Search results

While inflation is obviously a factor -- a $70 game today would still have cost $40 a couple of decades ago -- it is clear that people are happier to pay more for a more attractive game. One reason may include the aging of the demographic. When I was younger, I would cut counters by hand and...

My mind keeps a mental table of acronyms and their likely maps. This is always evolving (especially now I have started working in the medical data world -- so many acronyms!). For me there has been a slow evolution of the default mapping if RPG: Up to about 1990: RPG = Rocket Propelled...

I run generic fantasy maybe one out of five campaigns, so the probability I will run any D&D-adjacent campaign is low. If I do, I'll run the new edition of 13th Age.

<edit: Deleted as Pointless>

So this is a straight simulationist definition of fairness. It says that the closer the ruling is to the way the "real" world would work, the fairer it is. It is certainly one way to play. Personally, I'm more in favor of a version of fairness which is based on every player having an equal...

Reading the paper, it appears only 7 people used the LLM version, and the LLM had a detailed prompt that had several paragraphs handwritten for the canned module that the LLM was running, and of the 7 players, 3 reported feeling railroaded. Further, the scores for creativity were based on the...

I ran a short campaign in a similar world using FATE. Reasons why it worked for me: Factions, government, rebels, towns, outlaw gangs and other social groups modeled easily in Fate -- lots of support for this Many Fate supplements feature rules for social cohesion, stability and order. I ran a...

I think this would have been a good option for the poll as its also the one I would pick: I have a campaign in mind and the new system supports it better I'm currently running a Middle-Earth campaign, and The One Ring fits the style and genre of Tolkien better than other systems I have used...

Agree strongly. In fact I really like (and subscribe to) Rascal because when I disagree with them I know why and appreciate why they think the way they do. Plus they really do great coverage of Indie games.

Nice article. I have run games using several systems for younger players, and this was the trickiest thing for them. Traditional RPGs define a character, essentially, in terms of what they can do - skills. But players don't think of their characters as "what actions they can take"; they think...

THE NUTMEG OF CONSOLATION, Patrick O'Brian, for Napoleonic ship warfare shenanigans. RED SIDE STORY, Jasper Fforde, which I should have read a long time ago, but lent to a friend. RESPONSIBLE GRACE, Randy Maddox, for a dose of Wesleyan theology (likely an acquired taste)

This seems D&D (or other combat-focused games) specific. I could state equally well: Gumshoe: I think the reason dice work well for investigation is because it involves so many rolls, so there's excitement around the ebb and flow, and there are ways for players to react and adjust, and...

Yeah, that doesn't seem like a recipe for a fun session. I'd expect a toughness of more like 5 or 6; you should be able to wound a non-wild card opponent without requiring a raise.

SW isn't my favorite system, but my experience has been that combats are pretty fast. If players are spending all their time looking up rules, my suggestion would be just to start off with simple characters using just one book. When I run a game in any system, I try hard to make it so the...

Very much so. I am involved in a number of Generative AI projects in Healthcare (this is one of them), but most of the systems labeled as "AI" use rule-based models, neural nets, or other what I am now referring to as "traditional ML" models. Part of my work is to review incoming technology...

Yup, that is also my experience. I used a system for Fate that had a few simple rules for magic Create an aspect for yourself that is supernatural; it should be at about the “street level” power ability. As for any aspect, it is then a fact and all logical consequences follow from it Each...

I think we have all converged on generally saying "yes" when the rules give the GM latitude to do so as being the normal way most people play when they have a group that trusts and works well together. I can't think of any time in the last few campaigns I've straight up said "no" to anything. It...

I have no interest in playing the “my special definition of a common word is the only one I’ll consider valid” game. This is a common English word with a meaning that everyone else, for example, @pemerton and @Thomas Shey, seem to have no problem with. Permission means "the consent of a person...

Although that is one style of play — always asking permission, it’s not the only way people interact with the world — and in fact some games specifically state that it’s not the way they want to work. Another way players can interact is to state their desired outcome, rather than just asking a...

Basically, the same. I might term them as passive and active permission: In most games the GM gives passive permission to take action based on established fiction, and the players only need active permission when they are unsure if an action is reasonable. The GM may also override the passive...