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If the NPC Elf can stumble over this book in his youth, why can't the PCs? Why are only PCs obliged to adventure in order to find it?

I never said there was. I know the (Gygaxian) AD&D rules pretty well. What I said, which you quoted, is this: There is a clear process in classic D&D: the GM maps and keys a dungeon; the movement of the PCs through the dungeon is tracked on the map; what they see/hear/experience is narrated by...

In RQ, non-human creatures are statted in a way that parallels PC stats. But they aren't built via a parallel process (eg there is no analogue to 3E D&D's "creature type as class" - the only other RPG I can think of that tries to emulate that is HARP). In Classic Traveller, NPCs have stats and...

I agree with @hawkeyefan here. There is a clear process in classic D&D: the GM maps and keys a dungeon; the movement of the PCs through the dungeon is tracked on the map; what they see/hear/experience is narrated by the GM based on the key, with doors playing an especially important role in...

This is wrong about Gygax's AD&D, in multiple ways. For instance: In the MM, Elves are 1+1 HD. Nothing in the Elven PC build rules reflect this - in fact, PC Elves suffer a CON penalty. In the MM, Mountain Dwarves are 1+1 HD, whereas Hill Dwarves are 1 HD. Nothing in the PC build rules...

I think this issue of NPC and PC build and stats is an interesting one. D&D did not try to establish any sort of parallel or equivalence between NPCs/creatures, and PCs, until 3E D&D. Then in 4e D&D NPCs/creatures have the same sort of statistical expression as PCs, but don't parallel them in...

That reminds me a bit of MHRP: a player can spend a Plot Point to automatically succeed in destroying/disabling a trait that is rated no higher than the ability they're using.

I don't think there's much reason to think that WotC would increase its sales - perhaps not even in absolute terms, let alone after outlay - by publishing multiple, different versions of D&D. If I was a 5e designer I'd be pretty pleased with my work. Like anything done in the context of...

From WotC's point of view, why do they care that some of the people who play D&D are not as satisfied as they might, ideally, be? They are a large commercial operation. Their goal is sales. Satisfying RPGers is a means to that end, but given the seeming commercial success of 5e D&D, they seem to...

Reaction tables aren't (in my view) about reducing GM workload in generating content. They're an action resolution tool (if the players declare an action like *We greet the <NPCs>") or a framing/stakes tool (if the PCs are thrust into an encounter with some NPCs). Treasure tables, and random...

I haven't read Daggerheart, but I am inferring that experiences in Daggerheart are similar to the backgrounds in 13th Age: free descriptors that play a similar role, in resolution, to skill bonuses in 3E and onwards D&D. Have I got that right?

I think it's more than just this: it's also about increasing the proportion of play time spent on the stuff that matters to the participants. So it's like the RPG design analogue of editing a film (or, at least, some aspects of editing). Rolemaster is, for me at least, a striking illustration...

Good list! For these two, I think maybe Over the Edge (1992) is the modern beginning. A bit later, Maelstrom Storytelling (1998, from memory) and HeroWars (2000) use free-form descriptors as key tools for describing characters and situations. What's interesting (and here I gently touch on your...

I've got a view on this: it's analytical and genealogical. Classic D&D is, at its core, a game of puzzle-solving. At the start of the game, the GM has all the information (in the form of the map and the key), and the players have almost none (perhaps some rumours, not all of which they can rely...

I've run multiple campaigns of 60+ sessions: early B/X and AD&D campaigns, and then two in Rolemaster, of around 300+ sessions each (both got to levels in the mid-to-upper 20s); and a 4e D&D game to 30th level (in about 120-odd sessions). Over the past decade or so most of my games have been...

An addendum to the above post: upthread someone talked about sim vs "gamism" in the context of classic Gygaxian D&D. For the game to work as a game - that is, for the players to be able to do the "skilled play" thing - it has to be possible for the players to reasonably infer things about the...

@mamba, I've quoted a series of your posts. And am trying to work out what your position is. At some points, you seemed to be talking about players' power: to declare actions, to avoid a narrow theme, etc. Now, you seem to be talking about a GM's power to decide what happens next without...

To me, the relatives rule looks like a rule intended to serve the purpose of getting a player whose PC dies back into the game. It reminds me a bit of the rule in Torchbearer that lets a player carry a (limited) amount of Fate and Persona from a dead character to a new character. The 10% tax...

Right. If I read someone's account of how they use exhaustion/stamina-type conditions for walking long distances, and implement twisted ankles for falling into a pit trap, and worry about hands being severed by a hidden blade in the ominous hand-sized opening trap - but no character in their...

I don't understand why. AW has a rule for resolving any declared action. It actually is broader, in that respect, than any version of D&D prior to 4e.