Search results

It's a good point about player complexity vs DM complexity, and also core vs core + splat. Another way of looking at complexity is also how much can get done in a 4-hour session? Complexity takes time to run. For me, the fastest rules I've ever used was the OSR Swords & Wizardry core which is...

We really are again arguing past each other on different styles of play. There is a story the players are going to participate in, and alter what they find to help them follow the story. There is a setting the players are going to explore in which things will happen, have the setting react...

RAW there is no penalty. You can decide if one is warranted, and under what circumstances. You could also rule that the enemy has partial cover due to your friends being in the way... and if you miss by the cover bonus, you hit your party member. :) But it's up to your table.

At 14 pages I don't think people just joining are going to have time to go through the whole discussion. :) So I think as more people pile in we'll just keep discussing the same things over and over. My personal opinion: Moving things because it's necessary for your players to discover it is...

Yes, it did. And the probability tables came from wargaming as well. But we were well past that by the 2e era. 3e did the right thing by dropping the tables, but they didn't need to drop descending AC where 0 was the best you could get without magical abilities.

Funny thing is, why did no one figure out Target20 and instead give us the monstrosity of THAC0? Player rolls d20, add level proficiency bonus and other modifiers like normal and tells DM the value. DM mentally adds descending AC to total and if 20 or more, it hits. This works just as well as...

Yeah, I intentionally left out BECMI as I never played it as it was starting to bloat like 1e. B/X is far simpler. I'll say it again, 5e is a lot like B/X, but with modern mechanical techniques. I didn't say 5e was more complex, just 1e,2e,3e. Then 4e tried to simplify and messed it up. 5e got...

Regarding systems, I recommend any DM should give a try running I don't see complexity as just the rules, but also all the options. I think the simplest rules were 4e; I was amazed how how great a job they did at paring down all the complex sub-systems to an easily understood and consistent...

I voted for PHB but limit options. But as discussed elsewhere, if a player proposes to play a particular race that doesn't normally show up in my setting then I'll allow it after figuring out where they came from and how they come to be with the adventuring party. If the world will view them as...

Yes, there really is a whole spectrum of DMing approaches, and no 'one-true-way'. We all just try for our players to have a good time and if at our table we feel moving a plot point is the right thing to do, then it's the right thing to do. You can play with the PCs being the prime-movers of...

That's totally fine, and easy to run and fun for the players. But you're also leaving out the interesting possibilities if they don't find the clue.

Aside 2 to this conversation. I think a good example of removing then meaningfulness of player choice is in the reprint of the old Dungeon! game. In the original version setup would involve dealing out all the treasure and monster cards to the various rooms. Players would then go from room to...

Aside 1 to this conversation. The ultimate example I've seen of hidden adventure was the WG4 module. The PCs could find a gnome settlement and be asked to deal with raids from some hobgoblins and ogres whom they find occupying an old abandoned template. The players could just deal with the...

I'm in total agreement with this summary. The DM satisfaction isn't really the point for 2 it's that it serves as backdrop which leads to things the players can potential find. I guess it's more important when you're talking about a campaign setting that runs for years with many story arcs...

Well the clue is there, but their choices led them to no find it.

Yeah, I get your definition of meaningful choice. Players will have plenty of those too. Choices they make will have consequence without their knowledge as well, then they will become aware of those consequences and have a 'meaningful choice'.

Well of course, but that's up to the players. In this particular scenario I doubt they would even be able to figure out there are multiple ways in. And I agree that there should be a way for the players to find out about the Orc attack, but there is always the potential they will simply not...

This. For example in LMoP, there are 3 ways to get to the magic forge in Wave Echo Cave, each have different difficulty in the game and the PCs have no way of knowing which which one to choose for an easier entry. The same applies to a non-dungeon setting. Players have choice and those choices...

We're really just arguing over styles of play. I like to have a setting in which stuff happens over time, initially regardless of what the players are doing. The setting NPCs and monsters will react to their actions as the PCs become involved. I also have randomly generated encounters because...

But all choices are meaningful. In my example, the players just might not know it - they might have chosen not to talk to someone who suspected an attack was coming, or didn't stumble on a vanguard random patrol. So from their perspective they were just bored of town A and left. Or maybe there...