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Monty Haul is specifically a problem in what is now called Westmarches style play - when there are multiple DMs and the same characters are taken between different tables. Which meant that you could have at the table two ultra-rich characters and four poor ones.

It's basically a dead label in 2025, like "Monty Haul DM". I know I'd be fascinated to see a new one in 2025 - and wonder how it had come to exist in the age of the internet

And I am saying that by taking existing phrases and terms and inventing your own definitions of them that are at best very tangentially connected to the original meanings the only thing you do is make communication near impossible and turn the thread into "What is Defcon talking about?" By...

The problem here with claiming Daggerheart to be a Fantasy Heartbreaker is "what do you think that thing was?" Tell me what the one problem was? You might want to re-read the original essay. And the very first sentence of part one. Let's take the most painful aspect of these games first - not...

Legends of Avantris are far from small - they are probably Dimension 20 level. But the claim they are bigger is cherry picked advertising; it includes Youtube Shorts and ignores Twitch and Beacon.

The thing is Daggerheart is in no sense a heartbreaker. A heartbreaker needs to break the designer's heart. And Daggerheart is successful beyond wildest expectations as can be seen by the problems keeping it on shelves (I think the goal was measured in Candela Obscura). Here in the UK it's out...

This. Unless it's a 'shelf book' the target audience then it's kids who want to teach themselves to play - or parents and uncles and aunts to buy for those kids. If I'm teaching newbies I don't need this box - and I jump everyone straight into play with a tailored level zero adventure.

On the contrary it's at exactly the point when people need to know what they are in order to utilise the information - when they take damage and need to interact with their hit points. Other than that (and healing which happens after damage) it's just something that is there and not particularly...

The problem is that you have made the claim - coupled with the claim that the entire rules booklet was missing. If the rules booklet was actually missing then the set was defective but this is a QA issue, not a quality of the starter set issue. If the rules booklet was there (and I believe it...

In the UK the 2024 PHB is #1 in roleplaying and war games and 512 in books (#2 is the Minecraft Sticker Adventure). By contrast the Daggerheart Core Set is not doing so well and "Usually dispatched within 4 to 5 weeks" (also out of stock in the UK Critical Role store)

First I'm going to rate 5e as a benchmark Based on what it set out to do - a polished iteration of 2e using the 4e engine and filing all the sharp edges off while being excellently presented 8/10 (you can only get 10/10 for being revolutionary) - but two points deducted for negative play...

Ironically Daggerheart has loads of cards; if you get a physical edition all the ancestries, cultures, subclasses, and domain abilities are on cards. Combined with class specific character sheets you can have a nice collaborative character creation session and never once refer to the rulebook...

There are four reasons mass market things could be not intended to be accessible for casual players. They physically can't be simplified without taking away core elements from non casuals The target market is a very specific group The designer lacked either the time or the skill to make it...

My question is going to be to reverse this. If I, as a 4e DM, could consistently design interesting tactical encounter maps in the middle of the session in less than a minute without it feeling contrived why couldn't WotC or Paizo. And the answer is fairly simple IMO. I could do it in 4e but...

Most failed in Paragon tier. Some were better than others and yes they were very much not achieving a 100% success rate (I don't think I ever saw an Essentials Cleric in play). But seem were good This doesn't mean you shouldn't broaden things as far as practical. I've yet to see one of those...

Nah. They just need to not fight in empty featureless spaces. The terrain just needs to include stock features like walls or trees, or even a dockside, camp fire, or latrine. Things appropriate for the environment sprinkled around. Making use of them is up to the PCs. Just so long as there's...

My guess is that there won't be one but two. A nice lavish deluxe one with pre-written maps and cardboard pawns - and a cheap 78 card (i.e. tarot deck) sized deck of cards with customisable level 1 pregens, wipe clean cards, and low level only. Possibly bundled with a dice set and pen that wipes...

This was one of the launch mistakes of 4e and one that was eventually fixed with Essentials; there was no "social player" class. We had a player who was a chore to play with until his twin strike ranger was converted to a scout, when he opened up. And another one who had historically been...

And from this DM's perspective what you want sounds heavy, slow, and clunky. And much clunkier than Daggerheart is. "A few books". With the sole exception of a couple of monster statblocks and a map if I need books in play and this isn't my first time running it then something has gone badly...

Something I don't care for I ignore. But ambivalence is mixed or contradictory feelings - both loving and hating. It's as far from "meh" as can be and can be very hard to ignore.