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....because D&D lacks design. If it had some, DMing wouldn't require a skill. It would require just following the rules exactly as they are written, because the designer already did all the thinking for you and forbade bad DMing.

No. Looking at RPGs like it's photoshop is a wrong perspective. RPGs aren't "game engines". They are games. OK, rule of thumb: is it possible to play system [X] without breaking any rules and still have a bad time? If yes, then it's a badly designed game. The designer didn't do their job...

The point is: using Photoshop requires less effort than building an image editing software from the ground up. Preparing a D&D campaign requires more effort than just... designing a game. The designers refuse to do their job and rule over the game with an iron fist, refuse to do all the...

...I'm an artist? Anything of meaning that comes into creating a piece is coming from me, and my skills as an artist. If I switch from Photoshop to another program, my art would be pretty much the same — it doesn't really matter. Similarly, it doesn't matter if my ma boots up Photoshop or...

So, if I abandon Photoshop completely and turn to my second favorite medium: oil paint, would the canvas manufacturer, the paints manufacturer, the brush manufacturer, the lights manufacturer and the people who originally built the bloc I'm currently living in do the "vast majority of the work"...

You could just look up what I was replying to: That's the point. Supposedly "flexible toolbox system" lacks a very basic tool: ability to adjust the level of detail on per situation basis.

...no? If I decide to switch from Photoshop to Procreate, I'll have to learn a whole new app, it's UI, shortcuts, quirks, tricks and weird bugs. Photoshop is still not doing "the vast majority of the work" for me. The only difference is that Photoshop is a very complex piece of software that...

OK. What enemies does D&D prescribe to fight? And more generally, what experience D&D is carefully designed to deliver? Is every single aspect of it grown in a lab, specifically to drive forward a singluar artistic vision of WotC? No. Because there's no design in D&D. DM is doing 100% of the...

Nah, the rules are very simple: everyone can just introduce whatever new fiction they want to, until the other person disagrees. There's no risk involved, things will always go according to the consensus of the players' vision (and the consensus is usually easily reached). I can't really give...

I used to play Mortal Kombat with a guy who was running a D&D 5E game, and then I became a "combat GM" in that game. I showed up the last hour of the session, ran a cool combat encounter and then we had our MK practice. It was cool. On top of everything else, running a game where you can just...

On character arcs, for those wondering "what's the point of playing if you already know where your character will end up": if we think about roleplaying as capturing a fantasy, a feeling, then, well, it makes sense how a specific journey can be an integral part of it. I don't really have a...

Sure! It's not like this is a completely unsolvable problem. But if this trade is done completely freely, is there even a reason to have action ratings in the first place?

Well, I've met another PC's enemy, who was his previous teacher, and the whole situation was like "Finally! A worthy disciple!", and I really liked the idea of my character being a hidden gem of raw psychic power who was wasting his life on petty crime. SaV surely allows to utilize actions you...

Here in some posts, and in my tg channel, I recently argued for the players just... knowing the adventure in prep-heavy games that require battlemaps and stuff in order to be utilized for their fullest potential. After all, it's not railroading, if the players willingly choose to stay on the...

Yeah, I had fun overall, otherwise I wouldn't catch a bus ride to the other side of the city to show up on sessions. It's just... Idk, this specific thing with Attune felt more like filing out forms to get a permission to roleplay rather than a driving supporting force.

OK, so, I was sadly dragged into some stuff in another subforum and completely missed this cool thread! I'm, like, absolutely not neo-trad. But I do agree! I recently came to a realization that I actually want the rules and fiction to be separated, with either one-way flow (as in rules...

As an example, I'm playing in Scum&Villainy campaign right now, and some organic developments made my character move towards psychic mystical stuff, in tune with the Way and there were plenty of situations where leaning into it would be very cool and would showcase the character journey! The...

OK, soo... How would you condense a dangerous fight that isn't narratively important enough for full-blown initiative format? (And, no, spells and supernatural abilities isn't attacking with words, it's attacking with magic. You are not hurting the other person emotionally or socially)

@Imaro D&D General - How much control do DMs need?

As I said, I don't see "ask for a roll and then come up with arbitrary results" as a tool. Maybe it satisfies the most basic definition of one, but that's like saying a rock is a tool. For cavemen that didn't have factory-made hammers, yeah, I guess? The argument was that D&D is a flexible...