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As a professional numerics guy, I started getting interested in the underlying question here of "how close to D&D is game X". So I approached it as a machine learning problem. First, define the dimensions of similarity. That's a hard start, but I decided to read Wikipedia's article on D&D and...

I think there may be a difference of definition here over what "conflict resolution" means. For me, it's simply the resolution of an activity where there is active opposition. TASK RESOLUTION is "I want to climb a wall" or "I want to traverse Alaska". CONFLICT RESOLUTION is "I want to render the...

You can always tell people who have not played much numenéra by quotes like this. They see a d20 and monte cook and, well, that’s it — no need to think further. I’ve run a fair amount of numenéra and it was BY FAR the hardest for D&D players to wrap their heads around. Honestly, even Fate was...

And this is why, with a great Fate-based campaign based on Morning Glories in my back pocket, brimming with death, evil and dark themes, I find myself running a Savage Worlds Flash Gordon campaign every friday night, with everyone having a ton of fun!

For an adventure hook, I’d say that generally I would not expect all characters to have a tie to the plot, nor as a player would I be surprised or expect to make one happen. In a normal campaign I’ll run 20-30 adventures and having each and every one linked to character backgrounds would end up...

I have to agree here -- if I think of American Fantasy, it's not OZ I think off (and I haven't really seen any strong support for that position; even the OP simply cites his own post as support for this) it's Harry Dresden, Sandman, and, in general, Urban Fantasy that jumps to mind. Deadlands =-...

Ranged shooters definitely are penalized for being a safe distance from the action -- I'm the cleric in our team, and I rarely need to pay attention to her. So she doesn't cost me actions for her damage, unlike the front-line fighters who need constant attention! For DPS, the auto-splash damage...

On alchemist bombers: we have one in our party (currently level 15). It definitely was underpowered before the APG, so if you want to play one, I'd definitely use the APG. Some good points about it: It's not hard to get your miss damage up to 10 around level 10-12. At that point if you throw...

Also agree here. Like Celtavia, I actually have experience here. yes, +1 modifiers are nice, but they aren't game-changing. They could be the difference between a critical and not-a-critical, but that's the same in all D&D systems. I strongly agree that "The game does not require you remember...

It's interesting to read these comments; I play more PF2 than 5E and in that system Intimidate is a fantastic skill. You can use it in combat to inflict -1 and -2 penalties against enemies; with some feats or classes you can cause enemies to run in fear or literally die of fright facing you...

I'll echo MNblockhead's thought a little bit here: Everything costs something; even if it doesn't cost money, it costs time. For a lot of people (especially right now!) they have more time than money, and so will be biased towards free products because it's worth the effort searching for the...

Variety is always good. If every scenario is “you GMs and grab their stuff” it’ll be boring a some stage no matter if it’s rats or dragons. That is why the modulles you cite as fun are good. I ran RHoD and there is much more than combat — it sets up many other avenues for adventure. I...

Well, as a professional statistician, although you can poll a large number of people, it's expensive and likely pointless. Instead you should use mostly demographic data to assemble a profile of your customers and then sample from that pool and re-weight by demographics to get effectively the...

I note that despite the fact that several people have stated that professional sheets are not as good as fan made sheets, there have been zero examples given of better fan-made sheets than professional sheets. Can we at least have examples for 5-6 of the above? There must be SOME fan-made sheets...

My favorite skill in GUMSHOE system: Preparedness. Basically it boils down to a roll to determine "would your character have remembered to pack that". For rope in a wilderness, probably a DC 5 (in D&D terms). I found it so useful, I might just steal it for any other system I run ...

I realize that this is really just a question of personal preference, and I think my preference is a little more weighted towards aesthetics than your is; I'm happy to have a bit less functionality if I can have something nicer to look at! But for interest's sake, I'm going to list the games I...

Reasons: Design is harder than you think. Fan-made character sheets are not better than professional ones; it's not an easy thing Some systems have characters with very different needs. Having half a sheet devoted to spells on my D&D fighter is an example Some people care about the appearances...

and also do the same when a mace hits your body, as it would naturally destroy items. And absolutely for falling damage as that is almost certain to break flasks, bend knives and dent armor/shields. Hit points are an abstraction; trying to make them anything like realistic is a fool‘s errand

Well, we already have the debate on whether taking 56 "hit points" actually is any form of damage. If you have 100 hit points, then you are not affected at all by it, so it seems reasonable that neither would your clothes. Or they could be destroyed. Or mildly singed. It's up to you since hit...