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Another aspect of this is that, when you use, say, a utility power, especially ones that do damage even on a miss, you can flavor it as "I tried to do daily X, but he parried. But I still managed to nick him!"

I don't actually play 4e, but this is how I would justify it too. Basically, I would reason that my character is obviously trying to use his techniques whenever possible, and I have the narrative authority to make him succeed (make the enemy's parry fail, make the sight lines match up...

Ones that are already out: Paranoia Savage Worlds Ones that aren't: Microscope by Lame Mage/Ben Robbins Do by Daniel Solis

My point is that the random elements in RPGs play to the game part of it. As in, the part that is analogous to the word game in boardgame, card game, and video game. By playing up the game aspect, you make non-gamers ask: "Why should I play this particular game as opposed to others that are...

Well, the question was not how to design a game to draw in gamers (say, from other forms of gaming), but how to draw in non-gamers. IMO, making it more game-like through randomization can work decently for that, but that's a separate question.

Either of the two I explained above (Amber and FATE) would do pretty well, as would pretty much any conflict resolution (vs task resolution) system. In conflict resolution, you change the question from "Does my character succeed at X?" to "Do I have the narrative authority to succeed at X?"...

You said a lot of good stuff in your post (and I'm glad that at least one other person "got" my theory), but I wanted to call this part out in particular to explain why I think randomization needs to be downplayed. If our key selling point over boardgames, card games, etc. is the addition of...

I (unsurprisingly) disagree with your disagreement. I think the problem is that non-gamers see boardgames, cardgames, etc. as direct competitors for their time to RPGs as long as RPGs resemble those games too strongly. If they want to play a number-y game with their friends, they'll play...

I don't consider myself an expert on either, but I'll try to give an overview. Amber is a system that literally uses no random elements. No dice, no cards, no whatevers. The basic idea (it's more complicated in the real game) is that each player has a pot of chips. Players narrate...

I haven't read most of this thread, but I thought I'd toss out my own pet theory on how to expand the audience of TTRPGs. I think the hobby would appeal to a broader audience if we moved away from a competitive mindset and more towards a collaborative approach to making a story/game. To make...

I know that there was some serious edition warring on the Paizo boards, but I rarely go to the parts where they occur. RPGnet is interesting in that there doesn't seem to be much edition warring most of the time, primarily because the readership seems to be overwhelmingly pro-4e. When an...

I'm one of the people who doesn't like martial powers (at least as implemented), and my favorite characters have always been fighters and barbarians. I absolutely hate playing prepared casters.

There's very few things I won't try. I do know from experience that I don't care for GURPS or WoD other than Mage. And I doubt that Rolemaster would be for me. But, honestly, if someone wanted to run them, I'd give it a go.

I'm not hung up on needing hooves, but the brow-horns and iguana tails are just atrocious, IMO.

I'm not a fan of 4e, but there are definitely some good points to it. I like - Defences instead of saves. It was a good idea in SWSE, and I'm glad it made it into 4e. - More movement in combat - The extensive use of at-will and per-encounter abilities. - Reduced dependence on buffs and magic...

If your attack bonus is high enough as to only miss on a 1, then I doubt that 1 + Attack Bonus < AC - 5.

This has been my experience too. I ran a loosely-adapted version of the Great Modron March mixed with adventures of my own design for a year or two, with great success. In fact, our two most fun/successful adventures were an expedition to the elemental plane of fire at 3rd level, and defending...

Actually, stuff like this is really, REALLY hard to test impartially. One of my best friends from college is now a doctoral candidate in psychology, and he's done a lot of work on "stereotype threat" (if I remember the term correctly) in male vs. female testing like this. The basic observation...

I don't get to choose if my place of birth (the deep south) is considered important by other people; people come in with pre-judgments about me all the time, from the moment I open my mouth.

Actually, I have an issue with the idea behind BHM and/or WHM: they claim that some people's "differentness" is more important than other people's "differentness." I don't begrudge the existence of BHM/WHM per se, but I do resent the implication that certain heritages are more deserving of...