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  1. innerdude

    Unpopular opinions go here

    Literally the only RPG system that should be allowed to use "Alliterative noun 1 | Ampersand | Alliterative noun 2" as its title is D&D. All others are poseurs and worthy of disdain for unoriginal naming.
  2. innerdude

    Unpopular opinions go here

    Whereas my equally unpopular opinion is the exact opposite --- fantasy settings had better have a clear, overwhelmingly salient "internal causal basis" to include anything BUT humans in the setting. Racial heritages are 1) a boring way for designers to move tedious trait bonuses around "for...
  3. innerdude

    Unpopular opinions go here

    I am likewise interested in the link. It certainly resonates with my experience with trad/D&D+adjacent gaming. To a degree it's kind of pointing to another unpopular opinion percolating in my head, which is that narrativist games generally should do even more to separate themselves from...
  4. innerdude

    Unpopular opinions go here

    There are perspectives on roleplaying generally that are nearly impossible to fully conceive without abandoning D&D as your primary game of choice. But it's less about abandoning the system as it is about abandoning the ethos/mindset. There's a reason that "players on a power fantasy trip" /...
  5. innerdude

    Unpopular opinions go here

    I mean, I knew it would be an unpopular opinion.🙃 (points to signpost on first thread). I recognize now that the tone didn't come off quite in the flippant, tongue-in-cheek manner it was intended. (Was going for "two dudes in a coffee shop debating positions they don't really hold, but are...
  6. innerdude

    Unpopular opinions go here

    -The RPG hobby generally would be better off if everything White Wolf ever published instantly vanished from existence and no one could remember that it had ever existed. (Except for that one guy in the movie Yesterday who was also the only one who could remember the Beatles) -As above, only...
  7. innerdude

    Unpopular opinions go here

    QFT.
  8. innerdude

    Unpopular opinions go here

    Absolutely correct. Life would be much better if everyone on planet earth understood that this method of date rendering 1) completely disambiguates dates across cultures (in Europe, most people represent DD/MM/YY, whereas in North America it's MM/DD/YY), and 2) writing dates this way...
  9. innerdude

    Unpopular opinions go here

    - Of tabletop roleplaying games on the market in 2023 that have sold at least $10,000 worth of product in the last 12 months*, Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition is the absolute worst product in that market. (*have to caveat this so people don't throw things out like "But what about...
  10. innerdude

    Here Are the 2023 ENnies Nominees!

    Why no love for Ironsworn: Starforged? It's one of the best RPG products released in the past 15 years, let alone the past 12 months.
  11. innerdude

    Advice for new "story now" GMs

    Umm . . . I'm not sure I'd accept this claim at face value. More along the lines of, "D&D can possibly handle playstyles other than gamist dungeoncrawling if enough of the subsystems are revamped, and the GM is willing to train himself/herself in highly specific techniques and principles, but...
  12. innerdude

    Advice for new "story now" GMs

    Thanks for this. This clarifies very much what I was trying to convey. It's not about avoiding "interesting" and "intriguing" content as a GM. Interesting and intriguing are better than the alternatives! It's about ensuring that introducing that content doesn't have the knock on effects...
  13. innerdude

    Advice for new "story now" GMs

    Another thought --- in some regard, my idea above seems counter-intuitive to the goal of Story Now. "Wait, so you want the fiction to be transparent and relevant to player action declarations, but you're defining it as late as possible. How does that work?" By holding the point of "truth...
  14. innerdude

    Advice for new "story now" GMs

    To follow along with @chaochou --- in Story Now play as a GM, it's generally best to only define something as "true" within the fiction as late as possible. It's totally okay to have ideas in your head of what could be true. Ideas, rumors, possibilities, fronts, NPC goals, etc. But it's...
  15. innerdude

    Advice for new "story now" GMs

    Right? Which was the point of my response to Maxperson. "Trad" GM-ing sensibilities didn't magically disappear in 1991 when V:tM was published . . . and didn't disappear in 2000 when D&D 3.0 was published . . . and didn't disappear in 2003 when GURPS 4e was published . . . and didn't disappear...
  16. innerdude

    Advice for new "story now" GMs

    That's lovely for you, I'm sure. In contrast to my experience as a player, where from 2002-2009 playing D&D 3.x, it was exactly as I described. And then again, from 2016-2017 as a player in a friend of mine's Savage Worlds game, despite all his best intentions, it basically ended up as a...
  17. innerdude

    Advice for new "story now" GMs

    One thought on Story Now GM-ing --- As a GM, plan and prepare to radically increase your overall transparency and level of forthcoming information relating to the game world. Picture your classic, "stingy with info" dungeon crawler GM, and how forthcoming that individual typically is with info...
  18. innerdude

    Advice for new "story now" GMs

    True. Which also speaks to another misconception about Story Now play, which is that because players goals regarding their PCs are brought front and center, that somehow it cheapens the attainment of those goals. There's absolutely nothing in the playloop of Story Now play that somehow...
  19. innerdude

    Advice for new "story now" GMs

    Can I share a secret with you? I feared this very thing when I first thought I might try Dungeon World. "Oh my gosh. How in the world do you keep a cap on the players just inserting 'I win!!!' buttons into every scene?" And this was playing with three powergamers in my group. One a...
  20. innerdude

    Why do RPGs have rules?

    Once again I am compelled to query, what is the virtue of a "GM decided" from all the way back in 1986 on the fun being had today, by players now? Is adherence to "simulationism" so rigid that it cannot brook even the suggestion of modification or change in the moment of play? And again, I...
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