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  1. Laurefindel

    What Does the RPG Hobby Need Now?

    Oftentimes, yes. Published, even by your own publishing company, adds credibility in the eyes of customers in a « fake it until you make it » kind of way. [edit] that sounded quite diminishing of self-publishers here, which wasn’t the intent. In a vast majority of cases, this credibility is...
  2. Laurefindel

    What Does the RPG Hobby Need Now?

    Definitely not! Just like because it’s fan-made doesn’t mean it isn’t an excellent product. But for many people, even if just on the subconscious level; published = already went through some quality control and professional approval. [edit] precision: that is what being published means; gone...
  3. Laurefindel

    What Does the RPG Hobby Need Now?

    But if it’s free it’s still just a fan-made product. If its published and purchased it’s like a seal of approval; its professional instead of amateur, which in the subconscious of enough people makes it that a paid official product has more worth than a free version of the exact same thing.
  4. Laurefindel

    On This May The 4th, Let's Celebrate Star Wars TTRPGs. +

    It’s been a few months, but I had some success with my homebrewed adaptation of the TOR 2e rules for Star Wars. Original thread
  5. Laurefindel

    D&D 5E (2024) Is it possible to balance the six abilities?

    Ohhhhh, I see. makes me wonder though if other ability scores aren’t too narrow in scope then.
  6. Laurefindel

    D&D 5E (2024) Is it possible to balance the six abilities?

    Looks like you’re pretty set on Strength, Dexterity (fine motor skills), Athletics (gross motor skills), Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, and Perception as ability scores. The problem I ran into with Perception as a stat was that you then need another skill that equates to...
  7. Laurefindel

    D&D 5E (2024) Variant Human idea

    I like it. It’s pretty simple and straightforward, which is good. I do like the human heroic inspiration though and don’t think it’s underpowered, but the « pick two backgrounds » had its merits.
  8. Laurefindel

    D&D 5E (2024) Is it possible to balance the six abilities?

    This reminds me of a version of my heartbreaker D&D in 2010 (heartbroken by 4e at the time) where each of the four « stats » had a physical and a mental component, copied from the attributes of Legends of the Five Rings (it would have been the 2nd or 3rd edition at that point). Fire = Agility +...
  9. Laurefindel

    What Does the RPG Hobby Need Now?

    It’s not that the money is too good to pass up, it’s that D&D ripoffs gives them the one thing that is really dificult to get otherwise: an audience.
  10. Laurefindel

    D&D 5E (2024) Is it possible to balance the six abilities?

    I like Vancian casting and prefer it over other types, especially for D&D’s kind of magic. Things is, spell slots are a secondary concept in Vancian magic; the three main principal concepts of Vancian magic apply in many RPGs, some of which use spell points. 1) magic is finite - someone can «...
  11. Laurefindel

    What Does the RPG Hobby Need Now?

    I love that chart! But in all seriousness, a beefed-up version of this done with a decent interface with images and extracts, third party reviews, in an overly-idealistic, critically-aware industry that allows parties to share descriptions of genres and uniform use of keywords… That’d be my...
  12. Laurefindel

    What Does the RPG Hobby Need Now?

    Honestly, there are so many things out there that I easily get dizzy and fall back to known games by default. It’s like going to the restaurant and be handed a 50-page menu spread over five different tables, a blackboard the entrance, another by the kitchen, on the back of the napkin dispenser...
  13. Laurefindel

    And then what? The AI conundrum.

    Huh, and here I thought it was another thread about generative AI technology in RPG… Another trope not yet mentioned is where the antagonistic AI is not the original, but a second or third gen AI; a program created by the program to independently supervise a certain aspect of its parent AI’s...
  14. Laurefindel

    D&D 5E (2024) Is it possible to balance the six abilities?

    The abilities themselves aren’t very far from being balanced, but you’re right, the game favours some more than others. Dexterity is not overpowered because it allows everything; it’s overpowered because the game is overly generous with ranged combat and underplays encumbrance. Intelligence...
  15. Laurefindel

    Worlds of Design: Breaking the Fantasy Mold

    I didn’t mean to criticize your work, far from it, so I apologize if that’s how it came across. What I meant is that going outside western culture requires as much research and sensibility as doing a good pseudo-European setting. Lazy writing is lazy. It doesn’t matter if it’s cliché or novel...
  16. Laurefindel

    Worlds of Design: Breaking the Fantasy Mold

    Those types of settings have been criticized before though, and many went back to old tired clichés after being accused (rightly or wrongly) of cultural appropriation and use of stereotypes.
  17. Laurefindel

    Worlds of Design: Breaking the Fantasy Mold

    I have several settings exploring several different approaches to fantasy, but I like to double down on eurocentrism, making it a conscious and coherent decision rather than an accidental background construction. While European cultures are not as «exotic» as Asian or African cultures, they...
  18. Laurefindel

    How Fantastical Do You Like Your Fantasy World?

    I like it when things are relatable and « feels » like it could be real, or at least coherent with some base assumptions. With that in mind, you can go very very deep in fantasy but at least for the character in the story, their world makes some kind of sense. I know I’m most comfortable around...
  19. Laurefindel

    D&D General Sandbox and/or/vs Linear campaigns

    True, and the rides of a theme park can only be concluded in one way (unless you start breaking some rules), but choosing which ride to take and in which order is nonetheless an active part of gaming. Active players don’t have to partake in the creation of the gameword to be considered as such.
  20. Laurefindel

    D&D General Sandbox and/or/vs Linear campaigns

    I tend to see linear vs sandbox as a scale rather than a binary question. Railroad is the end of the linear scale, but you can have a mostly linear game that isn’t a complete railroad. Similarly, sandbox games are rarely purely sandbox; some level of linearity is typically introduced to give...
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