem they claim to fix unless the players run through the complete skill list in every encounter. Which I guess isn't that surprising; it's a fundamental shortcoming of the system. (It's also not the end of the world; although it is rather problematic...

I think Dead Gods merits some consideration. Maybe Return to the Tomb of Horrors. The other 2E modules that seem to still be remembered -- Night Below, Ruins of Undermountain, Dragon Mountain -- all seem to be strongly differentiated from most of the modules that were produced during 2E. It's...

Oddly, this appears to be true of "exploration" in the sense that Edwards defines it in the Big Model. As Justin Alexander noted in that link S'mon posted a few pages back, Edwards using the same terms he uses to describe simulationism to describe all roleplaying activities is a dead give-away...

Probably true. But saying that people interested in experiencing stories that have had their parameters set by somebody else constitutes an interest in "simulating" something is patent nonsense. Trying to use stance, technique, and/or division of authority at the game table to create a dividing...

I think that's just repeating Edwards mistake at a slightly smaller scale. The argument can certainly be made that storytelling railroads are a dysfunctional form of dramatist play. But I don't think that means it's not dramatist play. In similar fashion, as I mentioned earlier in the thread...

Case in point. Did somebody say it was an inferior way to play? I must have missed that. Hmm... I think you might want to go back and try re-reading my post and/or the thread. The bit you're quoting there was specifically and explicitly talking about dramatism, not simulationism. With that...

First: We're talking about the emphasis of supplemental products. I'm not sure what the development time of the core rulebook has to do with the emphasis of the supplement line. Second: I don't know where "5 years" comes from. The development cycle of 2E, 3E, and 4E were all roughly in the...

The publicity blurb reads: "In 1974, the world changed forever when Gary Gygax introduced the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game." I know WotC has, in the past, done better by Arneson than Gygax and TSR did. But in this particular instance, Arneson is being slighted. Gygax and his "innovative...

You need to know two pieces of information to resolve an AoO/OA: (1) What am I doing? (2) Can I currently be smacked by someone with a melee weapon? If you can't answer those questions without miniatures, then you can't run ANY sort of combat without miniatures.

Quick correction: Published 1978. First run at Origins in 1975. Note that Neonchameleon didn't says "without ANY narrativist trappings", he said "without MANY narrativist trappings". I think it would be pretty much impossible to run an RPG session that completely eliminated the trappings of...

Oh, yes. While there are certain problematical elements of Edwards trying to move the Threefold from decision points to mechanical design (which makes the concept of exclusivity even less applicable in actual practice) while simultaneously cranking up the theory's reliance on exclusivity into a...

Actually introduced in the 2E Option rulebooks. And although that's where the term "attack of opportunity" comes from, this was actually just a centralization of several mechanics that had been present since AD&D1. (1) Characters could choose to either "fall back" or "flee". And choosing to...

Is that one of the changes? Because that's not the way it worked in Esoterrorists.

Got the Wolfen Army Box for Xmas. Not only the best looking werewolves I've found but also the cheapest (at the close-out rates), albeit a little over-sized for D&D usage. Sorely tempted to pick up the other army boxes, even though they're a little pricier. Are the knights from the Lions set...

First: GNS was originally based on the Threefold Model developed on rec.games.frp.advocacy back in the late '90s. The Threefold was very specifically aimed at describing what motivated GMs to make specific decisions: Does this simulate the game world (simulationist)? Does this make for a good...