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Thankfully, the D&D fantasy medium is not RL and so we don't need to worry about magic doing nothing in RL.

With attack rolls, it's binary success or failure, but the damage rolls and conditional effects then moderate that with how much success or failure. Skill rolls don't have that nuance. Probably they don't need to thanks to roleplaying (whereas roll-playing is required to fairly adjucate for hit...

I like the directness and simplicity of a single die roll, but it does require the DM to do all the work: 1) to know the skill of the PC, 2) to know the skill of the NPC or thing, 3) to evaluate who has the edge or not. The players cannot do this, and aren't really involved at all because they...

If gods are powered by belief and worship (did this make the cut from Planescape into 4E?), and conversely, gods wane in power when they lose worshippers and believers, then aren't deities waging diplomatic warfare against their foes and actually promoting 'partial atheism'? Evil deities should...

How about: "My god is a True God and your gods are a bunch of frauds and demons."

They're probably a persecuted minority. Mocked by others for failing to respect the proper order of things, and by the clergy who don't want them spreading their blasphemous ideas. Probably a lot of closet athiests. When times are bad and most are appeasing the gods out of hope or fear, the...

From a land where people were traditionally wary of religion has grown a thriving metropolis of scientific/psionic renown. Clerical expats don't stay very long, feeling out of place, uncomfortable, and somewhat unwell (which they attribute to mental anxiety in a fiercly secular environment)...

At a prestigious university of a thriving multicultural mega-metropolis, a team of top alchemist/scientists discover the impossible - a small portal that produces any element you can think of: gold, water, diamonds, etc. and it seems that the artifact steals the requested materials from afar. It...

I am utterly convinced that real-life suicidal hubris trumping self-preservation is the exception rather than the rule.. that said, even if empire does embark on a suicidal/self-destructive World War, they will likely not succeed at a) building an empire, and b) launch an industrial revolution...

To clarify, I'm not hostile to the OP's goal, but I don't understand the blase attitude that it could and should all happen naturally and unfold effortlessly due to human nature. On the contrary, I think a deus ex machina is required to product this extreme behavior. And I haven't made general...

OK, I imagining this 3 yr old growing up. I imagine him realizing that his 3 yr old fantasies were silly toddler dreams and it's time to grow up. I'm imagining him dreaming of working and meeting a girl and having a family. Most hubris quickly turns to fear and self-survival instinct more often...

An enormous diverse prestigious metropolis sounds like it has a significant percentage of sophisticated educated people, and the royalty and upper class are probably fabulously wealthy and content. It's not easy to convert this status quo. If there was a disaster and breakdown of alliances...

I agree with xenophobic empire-building, but the key is that the empire-builders saw themselves as superior because they *were* superior. Whereas the ones that saw themselves as superior but couldn't walk the talk are the ones that never got around to empire building. Empire building is a bit...

Imperial Rome didn't think the barbarians had superior might and they were right until the decline of Rome, the Europeans didn't think other cultures had superior technology and they were right which was why colonization was so successful, and the US didn't feel that native cultures had superior...

There's still a missing link between 'we scapegoat foreigners' (done easily enough as suggested) to 'down with ALL gods' (an extremist case of throwing out the baby with the bathwater) and especially to 'we are the heirs of the universe'. Again, I don't think analogies can be made to the real...

The human inclination is to believe in its superiority over other *human* tribes/nations, not over demons, dragons and gods that they presumed to exist. That is, the rats believing they are superior over another clan of rats, but dare not wage war on the dinosaurs. There is also a difference...

The metropolis is infiltrated at the highest levels by powerful devils or Far Realm agents (like Emperor Palpatine and Coruscant). With infinite patience over the years, they plot to turn the people towards their own agenda. Perhaps a conspiracy shadow organization orchestrates a disaster that...

I don't think that would be the case if the modern world was inhabited by demons, dragons, etc. As the dominant species on this planet, I don't think it's comparable to a D&D setting, especially a PoL one. To have a human D&D civilization (that is not a full-grown empire) believe that they're...

How about D&D with fighting styles that used different synergies? So a strong whip-smart warrior might duel with Str+Int attacks, switch to Str+Dex when throwing a handaxe, and then Str+Str when intoxicated or smashing a slow lumbering golem. By the time he's epic level, he might be combining...

I don't know anything about the author, but coincidentally, there is a "Simulationist Manifesto" today on rpg.net which tries to explain immersion, and, so far, the replies/comments are supportive.