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  1. AbdulAlhazred

    Alternatives to map-and-key

    Yeah, I believe they are pretty much identical modulus a detail or two perhaps, though I am much more familiar with AW2e, which uses threat maps instead. Anyway, I agree, fronts have a different character from timelines in general at least partly due to context. Since they are built in...
  2. AbdulAlhazred

    Alternatives to map-and-key

    Taking a break here to ask how you feel this differs from, say, Dungeon World. Here the GM frames scenes, and will develop a set of fronts, which resemble a timeline, as well as loose maps.
  3. AbdulAlhazred

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    I think there's a distinction between "how you like your game" and what a good objective description of that game are. I don't have any problem with what people want to do, it's largely none of my business. I just point out that highly subjective 'viewpoint' descriptions of them often fall short...
  4. AbdulAlhazred

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    And this would be my contention. I think there's a degree of what I would call 'emulation' that necessarily happens in all play. That is, the fiction conforms to certain ideas we have about how things work. Falling hurts, climbing is dangerous, sword blows are potentially lethal, etc. Beyond...
  5. AbdulAlhazred

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    I wasn't happy with this answer, so I called customer service to complain, and Yog Sothoth answered. In the form of an infinite congeries of turtles filling all of time and space!
  6. AbdulAlhazred

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    No turtles? Bummer, I'll have to change my avatar.
  7. AbdulAlhazred

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    Mmmmm, that was a butter knife!
  8. AbdulAlhazred

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    You won't hear me argue otherwise. As for the diegetic argument, you may notice my distinct absence.
  9. AbdulAlhazred

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    Now you've done gone and said it, the unasprechlichen! That raspy sound you hear is the knives being sharpened. Something is going to need blood!
  10. AbdulAlhazred

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    Well, there are a billion-and-one adventures for DW. They should pretty much all go into a dumpster with some gasoline. The people writing DW2e likewise have utterly no clue what Narrativist play is, and their 'improvements' to DW are a complete betrayal of everything the game is about. Very...
  11. AbdulAlhazred

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    I'd find it interesting to examine some examples.
  12. AbdulAlhazred

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    The very first 2 pages of Dungeon World tell everyone exactly what the game is about. The first couple of sections make it pretty clear what the players are expected to be doing. Then the next couple of sections describe exactly what players' role is in the game, along with the GM's.
  13. AbdulAlhazred

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    Yeah I never got that. It's just a way of structuring a sequence of events that form a coherent unit of play into one 'game'. The purpose being to establish more objective success criteria. Instead of relying on some kind of GM 'feeling' about when a situation is ripe to be wrapped up, there's a...
  14. AbdulAlhazred

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    Yeah, an SC is an encounter worth of play, complexity 5 might need 14 rolls to resolve. Even at 5 minutes each it's an hour of play. So, sure, if you want to spend a whole evening playing through a scenario then it should be 3-5 SCs of varying complexity. You can do things like framework SCs...
  15. AbdulAlhazred

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    Oh yes we are! (Granting I'm not sure who you are referring to). Soft pedalling failure and coddling players is just crappy play! You knew the stakes, you declared your intention to take that risk. A GM, at that point, must follow through.
  16. AbdulAlhazred

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    I have no problem with @EzekielRaiden example either. Such examples could be great play or not based on other aspects, but in general I agree it's FF and would probably be fine in general in a Narrativist context. I'm not sure what your objections to SCs amount to. There's nothing 'bare bones'...
  17. AbdulAlhazred

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    I think there is no game text that is going to both present a generalized RPG, as most of us would recognize it, and not be open to some degree of interpretation. Still, I think Dungeon World, for instance, does vastly better than D&D 5e here. It at least explains the game in a pretty easily...
  18. AbdulAlhazred

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    Yeah, there are games, like 4e D&D, where everyone being equally effective in combat is kind of important. OTOH outside of that sort of consideration, things like social status and racial perceptions, eh. I mean, some things might not be fun, so people should not create those kinds of scenarios...
  19. AbdulAlhazred

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    I don't think there's a version of FF that demands no failures. The example you were responding to seems to me to be pretty solid. Honestly? Where FF gets less easy to apply is when we're dealing with very atomic little actions that don't carry any of the weight of the context with them. "You...
  20. AbdulAlhazred

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    Yeah, all I'm saying here is that your envelope as Little Lord Fontleroy is a bit different shape than that of Sam the Gardner, but they can both be equally pushed, and for equally rewarding play. You are not magically going to have more fun as one or the other. This is the sense in which I want...
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