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15 for pass/fail, 10/20 for degrees of success. I'm very strongly against 'floating' DCs. I think there's too much of a temptation to put my hand on the scales based on what I think ought to happen.

I like a good sewer.

This is the kind of thing that would have been really useful in the DMG. All of those operational-level rules for giving combats context were excised from 5e after the playtests, though yes, some of the DM screens still have bits and pieces. They might as well have put it in a toilet, behind a...

Well, this is a whole can of worms, so I'll just say that I think WotC has worked to create a big tent, if nothing else. Exhibit A: the OGL. If these boards have taught me anything, it's that the lingua Franca is actually just babble. We're using the same words, but we're not speaking the same...

Well, a big tent, for starters. There is no tent, just personal identification with a commodity that can't possibly provide everything that people want from it.

I'm tired of my own negativity, let alone other people's. I think it's complicated with D&D, because it's really a subculture as much as it is a game, so people feel personally threatened when they see their preferred vision of the game under attack. People really seem to want that official...

22: Three Queens of Ash A vast cavern, naturally lit from a narrow rift in the ceiling. Nothing grows here. The floor is a beach of ashes. (?) The ashen floor under the rift slopes down into a suspicious looking area of shifting ashes. A spear juts from a raised area in the centre. (!) The...

I'm actually extremely suspicious of the word 'elfgames'. I normally see it used by someone who just spent 20 pages passionately arguing about RPGs, only to turn around and go whatever, it's just elfgames, bro, I don't even care. You all care, deeply, that's why you're here. Stop the act. It's...

I think you've got the wrong end of the stick. Consider a random encounter roll in 'classic' D&D. It might suddenly inform the group that the low-level party just encountered something way out of their league, at exactly the wrong time. This news is 'unwelcome', but the potential for this sort...

Honestly, that sounds like an improvement. Stuff like anathemas always seemed was more interesting (and more useful in play) than alignment. [edit] Also, nice to see those vestigial ability scores finally go. I was irrationally annoyed about their inclusion in PF2.

I have actually played a bit with premade 'orders of battle' for enemy factions, e.g. the Goblin King has x goblins, y ogres and z wolf riders. I'm not sure that it makes a big difference if the players aren't aware of it, but I probably need to test more.

That's really on WotC for setting themselves impossible design goals like 'please everyone' and 'don't rock the boat'. If you don't have a clear design vision, all feedback is useless. That's assuming that the playtests are actually about feedback, and not PR.

My big problem with the fighter isn't statistical balance in combat, it's that fighters are boring. With the UA, WotC has added complexity, but put it in exactly the wrong place -- it's frontloaded into build decisions, instead of tactical or roleplaying options. The fact that you can change...

I'm only happy when it rains... I think it is better, you're right. But I have such a low opinion of its current state that 'better' isn't enough.

Based on what we've seen, I have to assume the answer is 'it doesn't', 'there are none', and 'no'. So far, they haven't missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

It's a big 'yawn' from me. What really strikes me is how they're doubling down on fighters not getting any interesting choices in combat. Weapon masteries are build options that add a little extra chrome, but very few choices or surprises in a fight. Speaking of doubling down: the nested attack...

It's amazing that we live in a world where we can argue about whether the next edition of D&D is really an edition, and whether the next edition of Pathfinder is really an edition, at the same time. What a time to be alive.

No. Creating a 'living setting' is hugely important in AW. NPCs are absolutely expected to be doing things behind the scenes. The catch is that you can't just hit a PC with something big and scary without foreshadowing it somehow. It's a question of how information is conveyed to the players...

Beat me to it! It sounds catty, but I really believe it.

Getting back to Apocalypse World (and the start of this thread?) for a moment, I was just reading AW the other day, and I was struck by how much power the MC actually has. Possibly even more than a lot of DMs. A lot of the advice/constraints amount to plain good GMing advice for any...