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Ah! Very different then. My memory is of a streamlined RQ with an overly complex magic system glued on.

Your Torchbearer sounds very little like the game I was playing the '90s. Is it a (relatively) new game? The one I remember had an abstract encumbrance system (PCs could carry a fixed number of items), a complex magic system involving a "rainbow" of schools (wood, elemental, etc.), physical...

Heck, for many people playing is hard. It can be very difficult to carve out consistent multiple-hour blocks of time to engage in entertainment. Being a DM is hard for some; much like knitting and birdwatching are hard for me.

We typically had a pair of mappers and only ever had a caller when the player group got so large the DM couldn't be expected to keep track of the conversations. Mappers weren't for handling tactics; they were to get into and out of the exploration zones quickly and safely. The role isn't dead...

I agree the DM is being a Richard. But one can be a Richard without using force. I see force as a table technique. If we extend the hypothetical back a bit and make the dog's appearance part of a pre-written adventure with the designer assigning the hostile attitude to the dog then the DM was...

For 5e, I see two clear cases of force. Obviously, the two fudged results. The adversarial starting position is less clear in 5e. To my memory (please correct me if I'm wrong), 5e doesn't offer a initial reaction chart, suggest a starting Charisma check, or frankly have any other mechanism...

Ah! The whole "let's define the baby we keep it as we lose the bathwater" approach! The usual downside is no one agrees where the baby ends (maybe it's peeing?).

Any time the GM applies the rules as negotiated he isn't modifying player input. Any time the GM replaces the expected rule set with his own desire, he is modifying the input the players receive and thus potentially their output. In the criminal background case, this is obvious at the table...

Yeah, pretty much. The trappings are different, sure. The individual challenges differ from moment to moment, but it's the same game under the hood. "Heroes who defend their home from external threats" can describe a group protecting Earth from Galactus level threats just as easily as a group...

For me, it was Champions, 2nd edition. We played Gamma World, Aftermath, Star Trek (FASA), and Villains and Vigilantes concurrently with my D&D campaign, but when I started running Champions, D&D was set aside for quite a while. A bunch of other games got played concurrently. The next time it...

Not much exposition is necessary most of the time, especially after the first introduction. Think of Lois Lane or Buffy's "sister" constantly needing rescue: "Dawn's in trouble; it must be Tuesday". There are NPCs in the campaign that become natural targets for plot complications hopefully in...

That and who to try to recruit first, if you want to play in a game rather than run.

I'd suggest using the wife in Burning Wheel isn't force so much as a pre-negotiated requirement. Much like Hero Games' disadvantage Dependent NPC. When defined and accepted by the GM, a contract is formed that this aspect will come into dramatic use in the game, somehow (Hero goes one step...

Yeah, some games are more prone to force use. It's really hard to use force as I define it in Amber, for example. The primary table-expected mechanic is GM fiat. The middle of the pack would be 'discover through play' games where little is prepped and force application (as we've discussed to...

The GM-narrative being formed is "the PCs won't be forced to retreat or waste resources on yet another random encounter because they need them to be at all successful going forward." Although I'm not promoting yet another definition, the definition I typically use for GM force is when the GM...

In those hypotheticals, the players show in the same room, eat the same snacks, roll the same dice, and have the same "gm describe--> player act-->assign consequence-->gm describe" loop of play. The cosmetics of play (genre, setting, power level) differ, some details (like episodic vs...

"My background? Not much to say. I'm neither interesting nor important. Now you are far more intriguing! What is yours like?"

First, I've been in CoC scenarios that did come to a juddering halt because we missed something vital. Second, if the investigators miss something in th emiddle of the adventure, typically VERY BAD THINGS happen that either refocus attention or TPK. Third, and I feel most vital, the two genres...

That approach has been done with a lot of games. Stormbringer, for example. The usual problem is a single book or small series of references on a single topic is insufficient to pay salaries. The one group that has managed it well is GURPS. The supplement line is effectively one-off...

True enough, though tangential. That's another area where the GM role can be harder.