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So you essentially want to legislate a bad DM out of existence, and make every game of D&D work the same. 1. Not possible. 2. How dull.

I actually agree. What makes D&D unique and *the* RPG isn't just its status as the *first* rpg, it's that it is sort of astoundingly flexible. But while I think Edwards overstates 'system incoherency' it is still a thing that happens. It just doesn't bother most people. But at the same time...

So, I've been running a PF game with Wounds/Vitality for the past four months, and I'm actually going to revert to a straight HP system. Why? Well, it actually increases grind to a fairly significant degree, makes book keeping just slightly more unwieldy, and borks magic healing. The intention...

I think we couldn't be more opposite in our tastes in gaming ;) I hope this doesn't sound insulting, but if that's the case, why bother with a table top game at all? A computer game will be more detailed for that play than any mere mortal? I'm not being facetious, it's a serious question.

We're not in normal conversation. We're talking about RPG theories. Artists don't talk about 'me like pretty pictures'. You don't hear: 'oxygen? what kind of hipster crap is that. It's air, fool.' It's jargon because it refers to something very specific. GNS has a specific meaning. It has a...

Unified does not mean better. If magic acts differently mechanically, people will use if differently. If it's unreliable, or prone to occasional overwhelming force, it becomes a new tool, different than an arrow or a sword. The mechanics reflect the fiction, change the gameplay style, and force...

No, I don't think this was anything inherent in the rules, but I think it's a cultural shift in the player base, or at least, the vocal player base. But I would argue your point here: when you read through the PHB powers list, there are dozens of examples where the power is just a slightly...

'Mother May I' is a completely made up thing, and about as insulting as calling 4e a 'Boardgame with Narration'. It's not a thing--it's a thing crappy DMs do. Crappy 4e play is no more a metric of gameplay than crappy not-4e play. And it sounds like the DM has some information that the...

The entire concept of a fluff /crunch divide strikes me as shaky. I've made the argument that 4e is uniquely weird in RPGs for putting such a wall between the two. You could conceivably run a 4e battle without looking at the fictional world at all and it would run just as smoothly. Some people...

PC's win all the fights and never have any consequences loses all sense of risk, and invalidates heroism.

Right, and CaW works in big sandbox play for the same reasons. It assumes that the PCs will be proactive with their characters rather than reactive to the DM's storyline. If you have a mixed group of CaS and CaW partisans, well, you've got your work cut out for you.

Mm, I'm going to refine my definition, to whit: A roleplaying game is a social form of entertainment characterized by a shared, imagined space, a way to resolve conflicts within that shared space, and division of responsibility with regards to events within that space. Events, conflicts, and...

Who would those be?

That is some 20th century thinking, there. ;) I agree that WoTC would be held to a higher standard, and if they'd gone the re-purposing route, it would have changed the way people think about game design for good, and brought the perception far more in-line with how games are actually designed...

Here Goes: A roleplaying game is a social form of entertainment characterized by a shared, imagined space, a way to resolve conflicts within that shared space, and division of responsibility with regards to events within that space. I think that is broad enough to encompass most every RPG...

I think you're reading too much ire into my statement. I like Paizo. They're a good company.

Indeed. Once the Open Source Genie is out of its box, you can never put it back. Look at it this way: even Microsoft is trying to use Open Source software now. WoTC's mistake with 3e wasn't the SRD, because there is almost no evidence that it had an impact on their sales, but the fact they...

I think it can if the modules are robust enough. For example, I assume that HPs will increase with level. This has ever been an issue with CaW players-- unless there was a concurrent module that increased weapon damage with your attack bonus. So the damage to HP balance remains from 1st level...

I agree with you on all counts. Back in 2e, it was the settings books that determined the playstyle. Someone playing Dark Sun versus Dragonlance probably were playing totally different types of games. I think there's a definite value, however, in making it explicit how rules interact with play...

It's still a huge change from 3e or 4e. People played that way, sure, but there was never any guidance in the PHB or DMG about accommodating different play styles. It was just 'this is D&D. Play it.' Hell, you could reasonably say that all indie game design theory is based around answering...