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Probably I wasn't as clear as I could have been. When I stated "if a GM cannot replace any element of their game, they are not a good GM and need to learn that skill" it was indeed meant to be a strong statement. But I do really believe that if you don't have the ability to modify pretty much...

I will confess to never having been in a supers campaign that went really well. And also to never having read a system I'm really happy with. I've systems I like and memories of great campaigns in high and low fantasy, pulp, urban fantasy, cosmic horror, stephen-king horror, kids-on-bikes...

All the players alter the game experience for the other players. That's sort of the point of roleplaying games! All the X-card does is make it low-friction to signify that altering the experience will be really important for one person's enjoyment. The usual use of the X-card is without...

First, Just checking that you have actually played a campaign, or is this just theoretical? Second, do you think that if everyone else had 1000 story points, the doctor would still outshine everyone? Because if not, story points ARE a way to balance this, you’re just saying that more are needed...

So … you are disagreeing with the number of story points the doctor starts with? Um, I think there’s a pretty easy fix to that. In fact, as I said in my original post, you can balance the game easily by choosing this exact number. I am assuming you were in, or ran, a DWAITAS campaign — did you...

Well, you can always mechanically balance a system by introducing a meta-currency. Example: Take any system and add a currency "story points". You can spend a point to make any roll affecting you either a success or a failure. If multiple people contribute to a roll, you can keep adding until...

The One Ring RPG uses d12s as the main dice rolled. They essentially change it into a d10 with two specials. 11 is the Sauron rune (not good) and 12 the Gandalf rune (very good). If you have the custom dice printed that way, it's a nice way of making a 1-10 result with a bit of variety. I have...

Compare two characters attempting the same skill. One has a 90% chance of a basic success, another a 10% chance. If they compete against each other, who is more likely to win? In d20, lets assume a DC of 20, so character 1 has +17 and character 2 has +1. In a head to head, the first player wins...

I’d agree that SW leans to being gamist. For me, though, the mechanics it uses have an archaic sort of feel to them, and they quite often lead to surprising results that feel a bit odd. So, for me, I often feel irritated at the rules. I think that’s why I prefer PF2 to it generally. But I did...

The non-D&D fantasy games I have run or played at least 200 hours of: 13th Age: Invented by the leads of 3E and 4E to be the game they wanted to make but couldn't, for me it's a great example of what 5E could have been if WotC had prioritized fun over committee-building a corporate franchise. I...

Oh thank you so much -- I was looking for that clip because that's the first thing I thought of also!

I'm currently running a Moria campaign using The One Ring system. I think I can safely say Tolkien has had quite an influence on that :) . But outside that, Tolkien has created tropes that are hard to escape. His elves are radically different from the way elves were generally depicted prior to...

I don't think that book has enough influence, TBH. Also not major characters. I think it's much simpler: If I want a race that looks like a viking, then a race that is large, hairy, uses axes and has horns coming out of its head, minotaurs fit the bill nicely.

Good question. I think it's independent of the style of game -- but it's always hard to spot your own biases!

Yeah, it can be a real issue. If I go to a big con, I might play 8 games and I'd expect one to be awful, one to be great and the rest OK. I've found that unaffiliated GMs running games written 10+ years ago have a high proportion of games towards the awful end of things, sadly. On the other...

I do love it! Pendragon does have 23 events running at Gen Con, which is over a third of one percent of all RPG events, and more than I expected. "My Life with Master" is sadly unrepresented. But honestly I am so happy to hear "Pendragon" and "My Life with Master" categorized as popular I...

I have Synology NAS with a "roleplaying" volume. Within that volume is the folder is the DriveThru app I use backs up to. Also lots of other stuff. It's shared on my mac and the mac's basic search functionality is good enough to find me what I need. I also use Goodreader on my ipad to connect to...

I appreciate that. As I stated, his statement wasn't totally clear. Well, if we define pretty much any game that is less obscure than DramaSystem as "popular", sure. But his actual statement was: "While it's true that a certain few core books are absurdly good value if and only if they're...

If you are tying your two statements together and saying it is incorrect that ALL RPG you buy you will play forever, then sure. Just like saying you will re-read EVERY book you ever buy. This is pretty much common sense. But if you are saying that those RPGs do not exist at all, or even that...

I agree with your overall viewpoint, but I think Paizo is not expecting that people will decide, as a group, suddenly to play SF2 and buy all the books. If my group got into it, my path would be: Play for free at a local con Buy Player's PDF for $20 and play seriously in their Living Campaign...