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I'd argue his most effective criticism of MtG was Netrunner. Personally, I think the biggest problem with EDH is that multiplayer free-for-all is a terrible basic idea for a conflict game structure, and immediately signs all the players up to either design their own metagame of largely unspoken...

Getting an adamantine dagger to break through walls was absolutely a 3e thing. Adamantine explicitly ignored hardness, which meant you could deal direct HP damage to any material, so you could chip your way through anything given enough time.

I'd love more games to treat gear as a preparation system. Deciding what to bring and then how to use it to overcome problems is one of the best places for player expression. The issue has usually been that gear is just entirely outclassed by other resources, so it's not worth engaging with as a...

I think the disconnect you're running into here is that Sanderson's appeal is primarily about setting. You're getting details about magic systems and political conflicts and social setups because that is the selling point. His characters, like his prose, tend to be serviceable rather than...

You've reminded me of Green Ronin's True Sorcery system, which I adored back in the day. It has a very comprehensive spell construction/modification system that allows for the creation of spell variants on the fly. Honestly, gives me misty-eyed nostalgia a little bit, because I just can't...

That conversation between Death and Susan is one of the most resonant things I've ever read. I can quote most of it from memory, and that particular conception of humanism has become a personal guiding principle.

We're like 6 quotes deep here, but I'm referring to @mamba's example, not the proposed skill challenge.

"Cheating" implies malice that I don't think should be attributed to the example here. Instead, the player is simply trying to declare an illegal action, like trying to move a rook diagonally. It's cheating if you attempt to do so covertly, it's a misplay to do so because of mistaken knowledge...

It's a whole other topic, but I think it's more salvageable than everyone says if you built more carefully for it from the ground up. The basic Saves/BAB/HP progression math isn't really the source of the problem, and it's pretty easy to quickly develop shorthand knowledge of those...

This is an interesting grey area. While acknowledging the player's input has an effect on the outcome, I don't generally think of players seeking more information or asking clarifying questions as establishing new information.

I largely agree, but one possible exception might be systems that use XP as an expendable resource, like 3e era magic item creation, though those obviously bring plenty of their own problems.

Notably, many game systems do advancement on a strict per session basis.

You establish that fixing an underpowered option by producing a more powerful one can't be considered power creep, so in theory you could have additional publications that increase balance with an initially imbalanced product. Theoretically, if your goal is just to publish as many secondary...

I think your arguments here are very cogent, I agree with the general thrust, but having read it over twice now, I don't see that you've actually substantiated the bolded point, except possibly by pointing out that it has happened historically. Can you summarize why the introduction of power...

Honestly, I don't think we're coming up on a "reckoning" on the underlying question of using violence to solve problems as a core mechanism in D&D. The appeal of the fantasy is as strong as ever, across all kinds of political and ethical spectrums. Instead, I think we're more likely to see a...

That's a weird side effect of sanctifying violence. You're more likely to find players with moral objections to mind control magic than to threats of death/bodily harm.

You're implying a dichotomy here between a "puzzle" and a "situation" that omits a significant middle ground. Puzzle implies both design of the precise sequence of events, a preemptively knowable and fixed solution or solutions. Consider something like a roguelike; the game state will present...

I've argued before that the primary fantasy of D&D is that violence is both generally effective, and generally sanctified. It presents a plane where you really can make the world better by applying a sword to it. Moreover, it specifically celebrates individuals wielding power, violent and...

This is generally my experience. Player created fiction isn't generally part of the play loop, but an something that occurs between and outside sessions.

You clearly don't, or you wouldn't have said the bolded below, so I must not be expressing myself well. When I'm saying "alternative health system" I mean, "instead of going through the creature's HP, you deplete the creature's LR, so you can land a stun or banishment or other loss condition."...