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The GM as Storyteller was at least prevalent enough during Second Edition's reign to support a magazine wholly devoted to the concept (White Wolf Magazine) and to get a whole category in the Six Cultures of Play. It's also a sizeable chunk of the commentary on these boards (adventure paths...

I have a fairly strong aesthetic preference for dice to be used to resolve fictional uncertainty, things being in doubt in the fictional situation - rather than a tool to resolve our personal uncertainty about the fictional situation. Dice then become a totem for helping us to feel the tension...

I really like Blades. Pitch perfect marriage between setting, thematic elements, intertwining rules, etc. Unfortunately, I have not really been able to dig into any other Forged in the Dark game besides Quietus, which has as much in common with Blades as Blades has with Apocalypse World. Most I...

You basically ignored the thesis of my post and the points underneath it to use a small snippet of the bottom of my post to engage in gaming cultural war shenanigans. I think it's poor form to use someone else's statements as a launching pad while not addressing what they were trying to talk...

The larger point is that games like Apocalypse Keys and Blades in the Dark have weight and intricacies to them that can really only be experienced through extended play. You can get a taste, but the real game only begins once you have a few sessions in and everyone internalizes how to play/run...

When it comes to games like Apocalypse World, Blades in the Dark, Masks, et al. I think they are extremely approachable for players, but they are not games one should run without taking their time to really dig into the specific game. Even games as similar on the surface as Apocalypse World...

Who is arguing for players to see the entire stat block or look up a monster in the monster manual? This is a little different from a preference for sharing DC numbers, a feature which is quite common in other games (whereas stat block sharing is not). Legend of the Five Rings Fifth Edition for...

@Maxperson Just for clarity - are you trying to say players should not be given numbers or that they should not try to intuit them (so is to make better decisions about which abilities to use)? Like if a player remarks "16 hits but a 14 does not" is that player in the wrong or thinking about...

You are rolling 2d12 (which averages to 13) to meet or beat the Difficulty with all doubles being critical successes (even if they would have been failures).

The obvious solution to me is to provide instructions to the GM to remind players we are following the fiction and to shift the spotlight to characters who have not yet acted if the sequence of player character actions seems unreasonable. I don't think we should have to drill it down to a locked...

I guess if you are not looking for advice or feedback why post this thread other than to publicly shame one of your players?

I will pretty much only do checks for active research in most trad games. I don't think there should be in the fiction tension over what a character does and does not know. I have similar feelings about Perception checks where I simply base it on how skilled/talented characters are unless they...

Rae Nedjadi (Apocalypse Keys, Once More into the Void, Our Haunt, upcoming Tomb Raider games) Creates emotionally immersive games that are still packed with action and tension. Apocalypse Keys in particular mirrors personal conflict with external conflicts that highlight our monstrous natures...

That's one way to do it. Not the only way. GM provided plot is not a given.

I promise you target numbers are not lying in wait, ready to steal all evocative descriptions or engagement with the fiction. Unless damn near every game I have or ran or played for the last 15 years has been a figment of my imagination. From my perspective if someone's ability to engage with...

The issue I have personally experienced with the sort of relative descriptions we see most GMs provide in most games is what they are relative to (normal people). This makes it very difficult to assess relative strength or danger in comparison (every monster is dangerous to a typical villager)...

You're missing pretty much all of the underlying structure of GM Moves, The First Scene, principles, the Seating Chart, etc. There's a wealth of structure that underpins the game (and is meant to be treated with the same force if not more) that is not contained on the character sheets and basic...

Calling Apocalypse World, Monsterhearts, Apocalypse Keys or Masks rules light would be a big stretch to me. These are games with a fair number of moving parts that all interact with each other. What is true is that the rules involved often require some interpretation based on the fictional...

For me what generally matters is how complex a particular piece of crunch is and if there are stacking passive effects. I really dislike mechanics that happen twice on a full moon during leap years or that have a bunch of attached caveats. Pathfinder Second Edition feels pretty good to me where...

The core resolution mechanic is highly inspired by Forged in the Dark and Powered by the Apocalypse, and the combat mechanics are an attempt to wed those resolution mechanics with D&D style tactical combat. They likely will need some fine tuning because that's a bit of a heavy lift, but the...