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In general I really like this post, but I do disagree with a few points very strongly (much as the author pre-supposes). 1: "Role-playing games, as defined by the last word, are games and therefore require opposition." As a psychologist who uses gameification in research and education I think...

The proposed revisions sound fairly solid to me. I would suggest setting it in the Forgotten Realms instead of Ravenloft though, as the dark deeds necessary to get yourself a domain in Ravenloft are necessarily dispicable beyond normal sensibility.

Character creation in general is meta, in that you are thinking about what you want your character to be good and bad at Etc. In this case I wouldn't consider it backwards thematically as your character didn't learn the skills with such weapons from his culture, focusing instead on learning how...

The problem is, based on what you have said, the GM doesn't have unreasonable expectations. He simply has different expectations from your wife and perhaps the rest of the group. That being the case I would suggest that your wife and perhaps her fellow players should simply let the GM know they...

IMO: If you hate to do that but it is a playtest and it is in the rules, then that is the feedback you should give the developer. Give them the XP as per the playtest rules exactly, note any issues that creates (including how it made you feel), and report the outcome to the developers. Making...

This is actually a really fertile question when you consider how the term race is being defined by the person answering. In basic D&D One could say there are 9 if you are just counting player character races in the PHB, but it could be more if you consider each sub-race as distinctive enough to...

GM Authority is a lot like presidential authority, meaning it is as absolute as the people are prepares to allow. A gaming group ultimately has more power than a single GM. Why? Because there are enough people that a group can always play with another GM, either by finding one or someone...

I think he is confused (and I could be wrong) because for some of us it is difficult to understand how a person's enjoyment of running a game for others could be so heavily tied to player's race choices. As a DM it changes very little for me to run a game with 4 humans or 4 whatevers, but as a...

I think you missed the point of my post, which is that I do not play historical campaigns because of x,y,z. Much as you suggested I prefer campaigns that take the styles and tropes of the time while not using the major historical elements such as racism, sexism, rampant disease, poverty, lack of...

I use a few house rules here and there, mostly at the request of my players. For example, they voted and no one wanted to deal with attunement restrictions. Mostly I avoid them so that players can get a feel that the rules are like the physics for the world. They can count on them to work the...

Which is fine, but they aren't really historical campaigns once you cut out all of the elements that led to daily conflict for every civilization at that point. That was my point. Once I remove all of those aspects I am left with an aesthetic as opposed to historical campaign, something that is...

It's just my opinion but I think moving away from this mindset is exactly what makes games richer. It is hard to have a deep and engaging world that tries to maintain the conceit that intelligent and self aware races would just be considered monsters by others, and nothing more. Conflict due to...

I don't run historical campaigns for a few reasons: 1) Racism and Sexism aren't fun 2) Disease and infection are often too lethal for combat to be run 3) History is like a campaign guide that is much too large for me to ever know. Even a small part of a specific point in time and space is...

This mindset is very alien to me. That doesn't mean that I am saying it is wrong for anyone to have it, I just fail to identify with it. To me the whole point of a fantasy game is to be fantastic. Nothing says fantastic more than exploring fantastic races/cultures/aesthetics/biology/Etc. Sure...

I guess this point kinda depends on a persons reasons, as a GM, for running the game. I run games so my friends, the players, can have fun. My job is to tell stories and adjudicate rules disputes so that the fun can be had. To that end, any restrictions should be there to increase players long...

I use the standard array because randomized methods just create too much uncertainty for me at low levels especially.

This looks interesting, but I'm still a little confused as to what it is exactly lol.

Continuing from what DemoMonkey said, the impact of resurrections (as well as accessibility to gods and godlike powers in general) on a society is a very cool topic to explore. Most settings state fairly directly that such magics are not common enough, and the wealth necessary to utilize them is...

I think the issue with this topic is the idea that there is a problem that needs fixing, and that x is the best way to fix it. I'm not sure if there is a problem to fix in general, as most people play with human beings who are there to enjoy a game and not some sort of competitive robot that...

A Durgar Priest used an ancient technique to shine my retinas so I could survive in the fighting pits of the underdark. A nature spirit gifted me the eyes of a fox when I freed it from a hunters trap. Magic did it. :)