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I'd go one step further, and say "and PCs largely get encounters in a level appropriate order," but that's quibbling. There's also nothing wrong with making PCs a special case in the established universe of the game, as long as it's sufficiently explained. Exalted is the classic example of a...

This is a different issue, but also one encouraged by the lack of a firm goal of play; players should ideally know (or at least want to know) the rules of the game they're playing. My preferred approach goes a step further and maintains should not only know, but attempt to use, the rules of the...

I'm legitimately not joking when I say this should be the only option presented to players. Modern fantasy is even trending this direction, strict magical/non-magical skill separation is pretty rare in modern fantasy protagonists. Characters can still use swords, they should just also get...

Ah, see I can imagine nothing more disrespectful to a game (or more precisely, to the other players) than not trying to win it, and no worse design sin than asking me not to do that sometimes. The "integrity" of the game is a matter for the design and systems to solve, not for the players...

Yes, it is unethical to print the Fighter. In this talk I will...

That's sort of the problem though, isn't it? Without agreement on the fundamental purpose of the game, some set of player's attempts to improve it will necessarily make it worse for other people. Gritty rests are insufficient, but directionally correct. Long rests shouldn't be 1/week, they...

This whole discussion of background features feels predicated mostly on disagreement about the role of players at the table. Are they collectively telling a story as their first and foremost goal? If so, it's no particular imposition to ask everyone to work toward justifying/validating the...

Point of order, improvised action DCs (and very particularly skill challenges) are anathema to my preferred D&D, and I'm a direct product of an older D&D edition. I recently saw someone put forward a very useful summation of the position as "it is necessary for the rules to be laid out...

There's an assumption in here that leads to the absurdity, which is that any action declaration can be adjudicated by a roll. You can just lay out the time required to don armor and be done, you can write down what skills do and trust they will do those things.

That's an entirely different gameplay loop than having increasing high DC sets of abilities locked behind skills. @Bacon Bits correctly identifies below that it encourages players to roll for everything, and it requires the successful state be mutable; critical successes/failures have to create...

I don't know if you intended to imply this, but it's generally not okay to equate sexual orientation and transgender identity; they both fall under the broader queer umbrella, but are different things.

I think you're still missing the point broadly here, but that particular discussion was about half-orcs.

Yeah, nuance is super important. Viewing criticism as either an exact instruction guide for what must or should not be done or an attack that has to be defended is where this all goes wrong. More awareness about what readings are possible, what connotations/reactions your work provokes are only...

I believe (and of course @Steampunkette knows best and can speak for herself) the point was to demonstrate the risks of tying character power to a significant defining character trait in that way. If there's a strong mechanical incentive to pick a particular background for personal power, that...

Yeah, I think really the issue is that should be a whole separate space from gaming, by default. No one should be made to feel objectified or unwelcome by a game product, and no one is entitled to casual gratification in their gaming products. There's similar conversations happening in board...

That might well be changing social norms. There's just about nothing more uncomfortable for me than a forced conversation, I recall a recent frustrating moment at a fast-casual restaurant with an enterprising young man, just determined to ask where I was coming from, where I was going, was that...

Games aren't stories, and stories don't often make for interesting games.

Right. That's the bit I think everyone gets backwards. The storytelling foregrounds the game; I'm pretending to be an elf with a dead brother so I can derive the goal "find out who killed your brother" and then when that's resolved, pursue "get vengeance for your brother." The roleplaying is a...

This is the most important thing. It's a game that's unbounded in time and the changing goals are the product of collaborative storytelling. There's so many points of interaction that provide so many different lines of play, and no other medium can do the same.

I find that take a bit too extreme, mostly because I don't particularly want to do at the table design work and would like someone to put a lot more effort into designing an elaborate system for me to play with. My preferred take is to drive the RPG as a game with player determined...