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There were a bunch of Napoleonic games both Gygax and Arneson played in where individual people played 'roles' at the diplomacy level. If I recall correctly the first 1:1 figure use I can think of was a leader in Chainmail (so certainly per OD&D) and I think that this developed into heroes and...

The review does point to some issues with ItWW, but for me they don't really lessen my enjoyment or appreciation of the book very much. The organization is a little bit odd, for sure, and some bits can be hard to find until you're more familiar with the text. I don't have any issues with the...

I think it would be silly to suggest that no wargames had RPG-ish aspects before OD&D.

He said few of those wargames would be called RPGs, not that few RPGs would be called wargames.

The One Ring starter box is pretty naff too.

WEG Star Wars springs to mind on the system side, but that isn't the easiest thing to get ahold of.

I use the B/X rules for individual initiative with some slight modifications. I usually separate the roll for surprise or the start of an encounter from the rest of actual combat with some description and telegraphing of enemy intent. This gives the party a chance to do something else (parlay...

Trophy Dark is pretty perfect because the survival horror thrust of the rules generally sets survival expectations really low and rolls a lot of fun PvP type stuff into the mix.

My 1E WHFRP books. I don't even remember what happened to them.

Something I've always wanted to do is use a rules light and very fatal system like Trophy Dark to run a group through a dungeon or adventuring location and then run that same place again using the 'main' system with the results of the TD game cast as a historical (and very failed) set of events...

For sure. There's a lot more blending and nuance going on in some cases than a simple this or that kind of labeling really takes into account.

In the case of Blades there's more nuance than just 'say what you brought later'. Those equipment slots can still only be filled from the available equipment on the character sheet which is all diegetically indexed and which I might describe as genre appropriate. A small difference perhaps.

Yeah, I was indexing the more (sort of) simulationist end of the immersion spectrum.

So would you say that your Burning Wheel players weren't interested in/playing for adventure? Because we aren't talking about the GMs design agenda here in quite the way you seem to mean. Keep in mind that my 'for some value' addendum is carrying a lot of water here.

This is an interesting point when it comes to flashback mechanics. In some ways the effect they have on the fiction isn't any different than a special ability possessed by a character that lets them avoid an obstacle or challenge framed by the GM. In some other obvious ways they are different...

I find that players who value notions of immersion closer to the top of their TTRPG priorities are the same players who don't like this particular kind of mechanic at the table. That's neither good nor bad, just a thing.

Yup. The flashback mechanic is doing some genre emulation work in BitD (flashbacks and reveals are a staple of heist type media) and it's also doing a specific table time job of minimizing analysis paralysis which is a common issue when a table turns to planning something like a heist and the...

This is very true. That said, I cordially detest rolling to know as an idea in RPGs. Different games deal with this idea in lots of ways though, some of which I like more than others. For BitD I think the quantum equipment is perfect, it does exactly what the game needs thematically and in terms...

Hmm. That's more or less what I was driving at, the second bit. Elsewhere that was more or less where people decided to draw the line for what might count as a narrative mechanic (although I strongly dislike that term for that usage). I've read Edwards and, setting aside the wearisome baggage he...

I don't really understand how this addresses the bit you quoted. Isn't 'adventure', for some value of that idea, the main design thrust of most RPG settings and world building?