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The idea that GMing techniques and action resolution aren't intimately intertwined as collective pieces (among others) of interconnected gameplay in service to common goal seems to ride shotgun in the "all this stuff is just intangibles for the GM to administer their sense of the feel of play...

@Bedrockgames , I'm going to respond to this for clarification. You can respond (or not) if you'd like. I'm looking for clarification on what conceptual work random encounters are doing in your game and how you feel you are achieving that. If someone wants to understand and/or replicate what...

The biggest mistakes that I've made in my GMing is letting terrible players into the games I run. Not just terrible players, but terrible people as well. Real bad seeds. You know the type I'm talking about? Beyond that, one thing that I used to do wrong that I've fixed now is that I used to...

I appreciate the response and the abundance of information here, but I didn't quite get the answer that I'm looking for. Let me put this another way, but keep in mind that I'm indexing the random encounter machinery of your sandbox. American Football. You have 4 x downs to get the necessary...

Are these Survival checks that you're making (a) at a regular interval that is a fundamental part of the core procedures of the wildneress crawl (like Wandering Monsters in Moldvay or The Grind in Torchbearer) and attendant decision-space for the players? If not, are these (b) irregular...

As you know (at least I think you do!), I, of course, agree that system matters enormously. What I was trying to point at was a generalized approach to general content creation rather than a specific approach to specific content creation (such as a 6 room dungeon for challenge-based...

Coming up with non-prepped material to oppose PCs and provoke players on the fly may seem daunting, but it becomes pretty rote after a time. * Understand the high level view of the setting conceits and premise. * Have a high level view of local (to the PCs) setting dynamics on hand which you...

Ok. This actually engages with the question I was putting forth. And it looks like you're saying something like "any randomization component of a game precludes functional gameplay or precludes skill?" Is that the claim you're making? If that isn't the claim you (and @FrogReaver and likely...

I've seen this said multiple times and "+1'd" on top of that. But this needs a lot more unpacking, because if we're merely "outsourcing the decision to the mechanics" and there are no other dynamics happening within play procedures, then I would say 100 % there is either a dearth of gameable...

I would answer this question with because the frequency, magnitude, and type of agency expressed in any given game is enormously sensitive to its organizing goal, principles, structure, participant role dynamics, resolution procedures, and authority distribution. Anytime you have a thing that...

I am not accusing you of One True Wayism. In fact, I not only don’t care about that stuff, every time I see the conversation hew that direction I cringe. What I was trying to do was talk about how there sometimes isn’t the kind of solve you are putting forth above to the kinds of problems I’ve...

I hope it is clear that these two components of your post that I've outlined are specific GM principles that are specific to a particular play agenda. Which is good. Specific GMing principles to a specified and particular agenda is excellent. But principle and agenda-wise, this is situating...

I don't have time to engage with @robertsconley 's response to me, nor CL's, nor FR's. One thing I will say off the bat is that I'm very much of the opinion that (a) looking at what Mouse Guard does and then (b) examining the myriad ways Torchbearer diverges from MG to produce a very novel play...

Tagging you here @FrogReaver . It feels like this is the point where @hawkeyefan 's actual play anecdote of his deployment of Folk Hero's Trait of Rustic Hospitality becomes salient. In fact, it is the perfect analogue for the Alarm spell. Just like with the Alarm spell, the point of the...

You'll get no disagreement here. In fact, this is the crux of the point that I've been attempting to make in this thread (and elsewhere over the last many years): Games as collections of procedures, techniques, and freeform where “ignoring those tools if circumstances make sense (to the GM)...