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I think in general your points are very valid. Because of my gamign style and such they tend not to be problematic to me specifically. I would probably actually prefer a risk-based or harm-based system versus a resource managment style for magic or some combination of the two. I agree that the...

Well I used the word more powerful which is probably a problematic adjective as it can mean so many different things. I believe magic should be capable of outpeforming similar mundane 'equivalents' for it to be otherwise lessens my interest in a general fantasy world. Magic by its nature should...

If this is directed at me, i was responding to another post about balance. I think you can have flavor and balance in a completely generic system, it would be that the flavor has no mechanical impact, stake-setting systems have been doing this for awhile. Fighter character and wizard character...

The quest for balance is good if that is what is important to you and of course by what you define as balance. The most balanced game would have every character at the same level capable of the exact same thing (obviously this not what anyone is calling for, though some games do this and the...

Strangely i think that was the advantage of the Vancian system (it became less of an advantage when the number of spells castable and ease in which player created wands and scrolls became available). The Vancian system (while much maligned) made it less likely that the caster was going to...

Funny i am in favor of everything you are against (which is in no way to be construed as an insult or argumentative just funny). I want magic to be magical and to be capable of doing things that no mundane skill or ability could. Without this, magic just seems to be another bonus. Goes to show...

You can stil use d20 with a stakes mechanic, I guess you would just use the TN based on the difficulty of the stakes and using opposed rolls, i imagine. I think stake setting while not the only way to do social conflict, for me seems to be the preferable way (i am biased though, i now think...

I agree about Burning Wheel that you have to slowly get into it. The issue with my group is that they are not big on learning a bunch of new rules (even slowly). They like rules-lite games. My feeling on BW that it is an incredible game but unlike many games where only the GM really has to know...

I love Burning Wheel but I found that it was too rules heavy for my group. TSOY ended up being a good game that has great conflict resolution with minimal rules set; It really takes a while to understand the coolness of the damage tracker, it really stumped me at first as how can a system that...

Burning wheel is a very tactical game so its Duel of Wits is a very tactical endeavor. Another example would be Shadow of Yesterday. Social combat is JUST like physical combat. It does not have the same tactics as in Burning Wheel but it does use stake setting. In that game you both set your...

Tie all XP gained to the character and the characters goals. The character gets experience for completing his goals For interactions that further his goals and for setbacks that hinder his goals. Give experience for a character that helps introduce a new and interesting NPC into the story...

Burning Wheel and Shadow of Yesterday are exactly the two games I was thinking about. Actually Shadow of Yesterday is really cool in that you can use social combat to weaken an opponent for physical combat though I think that such an overhaul of the D&D system might give people seizures.

I wonder if it will work the other way. Can the NPC influence you if they win a social encounter. Many people are probably against this idea but I am for it. I think the stake setting social resolution systems tend to have the most robustness.

This is very interesting, could you elaborate

Frankly games like Shadow of Yesteryear, Burning Wheel and Sorcerer (among others) have already created the basic engines for doing this. It is not removing or even alternating GMing so much as letting the players have dramatic, scene and story control. A storytelling system is not one where...

For me it is that it will probably be different enough that it wont have nostalgia value but it wont really have any innovation in the game like some of the indie games have. I would be more excited if maybe they really revolutionized it and adopted more conflict resolution styles and maybe...

Given my buy history, I have strong doubts I will buy any 4E material. I bought a lot of 3E but very little 3.5 material. Basically the game is going in a direction that I do not have much interest in. I would either want a nostalgic game (eg, C&C or maybe Rolemaster) or a more revolutionary...

I have gone full circle in gaming. I used to love the more complete and complex skill systesm (loved Rolemaster). Now, in our games we could play C&C and we dont really need an in-depth skill system. We tend to have class skills (+1 per level), non class skills but character is good at (+1/ 2...

isn't that what Grendel is all about

This is not necessarily true. Single genes can have incredibly significant effects even in complex phenotypes but they may only occur as relatively rare alleles in a population which may make it more difficult to find. A good example would be depression or cancer both of which are complex...