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First off, thank you for taking the time to write such a comprehensive and thoughtful reply to my posts. I want to be upfront that I’ll be pressed for time this week, I'm about to launch a Kickstarter and have two tabletop sessions taking up most of my hobby bandwidth. So I’ll likely post my...

Thanks for the detailed reply. I see how Prince Valiant lays things out, and I appreciate you taking the time to walk through them. That said, I was asking less about what the rulebook says and more about why you chose to run it that way. Plenty of RPGs encourage referees to structure things a...

Of all the ways a tabletop RPG campaign can be managed, why did you choose the following approach for running Arthurian adventures in Prince Valiant? For comparison, in my Living World sandbox campaigns, my goal is to leave players feeling like they’ve visited the setting as their characters...

I understand where you’re coming from better now, thanks for clarifying. I also realize I didn’t explain the core of my point well. I think the real devil’s in the lists, not the core mechanics. That’s what often gets overlooked when people assume systems like GURPS or Savage Worlds are...

I have quite a bit of experience with this, especially when it comes to adapting D&D’s magic system. I’d be happy to offer a detailed response if you're interested. I just don’t want to assume.

As someone who’s spent years with GURPS, Hero System, Fate, and other genre-flexible RPGs, I think the comparison to D&D deserves a more nuanced take. D&D isn’t generic out of the box like GURPS is. But if you understand its design history, how hit points, armor class, and ability scores...

Certainly Kevin Crawford is getting some mileage out of it with his X without Number series of RPGs.

So I have a rule that, given time and resources, the player will succeed at the task. I may have them roll if some resource could be wasted, but I am only looking for a crit failure. It was partially inspired by gumshoe, but also by reflecting on how people learn skills. As for the scroll...

Reread what Micah Sweet actually wrote, he’s not talking about personal attacks. Your reply reframes his comment into a separate conversation about personal attacks, one that he wasn’t having. That kind of rhetorical pivot derails the discussion and sidesteps the underlying point: the...

Ever try discussing design issues in an OSR or classic edition context? Or explaining how you run a campaign using a lesser-known playstyle? You’ll often find the same kind of pushback, or worse, total confusion and dismissal. We’re all in the same boat, unless we’re talking about the current...

My view is that rolls are needed to resolve uncertain outcomes, situations where, in response to a character saying “I do X,” the result could reasonably be success, failure, or something is uncertain. When things are uncertain, that where a roll makes sense. From my experience running and...

I get where you're coming from. But this cuts both ways. I’ve spent years promoting Living World sandbox campaigns using classic editions that are often treated as broken or obsolete unless I write a master’s thesis justifying every part of the system. When I explain how I track faction...

This is well-thought-out post. However, it is not a fair evaluation, and because of both its complexity and the nature of this thread, I feel it’s important to break it down into its components so each can be addressed concisely. The core of your argument is this: This is clear, strong, and...

I went back upthread to trace the origin of this subthread, and given the direction it’s taken, I believe it’s worth responding to the following post directly. It’s not complicated at all. Deceits of the Russet Lord begins with a situation already in motion. One of the events is a young couple...

That's accurate, and for those who don't remember, this is what I said back in $8532.

Regarding D&D lifting all boats, maybe before crowdsourcing was a thing. But now with Kickstarter and Backerkit it has changed radically. Here is the last of the top tabletop RPG kickstarters. https://www.kickstarter.com/discover/advanced?ref=discovery_overlay&sort=most_funded&tag_id=33 Here...

Yup, I know exactly where the projects I’ve successfully released fall on the scale of things in the hobby. However, the good news is that even 0.01% of the numbers D&D 5e pulls are sufficient for the cause. The efficiency created by the internet and digital technology allows many projects to...

This is a clever rhetorical maneuver, structured similarly to a loaded question. It’s phrased so that anyone who disagrees risks appearing as though they don’t respect player rolls, which is clearly not the case for all RPGs. And if you do agree, it sets the stage for a follow-up that implies...