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If they die or leave it's going to have massive implications, The attendant fallout would be a significant part of the game that would echo for quite some time. Also, the connected NPCs that they have a role in crafting (and thus have just as much a claim to) would continue to have significant...

Feel free to take your character from my game into someone else's game, but the opposite is not happening. My group's expectation is that you will work with the GM and the other players to create a character that specifically fits the game we are playing and not to bring any baggage in with you...

I think a lot depends on the specific characters and how deeply ingrained in the game. For home group having to excise some characters from the fiction would basically end our ability to continue on with the game. Of course, it's not just characters that have shared ownership. It's also...

Vampire and Exalted were very instructive games early on. The idea that you could start play with all these existing connections to the setting (Mentor, Allies, Contacts, etc.) and that should matter to play. What really got to me was the idea that who the character is personally and mentally...

The characters in the games I run (and most of the games I play) are not isolated islands. They have positions, responsibilities, and a vast array of relationships. It is very rare for a player character to not at least become important on a regional level. Certainly, they are one of the most...

I'm a big fan if there's a spending element like in Apocalypse Keys where 8+ is a success and 11+ is success with consequences and your bonus is based on how many Darkness tokens you are willing to spend. I'm a fan of push your luck mechanics in general.

Getting to my personal feelings I am very much of the first two spokes of the Wheel (tests and versus tests), but in general I am not a fan of the scripting that comes along with Mouseguard conflicts or Burning Wheel's Duel of Wits / Combat. The double blind nature of it feels at odds with the...

Journeys for their own sake (when they are mostly conflict neutral). Playing out the trip between Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate when what we care about is in Baldur's Gate is dreadfully boring to me. If getting there is a harrowing adventure within itself (like travelling through the Mines of...

A couple things - the Mouse Guard are not common soldiers. They are more akin to Special Forces or Navy Seals, but with a much wider portfolio. The missions they take on involve them travelling throughout the mice's territories, confronting dangerous animals, mediating disputes., helping guide...

From my perspective it really matters how fine-grained stuff like skill and attribute rating and like what they mean. In most games that don't put much emphasis on character progression you are already starting pretty damn close to the peaks where just maintaining that level of skill would take...

These days I find myself and more drawn to games with fairly minimal progression that start characters out as protagonists from the outset. Instead, I like the game's reward system to be focused on relationships and / or meta currency like World of Darkness' Willpower. It helps sustain play...

For more traditional games I look for: Rules that highlight and reinforce who the characters are as people. Help propel the momentum of social scenes without overwhelming them. Combat rules that mostly allow for a few dramatic exchanges, but mostly allow violent scenes to progress quickly so...

Most of my personal experience with successful long running (1+ year) games has been with mostly just sticking to the core rulebook in games like Vampire: The Requiem, Exalted, Classic Deadlands, Changeling: The Lost, Demon: The Fallen, Legend of the Five Rings 5e, Infinity, Dune 2d20, etc...

I have mixed feelings thus far. There's a whole lot of what feels more like stage rather film/television acting.

I don't think the base game of 2e was very messy (I prefer NWPs to 3e style skills), but the supplements definitely layered on a lot of stuff. All weapon proficiency style stuff, kits, specialty priests, etc. Making a character early on was easy. With the Complete Supplements involved it was...

At least for me it's more about a preference for designs that are suited for a single volume. I'm not looking for a retread of the Pathfinder Core Rulebook or Exalted Third Edition. I want games that fit, at least the core of play, into a 300 or less page book. I'm also not a fan of GM mysticism...

I'm not seeing how the differences in the 4e text or 5e text for fireball speak to design principles. It is not as if one set of designers set out to make a less evocative description than the other. I personally find neither all that evocative nor do find either makes the case that clarity and...

I'm pretty much excited by the prospect of any game designed by Rae Nedjadi. Running Apocalypse Keys was the most fun I have ever had behind a screen.

It depends a lot on the sort of game: how involved the line is, if it requires players to have their own copies of the game, etc. For games (like Apocalypse Keys or Thousand Arrows) that cost like $20 or less for a PDF and provide printouts for anything a player needs to reference that's damn...

I don't think people should be pressured to play other games. I do think people who lack experience or who play games without attempting to fully embrace the model of play they present do not give very incisive feedback about how a given game plays. I also believe that comparative claims about...