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Yup: Ontario, though diverse (and Greenwood's home of Toronto is particularly cosmopolitan), is very British in cultural roots (indeed, being a constitutional monarchy under King Charles), whereas Wisconsin has a higher percentage of people being of Polish descent than English (also, a higher...

Yes, very much so. Wisconsin and Ontario are, globally, pretty close together but are very culturally distinct as well. And thst cokes across in Greyhawk versus the FR.

Generation gap, too: Gygax was a Silent Gener and Greenwood is a Boomer. Thus different literary influences, like Narnia, enter the Forgotten Realms that wouldn't in Greyhawk.

It is sort of an odd duck, though I think people are a bit too harsh on it: it was the first Adventure TSR published that wasn't a tournament module, and some of the odd choices (needing to stock the dungeon with monsters and treasure) make sense in the context of the original box with rules for...

B1 could be very interesting for this sort of board game treatment: include cards to randomly populate the map.

I have no problem with the 5E Skills system, it is basically perfect: but it can also be expanded,and avoid the need for things like "power cards".

The 2014 and 2024 have very clear guidelines on adjudication, and in practice it is fun and breezy, while still being mathematically satisfactory. It is very easy to set a DC based on what a player wants to do, run a d20 test, and go with it. It is a major highlight of gameplay at the table...

Really? Skill adjudication following an action in 5E is one of the most pleasant and elegant parts of the whole game, as a DM and as a player. Matt Mercer even turned it into a whole catchphrase ("you can certainly try...")

Yeah, it just doesn't appeal, and ad I said I would prefer a more upstream solution to character abilities.

I mean, any Skill checks in 5E are fun and dynamic: Skill rolls are one of the best parts of playing. But in terms of magic as Skills: a player makes an action attempt declaration, such as trying to make an illusion thst will fool a passing guard, and rolls a d20 test against a DC determined by...

Yeah, I don't like it, aesthetically. Me not liking it doesn't mean it is "bad" or "wrong". It does even necessarily mean I might not like it in practice. But that wall of text doesn't inspire me.

The Cosmere RPG has radicalized me: Spells, weapons attacks and other powers do work as pass/fail (with the possibility of negative/positive complication either way, similar to Daggerheart or Genesys) ability mod + Skill point d20 tests against a set DC, same as 5E Skills. No cards needed, the...

People have been saying D&D is a fad for over 50 years now: don't be too certain. Where there's smoke, there is fire.

Every report I see is that the game is fun to play and to run, and a joy to homebrew for as well. This success is more than aesthetics.

Nice.

100%, absolutely. If you are redesigning this sort of thing from scratch, thst is the way to go.

Right, but I'm saying Skills could take the place of Spells. Problem solved.

Right, but it could be more elegant even than that: as I said, nobody needs a reminder of how to use Persuasion or Acrobatics.

Back to the more interesting to me question of the relative popularity of Shadowdark and Daggerfall... Just another incidental point, but the main Subreddits for each game were established about the same time in 2023, and Daggerheart has about 5 times the membrane and activity, not sure if...