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I require players to submit a backstory in D&D explaining who their character is and by extension how they expect to play that character. If the character is an elf but doesn't feel very "elfish" I will not approve the character for play. The expectation in taking a race is that you are...

Current LLM's are just talking with yourself. They say what you want them to say based on the idea that the most likely thing to say is what the person wants to hear. That's why it initially chose which editions it liked based on what it thought you would like because it's what most people...

I had considered One Ring 1e, but that's an interesting choice as well that I should look into. I love the setting but I hated the rules.

I don't think you watched the video. The first time or at least novice player is Wil Wheaton and he spends most of the session frustrated by his lack of spotlight and struggling and failing to hide in his facial features his confusion and frustration. The Trad experience he's having is akin to...

You do.

That is correct. I do agree that I'm stretching the use of the term which usually involves ignoring a hidden dice roll that would suggest under the rules some particular outcome and instead replacing the result with one of the GMs preferences. But I protest that I'm not stretching the term...

Every roll that isn't 10+ 99% of the time this is true when I game with friends as well. I do have that one guy who will occasionally metagame and rules lawyer when he's stressed about the security of his character ("Am I going to die?") or when he hasn't had a recent big impressive success...

I direct you to Ryan Macklin's play in the video I linked to earlier. The reality of most characters is that they want to succeed. There is always someone at the table with a least in part aesthetics driven by Fantasy and a desire to win big, but then also everyone at the table wants...

Sure. But "cool" is a very subjective thing and what someone will consider cool varies from person to person. So "the rule of cool" very quickly makes the process of play about what discovering a) what the GM thinks is cool and catering to the GM's preference or b) doing the same thing with...

Yes. I have my doubts about this being anything but shelfware, but the writer they have engaged on the project is probably the best qualified person to create a "Wind in the Willows" RPG imaginable.

A GM can always fudge. It's just the nature of the fudging differs in different games. Well, for one that's because it's not a characterization of "rules light play". It's a characterization of a process of play in which rules lawyering is just one subcategory. But I own several rules...

Mouse Guard may look cute but it's a game about Kaiju horrors. It's also got an almost unplayable system IMO that wastes the setting on too many fiddly moving parts that get in the way of both RP and basic action resolution.

No amount of rules can stop a GM from being bad, but one of the two most important ways a well-intentioned GM can limit his ability to achieve his own preferences is adherence to the rules. Without adherence to the rules, even a well-intentioned GM is likely simply prioritizing his own...

I'm not sure that we are. You don't need rules for that, and indeed it's hard or nigh impossible to do that with rules. In my current campaign I'm using largely 2e Star Wars D6 by WEG as the rules set, but those rules don't really create any choices or decisions that are interesting in and of...

Regardless of the merits of the conclusion, which I'm still pondering, I find this argument and example internally contradictory. Hit points are not an example of D&D being rules heavy or simulationist. Hit points are an example of D&D being rules light and abstract, which is why they often...

GMs whim becomes a problem when you get burned by it, regardless of the system. Personally, I think people often draw the conclusion that was the system's fault when it was the GM's fault, but if a system gives too few guidelines or bad guidelines (side eyes 4e skill challenges, all of the...

In this case though, the DM fiat is still subject to the rules and the DM fiat is creating a case law that can be appealed to and which is precedent setting. "Rulings" in this sense just means "common law" rather than statutory. There are still reasons to prefer that to whim. Perhaps, but...

Table arguments are a social issue; not a rules issue. You can't solve out of game problems within game solutions. While it is good to be clear and concise, it is not possible to make something clear and concise enough that people won't argue about it. That being said, there is difference in...

I've got like 300 hours in Star Dew Valley, but... a) Star Dew Valley is a solo experience and... b) Not strictly non-violent, as if you get tired of the cozy life you can go slay slimes in the cozy dungeons.

I'm talking about the responses of my wife and daughters. Make believe cozy gets old fast. Door kicking takes much longer. My suspicion is that the audience for most RPG books is not participants in play, but people who read RPG books. I have far more RPG books than I've ever used in play...