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Why must it be all encompassing or nothing at all? You haven't given any reasons or explained yourself here. (Unless I'm missing it.) Personally I think it can go both ways with the same text and rules - I believe that people play D&D in different ways, and one group might use more player...

What I understood pemerton to be saying was that a strict "world simulation" could easily lend itself to a game where the PCs don't have anything to do. What I understood you to be saying was that a lot of people play games where the PCs don't have anything to do. It seems like I'm missing...

I'm confused here. pemerton says: Do people actually play this way - they make PCs with the expectation that they'll be able to do something but then it turns out there's nothing for them to do? I'd be very surprised if that's a common mode of play, even with new games like DCC. (Not that...

Cool, but isn't it possible for the STR 8 halfling with no athletics training to "out-muscle" the ST 16 fighter with training? What's the difference?

This brings up another question: how does one determine when the outcome is uncertain? If an ogre grapples a STR 8 wizard, is it a forgone conclusion that the wizard can't escape? What if it's a dragon? or the Tarrasque? I'm not sure if there's an answer to this question in the rules; if not...

That's cool. I originally thought of a giant, treaded, robotic monstrosity from another time that just wanders about based on its ancient (and corrupt) programming. What happens if this nuclear-powered war-machine "wakes up"? Probably nothing good. On the back of a dragon turtle could be...

Thanks - like I've said, I haven't read or played Mega/Traveller. I think this sort of procedure applies context to the Streetwise check. With that context, I can see how the work of the random roll I would have made is covered by the background setting/setting generation procedures...

Thanks. Yeah, Dhalia is the PC who bought some rocket ships on the moon. We haven't played for a while now - maybe two months? - as we are dabbling with other game systems. I'm late to run Call of Cthulhu now!

I really think it's pretty easy to get players invested in dungeon crawling: create a bunch of dungeons and let them pick their goals. The most recent dungeon I made was because a PC wanted to discover an "Astral Seed", a mini-black hole that would allow her to create her own universe. An NPC...

I explicitly allow metagaming. I believe that tactical planning mid-combat is a feature (or bug, depending on your point of view) of stop-motion initiative.

Keeping in mind that I have access to neither text, there does seem to be a difference. If players can make Streetwise checks in Traveller to find weapons, and the GM sets the difficulty, that assumes that there are weapons to be found in the world. Contrast this with a random or procedural...

I like rootless vagabonds. I find that rewarding XP for goals results in PCs who have goals. If you put them into a harsh setting where they need the support of NPCs to survive and achieve their goals (and vice-versa) and play those NPCs as real characters, they will start to form...

What makes the game entertaining for you?

I side with you on your take with this skill, from what I've read so far (I've neither played nor read Traveller). The PC shouldn't have any ability to determine the availability of the good they're looking for, so why then is availability tied to PC skill? In my game I'd first make a random...

Cool. (In the actual game we were in combat.) Yeah, then I don't see much value to rolling randomly for a single feature - I could also roll to see if the stairs are slippery or rotting, or if the front door was closed, or if a cat ran across the PC's path, or anything else one can imagine...

That makes sense to me. I wonder if there is a better way to use this technique than relying on the DM to remember to narrate appropriate fiction. If I understand correctly, the PC is making an Athletics check to resolve the action "I flee!"* I'm not sure how exactly we are resolving this -...

I still don't think it's part of action resolution, at least in my game. The declared action for the PC would be something like "I run up the stairs at full speed!" Whether or not the trap door is shut isn't part of that action - and can't be, because the PC has no control over its state*...

I know that in Burning Empires any player (including the DM) can apply binding constraints on character action based on the outcome of conflicts - Duel of Wits and Firefights. You can also change the character that you're in conflict with: "If I win, he gets the trait REMF." Or even something...

It's interesting that you would call the question of "is the trap door open or closed?" part of action resolution. I never thought about it that way. I think it's simply because the player can't state that as a part of her action; the trap door's state needs to be resolved in some other...

That is a hard question to answer! There's no objective answer, I don't think; it depends on what you want to do, what you think is fun. There is a thrill, as a player, when you are able to achieve your goals in a game that's been refereed fairly and evenly. As DM, I find it creatively...