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Surprise. People who take the stance that you're supposed to try to win an unwinnable game will treat any nuance as a speed bump in their race to twist what you say around in order to win a discussion. Note how you can't win a discussion, only an argument. Thank you all for proving my point.

Yeah, it's fairly ubiquitous stance in conversations about this topic. It goes hand-in-hand with the other fallacy that because RPGs are a game you're meant to play to win. As if you can win an RPG. Which you can't. But yeah, it's part of the whole attitude around optimization and optimizers...

Yes, once. I walked away because I'm not interested in that style of play. This was me optimizing at +1 or maybe a +2 while the rest of the table was solidly around +4. It shows up when it becomes disruptive. That's when someone's an optimizer. If you're optimizing far more than the group...

Absolutely. The only spot on the spectrum that seems inherently problematic is the +5 Pun-Pun range. Unless that’s the point of a given game. Playtests and “break the game” sessions are a thing. But those are almost universally flagged as such. As you say, it’s mostly down to a mismatch of...

I think a step back from the word itself, quibbling over definitions, and looking at the behavior might help people actually talk to each other instead of talking past each other. There's a style of play or character creation called XYZ. Like most things, XYZ exists on a spectrum. You have...

There's a great thread over on RPG.net covering Classic Traveller. https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/traveller-out-of-the-box-only-using-books-1-3.769219/ That same poster has a blog that covers Classic Traveller among other things...

I'm old, but not as old as some of the geezers around here. Getting old sucks. But, as far as I know, it's better than the alternative.

Besides everything else being great, that is my favorite part of Shadowdark. Darkness is dreadful, light vital, and resources matter. But in an easy to use way. Here’s a timer. Go. Attack the light. Hmm. Tasty tasty referee advice.

Re: horror as genre vs horror as tone. It's both. Some genres are defined by plots, others by characters, others by setting, and others by tone. Comedy and horror as genres are based almost exclusively on the tone they present. There are some distinct plot, character, and setting elements, but...

I’m fine with CR eating DW’s lunch. Too bad about 13th Age though. There are a few tactical elements in Daggerheart but, as you’re saying, nowhere near those other games. At a guess Draw Steel is going to dominate that area for awhile after it comes out. Yeah, it’s kinda wild.

Great article. For me games become too complex when there’s more than a few pages of rules. The shorter the better. A few paragraphs are great. A few sentences are better. At absolute minimum you need a resolution mechanic. But I would push against any argument that you necessarily need much...

I'm a big fan of horror games and I would gladly fill several threads chatting about them, but I want to keep this thread on track. So I've split this off into it's own thread. Please take the horror stuff over there. https://www.enworld.org/threads/what-makes-a-successful-horror-game.714028/

The question came up on another thread but I thought it was worth breaking off into it's own thread. By "successful" here I mean that it works as a horror game, not whether it makes money for the company. So, what do you think? What makes a successful horror game?

I think we already touched on that up thread. You can do horror in most games as long as the rules don’t fight you. And, as you say, if the players aren’t invested nothing can save you. But I do think evocative rules absolutely can and do help. Running horror in Fate or D&D 5E is harder to pull...

That’s fantastic. You can make all kinds of wild nonsense with that.

Exactly. There's all different types of spy fiction. Sometimes you're just in the mood for a goofy super-spy with wild gadgets and Bond does that quite well. Especially the older stuff. But if you're looking for darker, more realistic stuff, Bond is going to disappoint every time. A good place...

It takes two to tango. If the other person doesn't respond like an adult, it doesn't matter. That has been my overwhelming experience with this kind of thing. Someone brings some ridiculous OP monstrosity to the table, I say some version of "could you not?" or "we don't do that here," and...

Yoink.