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As of "feature or flaw": it's both. When it comes to designing an actually good game, it's a flaw. Without it, the books are, for all intents and purposes, completely useless. Ooh, I have a book that tells me how much damage a sword does! Too bad it absolutely doesn't matter if I don't know...

Applying Fate rules doesn't require ad-hoc gamedesign. You are just applying rules, and the rules leverage the fact that there will be a human being at the table who can do things trivial for a human being, but impossible for a piece of paper with words written on it. Hm, I wonder, can aspect...

I think there's a difference between inventing rules because existing rigid rules ain't cutting it and applying rules that require human interpretation.

I would disagree. In, say, Fate, especially if you use a bunch of extras and supplemental books, the rules are far from trivial, while having no gaps to be bridged. Yeah, the rules require a human being to come up with compels and judge on aspect applicability, but it's not like there's a...

When I talk about "creative expression" I mean the process of creation, of expressing an idea or feeling through something. English is far from being my first language, so maybe there's a better term, I don't know. "Skill expression" (expressing your ability to play the game well) can be...

I found myself generally enjoying limited "bursts" of real agency, but only when I know when those happen. But maybe it's because I have a soft spot for Dark Heresy and the GM is hot, so maybe I'd enjoy the game regardless of anything, huh.

I mean, yeah, me too, otherwise I wouldn't stick around with RPGs long enough to even think about any of this. I'd just bounce off my first couple of campaigns. It's not really GM taking pitty, it's just how the adventure is written. The "cutscene" segment is a breather between two very intense...

Generally, I'm of the opinion that the existence of a GM is a stopgap measure. Game Master in pretty much every RPG that has one (except in maybe PbtA games) does the work of an in-situ game designer, closing gaps that should've never been there in the first place. That is the main reason I...

First, I'm sorry if I lose the thread of the discussion. I'm still at extended vacation and I'm very rarely sober and/or well-slept. To put on a tinfoil hat, I'd say the fact that D&D doesn't really support anything is intentional exploitation of its cultural cachet. An average person probably...

There's a pretty hard cap on how far away you can rewind, and the human element makes, well, actual replaying beyond the last scene if not impossible, at least improbable. If I go for a second walkthrough of Fallout, the game itself doesn't change. I can see with my eyes how different is...

In my experience with Blades, a less "skilled" team that chose a more bruteforce approach would probably accomplish the goal anyway, and the difference between an experienced, good Blades player and a noob is the ability to create intriguing fiction first and foremost. As of D&D, the thing I'm...

All activities produce stories, that is just a natural byproduct of events happening in a sequential order. Yesterday, I played Team Fortress, I flirted with this girl playing Soldier, and then I popped kritz on her and she bathed me in the blood of the enemy team. Story! Or, in-universe...

Well, Snarf @ ed me. Nah, it easily can be. If there was, well, actually engaging gameplay (like in 4E or, better, Strike!) and tight rules on encounter creation, instead of mere "guidelines", it would work. Like, yeah, it wouldn't be a storytelling game (as outcomes are decided by the...

Well, if you think that skill expression doesn't matter, then maybe you should try RPGs designed around creative expression instead? I live in the world where Forge already happened.

While, yes, the first thing I imagine when thinking about "player skill" is hitting railgun shots at supersonic speeds, the first example I lead with was a tabletop wargame -- Warhammer 40000. A good Warhammer player, Before the game: leverages their knowledge of other armies and current meta...

Look. There's this cool game called ULTRAKILL. I've played it enough to know exactly when and where which enemies will spawn, so I can aim at enemies head before the bastard even spawned, shoot, turn around on a pure muscle memory to another enemy, switch to the shotgun and pump them full of...

I've played D&D quite a lot, and I cannot say that I'm really any better at it than someone who just recently figured out how the rules work. I ain't leaving them in the dust. And people who have way more experience than me don't either. I have practically no experience with CRPGs, and those...

But pretty much every game that features... ...asymmetrical opposition, requires learning match ups ...maps, requires learning the layout You don't get better at Warhammer by rereading your army codex three hundred times, you get better by learning what other armies can do and figuring out...

The point is, long campaigns aren't a some kind of feature of rules-heavy games. It's a byproduct of human beings resolving complex rules that makes the density of important events per session low. D&D, when played on a properly configured VTT that automates everything isn't suited for...

Funnily, both the design and the "culture" around D&D specifically and games of it's ilk generally, is pretty decidedly anti-game. High degree of randomness certainly doesn't help, but more importantly, it's expected that players... Actively refuse to play the goddamn game. It's frowned upon to...