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I feel like RPGs are basically synonymous with asinine layouting and even more asinine wording, and while they should be rightfully criticized for term-like words that are never defined anywhere, hanging up on them is an exercise in navel gazing.

Are we seriously discussing the narrative implications of using "destroy" to mean "remove from play"? Am I understanding this correctly?

Tangential to the railroading, but RE: zero to hero Yes, it's not exactly common to see such power progression (or, frankly, much power progression at all) outside of RPGs. Is that a bad thing? Raising a character from nothing to your desired build is, like, fun. I'd say an interesting area of...

What if taking a step back and neglecting such harmony on a level of a specific rule reveals harmony when evaluated in the context of other rules? Let's say there was a rule tying movement to attacks: to strike into specific cells, you have to move in a specific way, along X axis, or Y axis, or...

Is there an inherent value in creating one-to-one (or even approximation thereof) relation between the rules and the fiction? All design is compromises, sometimes you have to have a specific rule that doesn't make in-universe sense on its own but is a part of a larger model congruent with the...

I consider important forces in the region -- be it factions, individuals, natural phenomena, whatever. Then, I consider how they can be hurt in a broad sense -- like a megacorp can eat financial damages, but might be hurt by reputational ones; a hot rock band can be annihilated by their frontman...

For a silly little semantic tangent for fun, where does mind control start? Sure, just directly replacing their thoughts with yours is mind control. Is, say, creating an illusory fake object that only a specific person can see can see mind control? You are manipulating their perception of...

To which extent, though? Jedi mind tricks, sure, but it can be worse. Would you prefer being necromancer's thrall to death? What if your body (that everyone else perceives as you) was to do abhorrent or humiliating things? What if you were forced to watch it, helpless, unable even to scream?

Good, evil, bleh. Above everything else, mind control is hot.

The idea is to not give any necessary details, and focus on miscellaneous things until the last mic-drop line. Technique works by making players zone out, paint a pretty but ultimately meaningless picture in their minds (that will never need to be repeated -- there's no point, nobody gives a...

I see, this makes sense. Now I wonder about, say, a mecha game where all the descriptions are aggressively condensed and even directly translated into mechanics: "Terrain difficulty 3, two hostile Scout-class mechs spotted"

I think setting up the mood is very important, kind of like there's a reason Warhammer people generally play with nicely painted miniatures and not bottlecaps, even if the main gameplay experience is exactly the same (often better, because critical information is easier to see) And how do you...

Team Fortress 2 has a very evocative "spy-tech" setting, where retrofuturistic doomsday doodads are hidden in rustic rural environments. Importantly, it also comes pre-packaged with distinct character archetypes -- suave jamesbondian Spy; relatable down-to-earth dumbass Scout, mad scientsit...

Foolishness deserves punishment. By magicianing some get out of jail free card out of a backside hat, one allows their own foolishness to fester.

I recently caught myself that I have a favorite description technique, especially in an opening scene or a new location: describe in excruciating details all the small irrelevant things, and then just casually drop a bombshell with the most important part, like The sky above Tsurugi Industries...

They all are artistic decisions, and I'm charging $50 per face per session for my artistic decisions. If a player doesn't want that, there's like ten other GMs in the same community, probably three times more in all others, and chances are, they'll have to deal with way less diva behaviour at...

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Soooo... GM, and by extension, the villain, made a mistake and players set out to rightfully punish this mistake, and that didn't work for... Reasons? Where's the game in this process?

Does it? Must I also seek council when picking the system, when introducing NPCs or when designing a new random table? Do players even want to concern themselves with design decisions, or do they want to just play the game?