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Look at Spellbound Kingdom's combat system. It uses a physical "maneuver sheet" that activate abilities round to round depending on how you tactically used your action last round. Mobs are represented with their own action/maneuver sheet. Combat becomes nearly a "chess match" of sorts, where...

While we're at it, I also think Ironsworn's d6 + trait vs. d10/d10 is a pretty awesome mechanic.

If you want to see a relatively close resemblance to D&D using a unique 2d10 die mechanic, check out Novus on DriveThruRPG.

@Willie the Duck --- just wanted to mention, since I didn't make it entirely clear, that Ironsworn is an FitD / PbtA hybrid. If you're okay looking at things in the realm of FitD, don't discount Ironsworn just because it's not a direct BitD descendant.

I think for me, the idea now is to connect, as @clearstream is trying to do, the thread between sim mindset to the rules > processes and procedures > table play. It's actually shocking to me that, for as long as I would have considered myself a "sim" GM, I didn't once think about the process I...

The creation of fiction, regardless of method, process, intent, modeling, or descriptor, is by definition arbitrary. Full stop.

Well sure. I'm not suggesting that no authoring is done, or that it needn't be based on / extrapolated from preestablished authoring, or that one shouldn't try and make the authoring consistent. I'm just saying you can't claim that the process isn't arbitrary. Creating fiction doesn't somehow...

It's insidious because it's an orthodoxy that brooks no argument. It dismisses any attempts to examine or question it. It denies counter-factual explanations at the ground level as being anything other than degenerate, inferior types of roleplaying generally.

And look, I get it, if you're a hardcore sim GM, it's a HARD LESSON. As much as I romanticized my world building, and the grandeur of the Forgotten Realms or Golarion or Eberron or Azeroth, I had to come to grips with the fact that what I was doing as a GM was not categorically different than...

It's completely unrelated to realism, as @AbdulAlhazred and @pemerton have pointed out. It's the notion that because a GM's processes for introducing fiction include 1, 2, and 3, it means they can pretend that the fiction is no longer arbitrary--i.e., it's no longer "make believe" but something...

Wrong. The thing that I finally grasped about "trad sim" GM-ing is that literally all of it is arbitrary. Whatever reasons the GM chooses for inserting one bit of fiction or another is only based on some other bits of fiction the GM made up yesterday. Or last week. Or 20 years ago when...

Sure. Of course. It doesn't HAVE to meet a dramatic need. But what's the arbitrary line between "unrealistic" and "realistic"? Can only 10% of the GM's preauthored content meet a dramatic need to still be considered realistic? 20%? My experience with "trad sim" historically hits the Pareto...

If you're looking at Dungeon World to do this you're looking completely in the wrong direction. It doesn't play at this level tactically at all. The entire mindset evidenced in the quoted post is polar opposite of the intent of DW.

Can absolutely recommend Savage Worlds if your group is into more action-adventure style gaming. It's classless, with robust, competent heroes at the start, but with lots of room to grow. It's quite a bit different than D&D mechanically, but still meant to be played in "traditional" style. Can...

And I think this, right here, is the crux of where my divergence in play preferences began. There came a point after a 7-year run of 3.x as a player in 2009---with a highly "sim" driven GM---where I no longer wanted nor cared to maintain the "simulationism" of, "Well, you chose wrong, so now...

I posited this idea because when Rule Zero + hidden backstory are both in effect, ultimately it is the GM's job to eliminate standstill. The players can only guess for so long at the hidden backstory elements that are preventing them from achieving their goals. A Rule Zero GM must at some...

So I've been thinking a bit more about the need/prerogative to have an assumed Rule Zero. It feels like we've generally uncovered at least 3 core purposes to include a Rule Zero. (A) to always have a backstop such that a scene can/must move forward. This seems to be necessary in circumstances...

"Who gets to say what" is slightly different from "who or what decides if what was just said is now true in the fictional game state." Consider a game where other players were authorized to make action declarations for your character. (Not saying it's a game you or I would play, but that it's...

So here's the thing --- if there was a foolproof, guaranteed way to get strong, ongoing deep character immersion through sim priorities, I'd go back to it in a heartbeat. I love sim and immersion at heart. I love the idea of slowly letting the real world fade into a misty blend of the real and...

How is it impoverished? I think it clearly spells out the authority of GM intervention when secret backstory conflicts with rolled outcome or player declaration. The GM has full authority to veto any outcome state and introduce an acceptable one.