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GMs whim becomes a problem when you get burned by it, regardless of the system. Personally, I think people often draw the conclusion that was the system's fault when it was the GM's fault, but if a system gives too few guidelines or bad guidelines (side eyes 4e skill challenges, all of the...

In this case though, the DM fiat is still subject to the rules and the DM fiat is creating a case law that can be appealed to and which is precedent setting. "Rulings" in this sense just means "common law" rather than statutory. There are still reasons to prefer that to whim. Perhaps, but...

Table arguments are a social issue; not a rules issue. You can't solve out of game problems within game solutions. While it is good to be clear and concise, it is not possible to make something clear and concise enough that people won't argue about it. That being said, there is difference in...

I've got like 300 hours in Star Dew Valley, but... a) Star Dew Valley is a solo experience and... b) Not strictly non-violent, as if you get tired of the cozy life you can go slay slimes in the cozy dungeons.

I'm talking about the responses of my wife and daughters. Make believe cozy gets old fast. Door kicking takes much longer. My suspicion is that the audience for most RPG books is not participants in play, but people who read RPG books. I have far more RPG books than I've ever used in play...

When my girls were young I tried roleplaying these sorts of games of small drama simulating the world of make-believe that small children play in - skinned knees, pickup games of baseball, going fishing at the pond behind the house, having tea with the neighbors, helping groom your best friends...

Right now I play a homebrew version of D&D 3.0e (3.25?) with rebalanced classes and combat rules, Star Wars D6 with heavily rebalanced equipment (and a few house rules handling astronavigation, capital ship combat, etc.), and CoC Pulp (mostly) 5e with a few 7e inspired changes. BRP, D20, and...

In the history of D&D, TSR/WotC have spent far more time taking the game away from directions I wanted the game to go than they have spent taking it in a direction I wanted to go. As such, they've gotten a lot less money from me than they might have considering the amount of time I've spent...

The Phanatons I kept as feeling appropriate to the island and being really novel. The Rakasta feel tacked on, trite, and like they properly belong somewhere else.

Personally, I find the dungeon at the heart of the island a bit anti-climatic considering what all you had to endure to get there. Granted, as is typical of modules of the era, the module is not at all intended to be complete or run as is, and even if you weren't converting it you'd probably...

I feel it has been all downhill since the 1e AD&D Monster Manual 2 entry.

I think we aren't actually disagreeing, though it's hard to tell exactly what you mean. Stake setting and user generated traits, such as in DITV, do allow you to resolve anything using a generic proposition resolution engine and do allow for broadly defined traits that can arguably be leveraged...

I find this is not true for a variety of reasons. Rules light and rules heavy are not synonyms for rules complete. A rules light game can be more rules complete than a rules heavy game in that for example it maps all player propositions to some small set of defined moves that they can perform...

Combat almost always trumps non-combat. That is to say, if eliminating the opposing team can be a strategy, then it's probably the ultimate strategy. If eliminating the opposing team isn't a strategy, it's usually because you have a sport with agreed upon rules by both sides they are willing...

They were both evil ugly humanoids. Goblins are closer in size to Sidhe and Kobolds (no hobbits in my game), but Hobgoblins are their near kin (indeed same species) and they are on average slightly bigger than Humans. So, that wasn't a real distinguishing factor. Indeed, really all that...

I banned orcs from my homebrew world around 1989 because I disliked how similar they were to goblins and I vastly preferred goblins. My backstory on goblins is that "Flame Eyed" Maglubiyet was the eldest deity, the first-born fruit of the tree of life whose peoples would be later called the...

At a late stage of a 1e AD&D campaign I had a "character sheet" that was around 100 pages. It listed my henchmen and their character sheets, my followers and their character sheets, my stronghold (effectively a small dungeon), my various possessions (including stat blocks for several sailing...

No, but for all of D&D's history with the possible exception of 4e it's been easy to make a fighter that is "Johnny One-Trick" where the trick is hitting everything with a sharpened stick as hard as you can until it stops moving. A Brute type fighter is both effective, satisfying to play, and...

Player intelligence is always an advantage for all classes. It's not required, but Wizard is a much harder class to play than almost any other class. Even my smart players tend to avoid it, because it's stressful and difficult. Sorcerer is well loved because it's easier to manage and you...

Requirement is such a loaded term. Very few things are required, and of course this isn't among them. But the experience at the table of having your character tricked and you as the player being tricked are very different. Having your character tricked but you not being tricked requires you...