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In this situation, party's valuables are at stake. It means that escaping with their gold intact IS overcoming the challenge. Being defeated means losing the stake - either surrendering the gold or being knocked out and looted.

The whole idea of combats having high stakes (but different than life and death) is that there are no fights that players don't care about. What fun is fighting if nothing is at stake? It's just a waste of time. One may as well narrate victory in a few sentences and move forward. We engage the...

I don't think it's possible to achieve good balance without serious constraints on character, encounter and adventure structure - if the balance is static. What is the alternative? Dynamic balance - one that uses a feedback. A system that reacts to character performance and sets up difficulties...

It depends on what type of house rules you have. House rules that you must remember in the process of play? One page is the upper limit and I strongly suggest using less. House rules that affect character creation and leveling? You may easily have a couple of pages and it won't be a problem -...

I want PCs that: - have ties to NPCs and cultures of the setting that motivate them - have their beliefs and goals they are ready to fight for - have their emotional weaknesses they need to work on - have the right amount of originality to fit the setting without being boring - work together...

Start with a pregen, play a session or two. That should be enough to get the basics of setting and mechanics in play, which works much better than trying to decipher abstract rules. After that, the player is ready to create a character on their own.

There is one fundamental thing I don't like about this system - very deterministic way of getting wounds. Most significant hits wound, but not very seriously. From the narrative point of view, it's not much different from old good hit points. I would prefer a system that would lead to more...

A lot depends on what one calls the "character creation mini-game". If it a game because it is won or lost - one either builds an optimal character that will find all challenges easy or a non-optimal one that won't manage - I do not want to play it. I want to be able to create a character I...

I can't call myself a gamist, narrativist or simulationist. That's not a good way of classifying people. In general, I enjoy all these styles of play. But I use D&D when I seek gamist play. I want dangerous exploration, tactical combat and hard negotiations; I want to be challenged in various...

I really, really like this idea. From my POV, it has two major advantages: 1. It is compatible with most HP mechanics, so it can be easily switched in and out. Nearly no changes are required to implement it in 3e or 4e, other than deciding which healing effects affect wounds and which affect...

That's only half true. Definitely, I see gaming as a creative expression and enjoy situations that test my character's personality. But I also really like rules. I like rules that support themes of the game, rules that make the important traits of my character a significant factor in...

LEVEL No difference, really. What is important to me is how fast do characters raise in power (I prefer 4e speed to 3e) and how the style of game changes with level (I'd prefer more change than in 3e and 4e - move from adventuring to politics and wars). POWERS (4e power mechanic) GOOD. Reduce...

Both when I play and when I GM, I like the characters to have reasonably high (about 30-40% on average) chance of failure in every serious challenge. On the other hand, I rarely if ever want the failure to result in death. I prefer games where it is impossible to die just because some unlucky...

With full-time work and family I have much less time than I had 10 years ago, but the effect on my gaming is opposite to what you experienced. I have varied needs that no single game satisfies and I don't have time to play several times a week, as I used to do. So I play less campaigns and more...

Sanderson's First Law Sanderson's Second Law In short: Magic is not a useful tool for protagonists if it does not have clear, understandable rules (though they don't have to be fully known from the beginning). It is not interesting if it does not have limitations, weaknesses and costs. Magic...

With all the criticism of Forge theories, I was skeptical about them for some time. I changed my mind, because they really helped my games. Even if the GNS classification is arbitrary and not grounded in serious research, it is exactly what I needed. For several years me and my friends had a...

1e magic system is a mixed bag. There are some things that I'd gladly see return: spells being declared before initiative roll and interrupted by damage, magic being costly and dangerous, percentage resistance. There are some I definitely don't like: the progression curve that makes you useless...

I like all listed features but the minor action healing, and this one is not a strong dislike, too. I really appreciate balance, robustness and ease of use of 4e healing system. I also have no problems with abstract nature of HPs, warlord healing and similar things. I'd just prefer either...

A lot depends on how often you roll, how much rolling corresponds to a single meaningful decision taken by a player and an action taken by a character. If one rarely rolls, three-digit arithmetic is not a problem. If there are several rolls per action and several actions per discussion or...

I don't have time for playing "good enough" games nor money for buying them. Either a game is very good in what it does, or I'm not interested. That's why I play many different games - they are good at different things and I like mixing different styles. I'm all for a modular game that my group...