Search results

Certainly. However, it is quite natural in a game geared towards process-simulation--which in the early and mid parts of the hobby, most games are--to adapt a defact set of stakes and intents based on those rules, without even considering the concept of stakes and intents. That's what I was...

Having thought about it some more, the other thing that I like about this mechanic is that it appears to be a properly defined hook for modules. You never really know until you build a few modules, but consider these options: A. Ultra simple, flat - already discussed, you collapse the options...

Another point that's been fully circumscribed, but perhaps lost in the shuffle: If you don't have explicit stakes and intent, then you've got implicit ones. That is, you always have stakes and intent. Some results will be appropriate or not based on those stakes and intent. For example, let's...

If they took everything that someone asserted wasn't broken and left it alone, they'd never change anything. In this case, same as with many, "not broken" is very much in the eye of the beholder.

I made 3E teleportation work in a couple of campaigns by making it inherently drain life energy of each participant, as if from undead--though I was using the temporary negative levels instead of the more nasty version. If a portal-to-portal connection was properly maintained and treated...

A little bit of choice can go a long way, as long as it is a legitimate choice. Sounds like the basic idea is sound enough.

I believe that is because "roleplaying" was narrowly defined in that point of view as "(immersive) actor stance". It's the same argument we've had before about the scope of "roleplaying". Shrug. It's a tautology, and you can't argue with a narrow tautology except to point out its nature, and...

Another way to play the names, at least in a world where mages have any kind of social interaction on a regular basis with other mages, is to make it all a bunch of academic pretension. That is, all the mages know that there is no "Tenser", never was a "Tenser," and that the floating disk spell...

This is all an argument basically about timing on its surface. When can the gorge be placed? When can it not? In D&D, even with skill challenges, I'm going to tend towards not placing the gorge after a failed riding roll, because I happen to like the idea that all the pieces are in place, if...

That's pretty much me on those rare occasions I get to play. Maybe it's that the groups where I've gotten to play haven't been all that challenging, but I like the archetype of playing the wizard, yet can't do it without dominating a game--or deliberately gimping myself. It's socially...

Not so long ago, I'd have pretty much taken Mearls position (or at least his position as you've have speculated it is, since we don't really know). There are, however, two problems for that in Next: The open playtest (which is very much needed) and maintaining the discipline of the categories...

Seconded. In particular, it would be great if something very much like they have categorized was explicit in design, testing, and the final game. These are real differences, that really matter in making and playing the game. Smudging them together helps no one.

Well there you go, and it's a good analogy. Where is a big fuss in football, that varies at different levels? How do you solve the issue of keeping the quarterback and wide receivers safe, but without changing it to much. You don't want the lineman throwing the ball, but other people are worried...

As long as people aren't spouting off about particular features or rules in Next without bothering to read and try them first, or in some cases, outright lying about them after they try them or have been proved wrong after earlier spouting, then I'll count us all ahead of the game. It's a low...

Alternately, introduce a Fame/Reputation system that applies to everyone, but structure the rationale and mechanics behind it so that it favors characters who can spend more time doing the mundane stuff--including physical legwork. That could be as simple as building in some bias for what the...

Yes, this is the key bit that is different. I'd argue, hypothetically, that in skilled hands, the outside observable differences, between running with straight skill checks versus a skill challenge, will approach zero. It will never get there entirely, but it will approach it. That is...

I had all kinds of things to say to this, some of them even typed. I'm just going to leave it here: I don't think you and several others have heard a word we've said, because you are too busy thinking about what you are going to say while we are talking. It's called engaging with the...

If you define "every niche" as "play a different genre that works more or less like every other d20 game," then that would be correct. The range of niches for which I'm interested is considerably wider than that. Or to bring out the old GURPS/Hero discussion, the game is generic but not...

Sure, but that's on a different axis than the point I'm trying to make. To put it in your terms, trying to introduce a new meaningful and viable choice is a risk of imbalance--or more work to get balanced so that the new choice is meaningful and viable. I suppose the distinction is one of...

This is the real problem with Hasbro ownership. The universe of "great roleplaying games" that it is reasonably possible to do, is probably fairly large. There is a much smaller set of such possibilities that happen to need product on a rapid, regular schedule, year after year.