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Oh, that's for sure. I don't really see a meaningful difference when it comes to challenge between "success is assured, regardless of how smartly characters act", "failure is assured, regardless of how smartly characters act", "the outcome is decided by tallying Victory Points, regardless of how...

As always, I'm gonna be unhelpful. Skill list should be as short as possible, but not any shorter. All skills must be a) useful b) irreplaceable for whatever the game focuses on. Should "Shoot" and "Fight" be two different skills? Only if both are viable and there's an added depth by...

I'm reasonably flexible (as in, I can and do enjoy very different kinds of games), as long as there's a loud and clear primer of what to expect. I'm not picking up a cat in the bag, and if things suddenly change mid-game, I'm probably gonna bail. The same goes for when I choose a game to play...

More generally, here's a simple thing: challenge (in the context of RPGs: overcoming challenges by navigating a situation in Shared Imaginary Space effectively) and storytelling are fundamentally incompatible, and there's absolutely nothing that can be done to reconcile them. Challenge demands...

I'm just gonna quote Baker here:

I have no problem with making adjustments. But, as I said multiple times before, something being possible and something being easy are two very different things. I'm playing Pasión de las Pasiones right now. It's a game that strives to emulate Mexican soap operas — a genre I'm absolutely...

And if I remember Spirit of '77 correctly, it says pretty much the same thing almost every PbtA game does: the game can function with just 2d6, but you'll be missing out. After all, if it was genuine belief of the authors, why the hell did they write the rest of the game.

Well, if we're continuing with Mexican soap operas example, real world doesn't abide the genre conventions, and real people don't act like characters on daytime television. Or speak in one-liners like action heroes. Or whatever else. Because real world is real world and not a story, and real...

Probably no, given that knowledge and ability to effectively relay that knowledge are two very different things. And given how I can just look at the playbook and the basic moves if I don't know what action would be genre-appropriate, without bothering anyone.

Yeah, but reading a book takes an evening at worst, reading my playbook is barely five minutes, and watching even a single TV series is a couple of dozens hours at the low end.

...genre as in genre of the story. What you can or cannot do and what kind of character you can or cannot create in a slasher flick is very different from a game that tries to capture the feeling of a Hong Kong action cinema. The consequences of the same action would also be different.

I'm yet to see a SR fan whose opinion on it isn't "Man, this game sucks, but I love it".

No number of sessions zero can make someone who doesn't understand the genre familiar with it enough to play it. I know only two things about mexican soap operas: jack and s##t. I can still play Pasión de las Pasiones just fine.

It's playable, yes. But it requires greater trust in people you're playing with, that they actually know and understand the genre and the setting, and, more importantly, that their knowledge and understanding is synchronized with yours. Freeform roleplaying lives on self-restraints, because the...

I really like Bakers' writing style and I'm a fangirl, so, obviously I'll recommend Apocalypse World. I'll also recommend Veins of the Earth, that's probably the best piece of RPG writing I've ever read. Also doubles as the most beatiful artbook I have, but that's secondary.

Just to be clear, I'm not and don't want to be some kind of ambassador of this side of the Berlin wall, regardless of how much I love to attention whore by underscoring that I'm not american nor european. Just like EnWorld is but a subset of larger English-speaking community, my circles aren't...

I think it describes the goals of play more than it describes the system used, and while different systems enable certain goals better or worse, what you're trying to achieve I think is more important than what tool you're using. I refer to systems because a) I dropped the ball a bit here and...

My biggest gripe with fiction inserts is that they could've been used to actually illustrate the game. Like, switch between the table, how the players roll stuff, smirk, spill beer over the book and describe their actions, and the game world, where characters swing swords and whatever.

Failure is almost meaningless in Souls games, though. I see "YOU DIED" screen in Dark Souls much more often then I reload my save in Silent Hill 2, but the former is like "oh, okay, I'll try something different then" and the latter makes me want to punch a hole through my screen.

As of trad vs. new school. First, yeah, just like @Ovinomancer said, check out the Eastern taxonomy. What is called "mid-school" within it, encapsulates both trad and neo-trad playstyles, well, as far as I understand those two labels. Second, yes, it is possible to collaboratively create an...