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So before I actually read your post, the idea that popped into my head was that of a character that uses truth, especially uncomfortable, unwelcome, and just-revealed truth to get things done. More specifically perhaps the use of unwelcome truth as a very pointed weapon to convince, break, or...

I've been thinking a lot lately about the relationship between crunch and how players represent their characters (as well as what crunch actually means in terms of design goals and resolution). In the TTRPG sphere we have character sheets running from index card-sized to sheets that are four or...

I find your characterization of dishonesty here interesting. Personally, I think this is an underappreciated issues with granular high-crunch games. When you have a long list of specific skills and a player happens to be some kind of authority on one of the skills their character has, I really...

To pile on to/with/around @Manbearcat I think there's a point where it useful to admit that every game presses the G button, and that at least a part of the difference outlined above is simply different rationale for why it gets pushed and exactly what happens when it does. I'm bending the...

I would really like this to be great. There's so much potential if they can manage to get past the aforementioned uber-sincerity.

That makes sense. TBH that's a strange thing to have come up in a SaV game, but at least it wasn't a complete loss.

Honest question, did you have fun RPing this until you had the XP to make it actually work? I can see that going either way.

There's nothing wrong with linear narrative campaigns and lots of groups love them. I wouldn't say you need illusionism to make them happen though, well depending on the design I guess.

The reason I suggested Mythras specifically is that the crunch it does have, which is not insignificant, is IMO precisely the right crunch for Harn. Specifically the rules for Passions and the combat rules fit what Harn is trying to do to a tee. Anyway, just my two cents.

Trophy is brilliant. It does a bunch of horror-adjacent stuff quite well. I liked it so much I wrote my own Sci-Fi Horror hack of it. See my sig...

What? Just because the whole 5E system pushes back against almost everything that Harn is trying to do? Why would that be a problem? :D

Summon Opioids and Tequila. 3rd Level conjuration spell.

Yeah, I was just expanding on my previous post. I'd agree that setting expectations around character competence is a key session 0 activity for any game, but especially for a new system.

Yeah, I had to think for a while before I found a term that worked for me. It can definitely mean different things in different games and genres and wasn't supposed to index a particular level of capability generally, other than in relation to 'bumpkin'.

I love The Between, which is a game of Victorian monster hunting loosely based on the show Penny Dreadful. The base is PbtA, so not for everyone, but I think it's grand.

A lot of fantasy gets translated over to RPGs using some version of the zero to hero framework, which mitigates for one kind of class and advancement design. Starting at bumpkin and working up leaves a lot of design space. However, if characters are suppose to start at something more like...

I love Harn, I really do, but I couldn't get into the system either. I can see why some people love it, but it's crunchier than I can deal with for a new system. It might be because I'm older and grumpier than I used to be, but the cognitive overhead for learning a new system like Harn just...

Hmm, yeah, Mythras was going to be my first suggestion.

It was a serious question. There have been a lot of somewhat vague descriptions in this thread of what does and does not fit the bill. Some people (both you and I btw) draw the line at that last bit in your post, but others have seemed to cast a much wider definitional net. If we are...

I have a question. The job of the GM, in any system, is to adjudicate player actions, which by their very nature change encounters, which by extension means that the job of the GM is to change encounters on the fly (for some value of 'change'). I think you'd need to be way more specific for your...