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Rae Nedjadi (Apocalypse Keys, Once More into the Void, Our Haunt, upcoming Tomb Raider games) Creates emotionally immersive games that are still packed with action and tension. Apocalypse Keys in particular mirrors personal conflict with external conflicts that highlight our monstrous natures...

That's one way to do it. Not the only way. GM provided plot is not a given.

I promise you target numbers are not lying in wait, ready to steal all evocative descriptions or engagement with the fiction. Unless damn near every game I have or ran or played for the last 15 years has been a figment of my imagination. From my perspective if someone's ability to engage with...

The issue I have personally experienced with the sort of relative descriptions we see most GMs provide in most games is what they are relative to (normal people). This makes it very difficult to assess relative strength or danger in comparison (every monster is dangerous to a typical villager)...

You're missing pretty much all of the underlying structure of GM Moves, The First Scene, principles, the Seating Chart, etc. There's a wealth of structure that underpins the game (and is meant to be treated with the same force if not more) that is not contained on the character sheets and basic...

Calling Apocalypse World, Monsterhearts, Apocalypse Keys or Masks rules light would be a big stretch to me. These are games with a fair number of moving parts that all interact with each other. What is true is that the rules involved often require some interpretation based on the fictional...

For me what generally matters is how complex a particular piece of crunch is and if there are stacking passive effects. I really dislike mechanics that happen twice on a full moon during leap years or that have a bunch of attached caveats. Pathfinder Second Edition feels pretty good to me where...

The core resolution mechanic is highly inspired by Forged in the Dark and Powered by the Apocalypse, and the combat mechanics are an attempt to wed those resolution mechanics with D&D style tactical combat. They likely will need some fine tuning because that's a bit of a heavy lift, but the...

The advancement math is really my biggest concern. Not just the ability to alpha strike, but also the ability to like stack defensive builds. Like the Stalwart Guardian who goes hard in the paint for thresholds and armor boxes - how does that stack up against monster math and compared to more...

I haven't seen many of his videos, but in his responses to survey he seemed pretty even handed to me. He had a pretty positive view of D&D and mixed feelings on Wizards, primarily targeted towards business decisions rather than product or design decisions. It does not come across as particularly...

For me personally, one of the biggest selling points is that it seems like a game that does not feel a need to protect players from one another or to ration out characters' ability to impact the setting. Domain card abilities are straight forward, contain few caveats and do not go out of their...

I think we should look at this through the prism of the game's core premise and principles. The sense I get is that it is intended that the other player characters are not just people you adventure with, but some of your best friends in the world. People who have been there for you and you can...

Yeah. I think "rules light" has come to be associated with games that explicitly specify where and how GM judgement is intended to be used, but most of those games are not really lighter on rules than 5e. Like because there isn't a specific mechanic that says this is exactly what happens in...

Sure, there have been a substantial number of changes to D&D over the years but we're talking about over the course of 50 years. That's a lot of years. Take a look at something like Shadowrun, Vampire, Exalted or Legend of the Five Rings over a 20-year timespan and you will see a much more...

I'm a very big fan of https://www.youtube.com/@GhostfireGaming and https://www.youtube.com/@KnightsofLastCall though the latter is much more focused on roleplaying games in a broader sense.

Speaking personally the right sorts of character sheets enhance my immersion because they point me back to the things that matter to my character. In Blades this includes Vice, Trauma, Relationships, Heritage and Belief. In L5R (5e) this includes Duty/Desire, Honor, Glory, Passions...

My biggest concern is how hope and fear currencies, especially fear, interface with GM Moves. In systems like 2d20 threat is used to apply the equivalent of hard moves in a game system that otherwise does not integrate them. Based on my initial combat tests I feel like it functions fairly well...