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Depends on the system. There's been a wave of Metacurrency (Hero Points, Bennies, Inspiration) games that have given PCs the advantage over everybody and everything they face. Because some people can't stomach failure :rolleyes:

Not using the example I provided (a 1HD commoner = 1-8 HP getting stabbed 10-30 times = an average of 40 points of damage = 20 stabs x 2 damage). That math doesn't add up to character survival, but humans in the real world survive surprisingly often. But again, using a Wound system might get...

But 1HD commoners survive deadly attacks all the time. You can waste a day watching and reading accounts of survivors who were stabbed 10-30 times and lived to talk about it. Just normal people surviving what would be 10-30d4 damage in most ttrpgs. This is why real combat cannot be simulated...

Except 5e started with: less than ten races and now it's over forty less than fifteen backgrounds and now it's over fifty less than fifteen classes and now it's over one hundred (with the subclasses) less than fifty feats and now it's over one hundred Power-creep involves everything that...

Great News! Steve Kenson, M&M's designer, and M&M's Line Dev, Alex Thomas, announced and discuss the new edition (currently in playtest mode):

There's a ton of other rules-lite superhero rpgs that offer that exact experience. Kenson said (in the 4e announcement) that while there will be tweaks to the system, his interaction with the M&M community reflected that MOST of us enjoy all the "moving parts" involved in playing the system. If...

Steve says that, indeed, the Valiant adventures supplement was a step towards 4e. Noticeable changes: Definitely more lethal than the 'Saturday Morning Cartoon-ish' experience M&M3e has been: attacks are now separated into "lethal and non-lethal" kind of like Champions The PL for 'new...

We've only been waiting .... for what seems an eternity. I've been spying on Kenson's musing at the new Atomic Think Tank site and he was definitely shifting around how certain powers worked - if not how most of them work. The system needs a nice overhaul and I'm hoping 🤞 he sifts all the...

Railroad 🙄 Which runs into "player agency" (another spider-web). Which slams into "linear" and "sandbox" (two hornet nests). My two copper 👍

Monsters & evil NPCs can also use good tactics along with the GM rolling well. What's important with encounter design is making sure it's as engaging as the GM intends. Regrettably, CR RAW isn't the answer.

If you want to design an adventure with your players, seems like you should be asking them these questions (?) I'm old-school, so players have their characters and the GM has everything else (setting & campaign). But you don't need a setting to design a dungeon. Take a look at the AD&D 1st...

This is one of the reasons I passed on PF2e. CR was already a joke then Paizo gives the PCs more actions? I've never - since being a AD&D1e DM - seen so many GM complaints about a system as I've seen about 3, 3.5, 3.75, 4e and 5e. And the complaints almost always focus on CR-based encounter...

I'll see your QP and raise you the Supernatural ;) Using models, and designing a ttrpg that accurately simulates reality, are two very different things. Cyberpunk 2020's is a science-fiction game with characters shooting each other with beam weapons - how much data does the FBI have on that...

That's amazing. I can get that from a good book or good movie, but never with ttrpgs. I'm always thinking "What's the best move here?" mostly because I can't escape the reality that I'm playing a game. I'm weird. Great points there and I have some of the same opinions. I used to use that term...

Yeah but is there a rule in Deadlands that suggests PCs automatically reload their weapons? Or during Session 0, did the group discuss weapons being automatically reloaded? See this is where problems surface: someone assumes something happens while someone else doesn't make the same assumption...

Name one. Also, "odds" aren't "reality", they're statistical probabilities.

I mean. I look at the modifiers and all I see is abstract fluffiness. They aren't simulating reality, they're emulating it - that is, they're making up numbers and saying "hey these numbers = the target is X yards away and it's raining and your PC's blasted on Novacoke so there's a grouping of...

You keep writing "realistic systems" when there are none. No system, even the most advanced computer models, can predict the future. All they can do is project possibilities based on data from past events. I notice that very often people get turned around when discussing game theory and confuse...