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True. But someone might actually play it as anything but a drinking game or a rite of passage.

To quote Professor DM, “Rolling dice is fun. Sitting around while my friends do MATH is like watching paint dry.”

i would submit that just about every single one of those things is compounded by complexity. Complex games take longer to prep for. Complex games demand more focus on the mechanical load, limiting the time you have for being creative. Complex games mean there are more player options you might...

Not the person you were responding to, but I’d say it’s because there’s usually more than a hint of arrogance tied to someone saying “High level play isn’t for everyone, but if you’d like to be competent enough to handle it, I’ll tell you how.” Shockingly, that can rub people the wrong way.

I find “adventuring day” design dictates a particular play style. Not everyone wants to be tied to “X encounters per day,” when you can’t easily adjust the dial on X.

Correction: it’s not fun for anyone but that one player. That’s the problem we’ve got right now. Many things that make the game “more fun” for one player take away the fun from everyone else.

Slight hyperbole on my part, I concede. If it takes 10 minutes for the game to get back around to Bob, the same thing is true.

The paucity of DMs means most people’s extended friends who want to game with them is larger than 4 other nerds. And I certainly can’t blame people for not wanting to run 2 games a week. I do find the lack of people willing to run games equates to game complexity. I can’t tell you how many...

Long turns lead to bored players. Until they/we figure out how to better integrate player turns, it will always be boring for Jim while Bob takes 5 minutes to play out his turn.

Unpopular Opinion: the game shouldn’t have “per day” abilities at all. If you want something to be used infrequently, just make it either hard enough to activate, or draining enough to use, that it only gets used infrequently. No more per day kludges required.

That’s fair, but part of the problem here is WotC’s track record when it comes to the phrase “Trust us.” What was the useful material solving these cognitive load issues for DMs in the 2014 books? It’s not like the game was brand-new, so much as the more directly-connected follow-up edition to...

But if there isn’t a meaningful consequence when they run out, what exactly are you managing?

I would also note (something the creators of Mutants & Masterminds observed) that limitless inflationary bonuses on a d20 renders the die roll, if not meaningless, greatly diminished. Now, there is a fix for this, but it gets us into the world of dice pools (and Zocchi dice). Nearly every bonus...

IMO, a mere 5-point scale is probably insufficient to go from Aunt May to the Hulk, but I appreciate the concept in principle.

To be fair, if we were to map it to software, OD&D is more like the “Alpha release” of Dungeons & Dragons, Holmes is the Beta, and 1e (and B/X) are two alternative versions of Edition 1.0. But that’s pretty nerdy.

Creating a system to track “all possible creatures in the universe” is, imo, unwise. It would be unwieldy in game, and would play terribly. The simple fact is that while Batman (for example) can credibly battle opponents a certain degree faster, stronger, and tougher than he is, is, he is...

If what you want is a good low-level adventure, my 2e recommendation is to run The Sword of the Dales, The Secret of Spiderhaunt, and The Return of Randall Morn, but that may just be my nostalgia speaking. I loved those adventures.

To be fair, Savage Worlds handles firearms pretty well, with a highly adaptable injury system. Most SWADE characters have a “toughness” score of around 6 (4-8), plus bonuses from armor and edges (the SW version of feats). Exceed the threshold and you are shaken, each raise (+4) inflicts a...

Nope. I fully accept this is an emotional response. I stand by my statement.

“Attributes are measured on a 3 to 18 scale, with 3 being the best.” If that statement doesn’t make you twitch, I would feel pretty confident in saying you’re in the minority.