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I don’t know which Mothership modules you may have played or are familiar with… but the couple that I know (the aforementioned A Pound of Flesh and Gradient Descent) aren’t really less complex. One’s a dynamic setting and the other is a mega-dungeon. Both can provide dozens of hour of play...

One man’s trash is another’s treasure. It’s all a matter of preference, really. But for me… I grew up running modules. I did plenty of homebrew stuff, but we played every module we could find. The further back you go, the smaller they were (generally speaking). They were also less complex...

As someone who has run a ton of published adventures over the years, I would certainly say that as time has passed, the idea that they’re meant to be read more than played seems more and more legit. I generally don't run published material anymore, but there are a few things I’d like to...

Absolutely. But even in a classic dungeon delve type adventure, you don’t need to go to the lengths of prep that a module does. You can just use bullet points for room descriptions… you don’t need full descriptions and separate boxed text and all that.

I think one of the effects that modules have had on the hobby is the idea that what you need to run a game is the equivalent of a written module committed to writing before play can begin.

It varies quite a bit depending on the given game we’re playing and also where we are at in play. For example, for my recent Mothership campaign, most of my prep consisted of familiarizing myself with the module A Pound of Flesh. It details a space station that was to serve as a home base of...

This year I’ve only played a little D&D. The bulk of my RPGing has been with other games. I’d say about 30 to 40 hours of D&D. I played in a short 5e campaign of about 6 sessions. And I played in a OSE game that was a little longer. That’s been it for D&D this year.

I have a weekly online game on Mondays. I was running Blades in the Dark, but recently we transitioned to another member of our group running Masks of Nyarlathotep. That’s 3 hours a week. I have another online game that takes place weekly and we rotate games fairly often, all have been...

I just don’t accept that a game is better if there is more prep. Some games benefit from more prep than others, absolutely. But no matter the game, there comes a point of diminishing returns. The word counts that have been mentioned would feel incredibly restrictive to me. Let alone that it...

Dungeon/Exploration Turns. These dictate resource management and the possibility of random encounters, key aspects of dungeon exploration. They are absolutely designed to keep play moving and help portray a dynamic environment. I would say that D&D 5e and many similar games involve handwaving...

Connecting the Hickman Revolutionaries to the Forge in the way you seem to here is, in my opinion, a significant misread of the Forge. It also very much ignores that many OSR procedures share the same goal as that of the Forge. And that’s to resist the idea of GM as storyteller.

Sure. The idea that elves who live hundreds of years and who seem to have some innate connection to magic would somehow not be able to master magic as well as short-lived humans is pretty silly. So much of the lore of D&D that’s just accepted is little more than rationalization for gamist...

I’m sure games prior to this point used it, but not any versions of D&D. Or at least, not consistently. I do recall some products that had NPCs that were clearly designed the same as PCs… but there are numerous contrary examples. Oh, I agree with that, for sure. The most GM burnout I’ve ever...

I don’t think that all GM side procedures constitute GM fiat. Sure, a GM could always ignore the expected procedures by exercising fiat… but I’m talking about when they follow the expected procedures. And I’m thinking of versions of D&D prior to 2e AD&D. So when the players decide to spend time...

The claim that parity between NPC and PC creation is somehow “old school” just seems revisionist to me. It’s a perfectly fine preference… but I don’t think it’s in any way essential to or emblematic of old school approaches to RPGs. One of the things that drove me crazy about 3e was that...

I don’t think those are the same things. One chooses to climb a wall. One may not choose to have a fight… the rules may dictate that one happens because the characters have done or tried to do something else. Maybe they decided to search a room and a random encounter occurs, maybe they chose a...

So this will vary from game to game because I think different games need different levels of prep… but generally, this is what I do. My players and I discuss what game we want to play. I usually suggest a few games I’m interested in running. Then we discuss and pick one from those. Once the...

I didn’t say the GM was mechanics. I said that the way in which you’ve described the GM, I wouldn’t expect resistance from you about the idea that the GM helps drive the game. Do you think the GM plays a part in driving the game? I didn’t comment on the purpose of mechanics… whether they...

I’m trying to maybe narrow in on the difference. Not saying they do exactly the same thing… but there are similarities, and mechanics producing results (which is how I see the idea of “driving play”) is one such similarity. So is “the players make decisions” that drive play. I’m trying to home...

If I’m running players through Tomb of Annihilation, I’m not really playing to find out what happens. Sure, there are some areas of uncertainty… but I’m gonna largely know what’s going to happen. The PCs are gonna navigate through the jungles of Chult until they find the tomb, then they’re going...