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Well, you know that this is going no where when my ideas, fully supported by historical fact, are referred to as "Super Weird" and when I support them with proofs that my inferred mental state ("are you okay?") is brought into question. FWIW at this point I am not throwing the baby out with...

Yeah. But their sheer numbers proves a point, no? No doubt, amongst them all, there are some examples, as well, of non-contest types, such as in some childhood traditional games and parlor games, so these can be referenced to rebut, in part, and thus do better than me just saying "Thousands of...

OT a bit, but I am not consigning games to the dustbin of history due to some social experiment. This is what (below), in part, is eradicated through the objection of win-lose, contest,competition; and with it goes critical thinking, social and scientific leaps (Game Theory, Play Theory...

I have stated repeatedly that RPGs will and must incorporate differing POVs. I contest that having fear as a motivation be excluded from this as "Bollocks", for I don't believe it exists to begin with as players know that the game has hit points, saving throws and the like and that they are...

Well, I will not be sucked further into this microscopic minutia. To each their own as D&D allows. That said, patience is also a virtue except for the entitled. Adios.

Monopoly is old, yes, but ranking is not a sign of drowning out its innovation. For its time, every board game designer would agree, it could not be touched and indeed revealed the path of how to innovate for future games. Putting it in a proper design perspective is important; and most modern...

Haha!! Diplomacy is considered one of the most innovative games ever invented. So was Monopoly. Citations please. I know Michael Gray personally and he would laugh at this. Having won a Charles Robert's Award for BG design myself I really doubt that anyone of any worth would suggest this...

I'm bowing out of this with an EGG quote: "If the day ever comes when fans agree on how the game should be played D&D will have become staid and boring indeed." Gary Gygax, Alarums & Excursions #2, 1975.

Isn't this a convoluted way of saying that one doesn't like fear as a motivator (not a conclusive argument even, all opinion) and suggests finding alternatives? But yet the OP has not really described what "fear" is in that sense, just that it is not liked. As I noted elsewhere, fear is a...

Fear is super-level event. In the wash it is stepped, actually: anxiety>doubt>fear>terror. Perhaps people conflate this incrementalism with fear alone. IME, anxiety and doubt should always be present, and fear is a greater in-game manifestation resulting from unfolding events and is not...

It impacts it all the same, one cannot suggest changes to the game without studying the impact on the entire system. The parts in this instance effect the whole. Others have made this point as well.

In Diplomacy if you're knocked out of the game as any country (which is the purpose), you are out. Same in Monopoly, the Game of Life, etc. If people want a narrative fiction-building approach without challenges and uncertainty or, gosh, even death for daring to be an "Adventurer" (Poor...

You mean we've been arguing a negative? For shame for us... ;)

Well reasoned points and I concur. Emergent play defines stories as building whereas narrative is concluding that "this will happen". Appears related to another topic afoot on these boards today. Level drain, as an aside, was Gary's big move to play balance. the latter which he was overly...

Heh. Not into thread-stealing so the short answer is no. Robilar used 5 orcs to clear the ToH playtest. I was suspicious of the entrance and ordered an orc forward to check it out, t refused so I killed it on the spot, then ordered the others -- now all very cooperative! -- to do the same...

In discussing the aftermath with Gary he said that the judge ruling on the matter had no experience with adjudicating IP cases. Thus the matter fell to TSR outspending GDW's lawyers with their spurious arguments. The amount that GDW spent has been reported as high as $600.000, though I'm...

Life is full of uncertainty; every game I've played is filled will uncertainty; A Fantasy world is not a Fantasy world unless it too has uncertainty. How does the DM achieve that in players who are in certain game modes? It varies. Remove the tools or need for producing uncertainty in RPGs...

While all of this is true I believe the main point is that she, by way of this deal, received payments on print runs and not on print sales, thus guaranteeing no down side to the deal for the foundation by putting all of it squarely on the TSR shareholders' backs. With this combined factor it...

Yes, it's a recurring subject with extreme POVs. Part of it, not all, has to do with the real empowerment of PCs via the rules that allow them to conquer all and survive everything; and this appears to be P&P's adaptation of what CRPGs extol. In game history contexts this extreme POV (player...

Well, this goes all the way back to the beginning with Arneson's BM group. Arneson used the Chainmail Combat matrix for his first two sessions into BM Castle in 1971. As we know, the matrix is a one-hit-and-you're-dead result. The players balked at this as they had done backgrounding for...