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The logical extrapolation of the features of a setting is a subjective process, and can produce consequences that are detrimental to some players and GMs preferred playstyles. Implementing them in the gameworld is a matter of choice and not compulsory. Some people prefer more fast-paced action...

Referees are fallible, even good referees, (and I believe most referees are average). They have foibles, idiosyncacies, even prejudices. They will have tendencies to favour certain approaches and disfavour certain others. They may or may not be aware of the above. Over time players learn...

I've seen various shades of this sort of play in older school games, it doesn't necessarily require the GM to be an ass, it just requires them to feel obliged to challenge the players unless "tricked" into granting them a victory by "clever play"(which is very subjective in nature). Pinning the...

IMO dependence on fiat is a high effort style, like tightrope walking without a safety net. Maintaining consistency requires constant effort, as does respecting precedent. Being even a little bit inconsistent means logical flaws appear, and repeated inconsistency means the flaws build up over...

To create a flawed analogy, the failure mode of DM fiat is the "divine right of DM's" which leads to pesky treasonous players prattling on about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and the rule of law not of men. DM fiat without moderation by setting, precedent, player expectations...

Tastes differ so I don't think that there can be a comprehensive list of necessary qualities for a good adventure module. If there are stated design goals for the adventure we can attempt to assess how well the adventure achieves those goals. My personal constant is that sloppiness annoys me...

Please compare fairly. Eladrin Fey step is a short range teleport limited to line of sight and more akin to a 2nd level spell in previous editions (Dimension Hop or Dimension Leap) . Dimension Door i s a 4th level mid range teleport not requiring line of sight. Magic Jar is primarily a bad guy...

One old school picture of D&D groups was an all-powerful DM running a game like his own personal fiefdom, fiercely guarding his authority, and expecting his players to be acolytes. A lot of players didn't know much about the game and trusted the referee to do everything for them. In the old...

When the Haste spell changed in 3.0 D&D, it granted an extra action, which allowed spellcasting, which made it far more broken for spellcasters than non-spellcasters. Indeed, lots of NPC spellcaster BBEGs had it as one of their spells. It was close to a mandatory choice for those PCs who could...

My main personal objection to the style you advocating is that I am bad at arguing, I know I'm bad at arguing, and don't like doing so in the first place, and I'm not alone in this. So making my entire RPG experience depend on ability to argue with the DM is a good way to to make my play...

Well, that's one of the major conundrums of RPGs, which is whether to emphasise player skill or character skill. The opposite and equal comparison to the above example is a player dumping his PC's charisma and all social skills and still being an excellent diplomat and social animal in the...

The main problem I have with the above is that the lack of detail in the first example risks everyone imagining something different for the same scene, which is ok when passively reading a book, but not ok when using that information in a shared setting to decide on PC actions. For me overly...

I'm not going to look up spells because I'm not particularly interested in most older editions any more. In any case, the request for spells that damage on a missed attack roll is, IMO, a red herring. Most spells in older editions didn't require any attack roll, and as attack rolls weren't the...

Wands and scrolls , as they worked in some previous editions, can make such effects much less limited. Magical crafting rules and/or purchasable magic items can make some of these effects available every round for practical purposes to those who can wield them.

IMO what we are discussing in this thread is issues in expanding the design space for attacks to have resolutions other than just binary success or failure. Various mechanics in this vein exist for some skills and for some classes in previous editions of D&D, and different grades of success and...

The Forgotten Realms metaplot in the move from 1e to 2e, The Avatar Crisis, really annoyed me - I hate the concept of Wild Magic and the ludicrousness of e.g. all the assassins dying suddenly because the class was removed, I just couldn't stomach. Since them I have never accepted such metaplots...

People vary a lot in their preferences as regards to swinginess or reliability. Generally, when there are options in this area, it's the choice somewhere on the sliding scale between more consistent but lower damage to less consistent but higher damage. Now, some people prefer gambling and...

duplicate post, sorry

duplicate post, sorry

Of course Santa Claus turns out to be a simulacrum, because there's snow Santa Claus. Sorry, couldn't help myself.