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Why is it poor tactics?

Do you mean accurately modeling blow-by-blow combat, or precisely? GURPS is very precise, but not especially accurate. For instance, in real-life you don't perform an All-Out Attack because you feel like it, but because your opponent has revealed on opening. If your GM happened to be a bullet...

Walking in plate is probably about 70 db, but I don't think decibels are a good basis for Listen checks. Human perception is more strongly drawn to contrasts. For instance, it would be more difficult to hear someone speaking, over a crowded room full of people speaking, than a soft melody, even...

A petty evil? If you are simply calling it a petty amusement, I will not be ashamed of that. But if you think I have done harm to someone who did not deserve it, even in a small way, I would be glad to hear your perspective and consider whether I owe some sort of redress.

That's 16 CP. For 15 CP, I could buy Energy Bonus 1, plus Magic 3. Spending all 30 points of Magic on a Special Attack, I could have a magic spell that does 7d8 damage, and I could cast it at least three times in a row. Or I could have two Extra Attacks, which I could perform with my katana.

You paid for them. How is that broken?

I've disliked it since AD&D. It wasn't present in BECMI.

Check out the Kickstarter page for a list of character classes. Let's talk about swords for a second: Beam sword: The beam sword generates a force field around a vortex of plasma energy. When the field of the blade penetrates a solid object, energy flows from the blade to the intersection...

To an extent, 4e is designed to be unclonable. To play, you need a lot of explicit text explaining exceptional abilities. Some of its best value is in its online system, which you can't clone except by writing a DB yourself. All those Hellacute Donkyhorse names are at least, in theory...

I can actually think of a major counter-example, and I don't think your assertion of falling rather than rising action holds up. In the climactic battle in Willow, the two female magicians start off by challenging each other's awesome powers. Before long, they're wrestling and backhanding each...

Probably one of the more popular and well-supported innovations in RPGs is the Hero Point/Life Point/Luck Point/Force Point. A Hero point could be construed to represent: - A character's determination and capacity to exceed their normal capabilities - A form of currency used by a player to...

Include the new elemental cosmology Exclude, uh, I'm going with with huge laundry lists of powers for every class Bring back the wacky spells

An empire found itself facing a foe with no reservations about undead warriors. This empire, however, considered it anathema. However, they found a solution. While they would not use undead spirits, or trap living souls, they found a way to store life force energy. Using powerful accumulators to...

Kickstarter has been updated with a list of the book chapters.

I took a private delight in reading the preview books at used book stores almost as soon as they were in print, then traipsing... er, sorry, ADVENTURING!... back home to the Intarweb to mock the contents thereof. Whatever 4e's virtues, the 4e team did a poor job of marketing it to people who...

The conceit of ever-increasing PC wealth.

I would consider that advice to be simply bad, rather than "not an RPG." It admits to the possibility of unpredictably, while simply reducing it in some parts of the game. My advice would be, "Don't roll if you can't live with the results." I can live with, "Fudge if you need to save your...

I agree that usage has to bow to reality. I don't object to some level of illusionism; in fact, some tiny amount is probably necessary as a fixing agent, or to put it another way, the box for the sand. But this is not a minority stakes discussion. When a game is devoid of significant...

It's interesting, some of those elements are present in 3e, but the concept was never examined in-depth until Book of 9 Swords. I thought Bo9S was a flop, but evidently a lot of people were turned on by the idea of martial "spells." I kind of prefer feats over 1/day sunbursts, but the difference...

If the players provide only secondary color on the action, then the GM is the only real player. You have players that are not players. I'm not denying it's something, or that it it couldn't be entertaining, but it's not an RPG. If the players can't make at least some meaningful choices, it's...