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I dislike refluffed/soloized/minionized monsters and 4e's adventure construction and encounter difficulty guidelines. But for me it's not because I necessarily dislike all metagame mechanics, it's because these ones disrupt the sense of achievement I want the players have when they level up...

I think putting it this way, that we should "model" a character's emotional landscape with game mechanics, is actually am example of what is meant by the term "simulationist-by-habit" where you're using simulationist language (modeling) by default even though you mean something a bit different...

Well THAC0 is a character stat that improves with level. It's analogous to base attack bonus. It's the number you need to roll to hit AC 0. Because each point of AC greater than 0 makes the attack roll easier by 1, you can find what you need to roll to hit any AC by subtracting it from THAC0. So...

I don't think this is a good idea. Playing a Tower Defense clone by myself really doesn't feel like D&D at all.

I don't think you're being fair to pemerton or the Forge's Big Model. The Big Model calls out Gamism and Simulationism as valid creative agendas and I think Ron Edwards' essay on Gamism is actually very good. Pemerton basically understands classic D&D-style gamism, he's just not interested in...

For attack rolls with descending AC I like to say it's a hit if the d20 result is from THAC0-20 or from 1-AC. This is mathematically equivalent and actually even easier than ascending AC and BAB.

Couple more thoughts on this topic: A simulationist rule adds more detail and texture to the shared imaginary space but does not directly create an interesting decision for the players. Boardgamers call rules like this "chrome". Simulationist rules, although they don't directly lead to an...

Yeah for sure, I like how old D&D lists everything in feet even though the majority of the time you're using an abstracted stat (squares, reach, monster size). It reminds you what the abstraction is an abstraction of, and once in a while you do use the number in feet.

I think there should be an inverse relationship between how simulationist and involved (process sim?) the rules are for something, and how often you use those rules. I like sim rules, but they wear out their welcome fast if it's something you do a lot. For example: I think the rules for fighting...

Trending towards being too simple to play and too complex to DM. 3e/4e charop is undeniably something that a lot of people find very fun. That sort of fun is what WotC knows how to do well. I think they should be wary about simplifying PCs too much. They might end up with an edition that is the...

I'm quite willing to believe that their mindset is different from modern humans, but I just think it's more interesting if they worship Lloth while also thinking she is hideous and terrifying, rather than liking everything about her and wanting to be just like her when they grow up. Also I think...

I think the doors should be described as sturdy or made of oak, or locked or boarded up, but then the DM should come up with DCs for whatever the PCs want to do. Coming up with DCs in the middle of play is part of their job in Next and they'll be doing it a lot anyway, so why preset certain...

I agree. I think even worshippers of Ganesha wouldn't be lining up for an extra pair of arms, or an elephant head. The idea that religious worship is always a straightforward relationship of admiration and inspiration displays a Christian bias.

Good question. I am a big fan of the terse OSR writing style, but I actually prefer the D&DNext format here, because it's designed to follow the natural order of play, which is: how do I get into this room, then a basic description of what's in it, then "what do you do?", then here's what...

Won't the concentration mechanic, because it works on the caster rather than the target, distort the value of adding another caster to a group that already has a caster, because they can stack effects together? That's going to be kind of odd and un-D&Dish IMO. Don't like the idea that a caster...

JW claims that 1e doesn't have any clear guidelines for appropriate encounters, when 1e has the clearest guidelines of all: a series of lists of encounters by level. Want a level 2 encounter? Go to the list of level 2 encounters. It literally could not be any clearer than that. What 3e brought...

I think as a player when you agree to play through a prepackaged adventure it's your responsibility to recognize where the railroad tracks are and follow them. That's just how it has to be for this style of play to work. Complaining about it is as asinine as calling customer service to complain...

Not recently, but about five years ago I ran the slave lords series with AD&D3 and it worked really well. That was basically my introduction to OSR gaming. (I used Castles & Crusades for a short period before that but chose AD&D3). This was before you added the DMG so when I began to want a...

Spare the Dying is way overpowered for a cantrip IMO. I think the classic dungeoncrawl needs significant game-mechanical risk in order to work correctly. I don't think it needs to be character obliteration. I like the idea of losing all the XP you've gained so far on an adventure if you drop...

This was actually a really good article and made me realize how uselessly huge most D&D settings are. In the past when I've run hex crawls at 6 miles per hex it's been very abstract and not very imaginative because I can't really describe what a journey would look and feel like at that scale...