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Are you honestly suggesting professional entertainers don't change their behaviour when they're performing for an audience?

Gatekeeping? Who says I don't want them to play? And how could some guy typing a comment on a forum stop anyone from playing anyway? I simply commented that I don't like those types of streams and find them contrived. Sorry if you're a fan, but you know people like different things, right?

I'll listen to podcasts of gamers playing RPGs if the people at the table are reasonably engaging. But they have to be participants who are experienced at and love playing an RPG for its own sake. What I don't find appealing is watching actors theatrically playing RPGs. Something about it just...

I have all the Yawning Portal adventures already from back in the day. Same with Saltmarsh. What can I say - I'm fussy and I don't have endless time to sort the wheat the from the chaff. I find the great majority even of professional published RPG material to be mediocre at best. The stuff I...

True. But DM support content =/= rules bloat. Content a publisher can provide to DMs to help them run their own games without adding rules bloat: Lairs Standalone adventures Tactical encounters NPCs Organizations (wizard's guilds, priestly orders, thieves' guilds, etc.) Groups of rival...

Yes, the relative simplicity (compared to 3E, 4E, and Pathfinder, certainly contributed to the success of 5E.

Sales of books aren't the only measure of success of a game. If players who buy those books can't find a DM, you're growing the readership of a game but not the participation. The most effective way for WotC to ensure the upsurge in interest in D&D is just a fad that fades when people get bored...

But that doesn't mean it's because WotC's publishing strategy has been brilliant. IMHO, the reasons for the recent D&D crazy have little to do with any WotC marketing, and is down to sea changes in social media, demographics, and nerd culture. DMing is needlessly onerous, and the difficulty in...

With 5E, WotC clearly has a policy of keeping a lid on the amount of player-facing rules crunch to stop (or stop the perception of) complexity creep. What I don't get is why they've dramatically reduced the amount of DM support content compared with previous editions. Setting guides...

Honest question: Do you like making up NPCs? Is spending significant periods of time between sessions crafting NPCs with all the care you take in creating a PC part of the fun of being a GM for you? To the extent that you enjoy it for its own sake, rather than the effect it will have on the game...

I assume the developers are aware of this. 5E and Pathfinder 2 are different games with different strengths and weaknesses. The flat math of 5E is better geared towards sandbox play, where you can create a region with orcs, ogres, manticores, hags, and hill giants, and it will be broadly...

I'll grant you Magic, but can you name some popular contemporary boardgames that are as complex as PF2?

Well that sucks.

I'm planning on running a Greyhawk campaign set in the Wild Coast, and I'm still waiting for the late 2E era Slavers! adventure to be put up on the DM's Guild. It's highly regarded, and most of the similar books from the era, like the Scarlet Brotherhood, have been up for a while now. Not clear...

So all RPGs should regard 5E as the sweet-spot for complexity and never go beyond it? No doubt the relative simplicity of 5E has played a part in its success. But the D&D market today is a big pie, and Paizo only needs a piece of it to be commercially successful. A strategy of retaining...

It is interesting how that change in the game came about. The 1-20 campaign was never the default back in the day. In almost 20 years of playing AD&D, I think we had a party reach 12th level twice. Then there's the pace. Why do modern campaigns take 6 months to maybe a year tops in game-world...

Can you explain what this means?

It's not even char gen itself that I think will be daunting for casuals. Many of the mechanics are just, well, complex. * There are the myriad mechanical effects that different weapons and armour have - which are cool, but not something casuals will easily find, let alone remember. * The...

Absolutely. The number of mechanically-defined actions a PC can take has to number in the dozens. At the very least a summary sheet would be extremely helpful. Because I sure as heck won't be able to remember them all when I'm running a game.

Now that I've read the core rules, I'm even more excited to run the game. Lots to cool elements to this design. However, anyone who suggests this is a straightforward game is kidding themselves. It's a considerable step up in complexity from 5E. My worry is that I have a couple players at my...