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    Introducing Complications Without Forcing Players to Play the "Mother May I?" Game

    I agree fully about that. Anyway IME it's easy as a Gm to fall into "The dark side" or for players to became lazy, truly beginning every declaration with "May I...", because of the big asymmetrical definition of roles at the table, in classic rpg style.
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    Introducing Complications Without Forcing Players to Play the "Mother May I?" Game

    I'm following with growing interest. "The Gm is the Mechanic" sounds so true, but also so double edged a weapon.
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    Mearls On D&D's Design Premises/Goals

    As per Zeno's paradox, that arrow should never hit the pc... Nor Achilles win those contests against the tortoise
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    Doh! Killed my party with a skill challenge

    I'd really like to know the motivations behind the sorcerer's final action to save the rogue. ;) Good example, btw. The countdown before collapse had been already established as a fixed number of rounds?
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    Mearls On D&D's Design Premises/Goals

    Has anyone already suggested to roll all of adv/disadv-dice, instead of cancelling them out, to have a more bell-like probabily curve? Like: with two adv and one disadv dice, roll all 4 and keep the second highest...
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    Mearls On D&D's Design Premises/Goals

    pemerton I read your Underdark report linked above. Man... Such a vivid, intense interaction 'tween the party, enemies, ambience/terrain, and rules/fiction. Now I'm having an idea 4e potential. I'd say my games are gonzo fantasy (as you used this term days ago in a reply), yours are a...
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    Mearls On D&D's Design Premises/Goals

    Right, I see. Y'know, I'm a bit concerned about prep work ;)
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    Mearls On D&D's Design Premises/Goals

    Again, I propose it being a matter of "information". The wargame origin of D&D assumes a default binary opposition of fronts, Us vs Them. Which is fine, and I believe it works better with Hidden Information for the players' side, at least during combat and initial exploration of an...
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    Mearls On D&D's Design Premises/Goals

    You explayned it very well. I think I can understand that feeling of unpopularity, because I tend to do less prep as possible. Referring to my previous post on "information sharing at the table", and applying to 4e SkChallenge, I can see how is completely one-sided on the Gm shoulders, meaning a...
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    Mearls On D&D's Design Premises/Goals

    Smells like modularity to me, your solution. Very interesting. Keeping numbers low (so basicly the same % chance thru the levels), while increasing, instead, the tiers of power/influence/effect of the pc vs the world and viceversa. (Like: on an enemy inferior by two/three tiers, you just deal...
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    Mearls On D&D's Design Premises/Goals

    pemerton (Excellent long explanatory post, wow) Quickly on Trollbabe: yes exactly as you say the player facing dice roll without direct opposition of the Skill Ch. in 4e, producing fiction and RP, is the base of TB resolution mechanic: As conflicts arise ( unlike 4e: emergent; not preplanned)...
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    Mearls On D&D's Design Premises/Goals

    BW: It's been years in the waiting, maybe we should just sit down, make characters and see what happens. Well, char-gen wouldn'be a problem, I'm afraid the world/initial situation-building phase would be... I dunno if we're just getting old, or it's a matter of immersion-breaking, but while they...
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    Mearls On D&D's Design Premises/Goals

    Seems legit. Thanks for the clarification. (Now I MUST take a deeper look at 4e...)
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    Mearls On D&D's Design Premises/Goals

    Thanks for taking the time to read it. I have some familiarity with BW, having read it and owning Gold ed, Magic Burner and another book, but never played it. Cortex+ also, I ran a few of sessions of Marvel Heroic in the fantasy variant: found it very interesting by a GM perspective, not so...
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    Mearls On D&D's Design Premises/Goals

    I'm definitely going to have a look at that
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    Mearls On D&D's Design Premises/Goals

    An example of information exchange from PC to DM: the PC background; or goals of the party. Very basic ones, actually, but might be powerful in the campaign. What I have seen in games I played in, is that dismissing those bg/goals is a habit of both DMs that prefer a railroad game or a...
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    Mearls On D&D's Design Premises/Goals

    Let's take the "exchange of information" at the table as keyword and guideline, and analize WotC work by that. In Magic, the game is symmetric between the players, the "information" brought to the table coming from both their decks of cards' builds In 3e, given the asymmetrical traditional rpg...
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    Mearls On D&D's Design Premises/Goals

    Very informative, thanks. Food for thought. As an aside: Engaging the fiction, for sure, and also I'd say Engage the Setting, as players, so to have "new information", about the game fiction, flowing from PCs* to the GM, not only the usual way around, from Gm to Pcs. *PCs decisions...
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    Mearls On D&D's Design Premises/Goals

    Gordian knot-like solution to the problem
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    Mearls On D&D's Design Premises/Goals

    Interesting. IYE does such a debate on a RAW vs RAI kind of thing, like the contest you've been discussing here, happen at the table, during play, let's say, with rules lawyers players?
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