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I don't know any of the Mongoose versions. But Classic Traveller has lots of tools to support low-prep play: random world generation, random patron generation, random animal generation, etc. When I started a campaign, the players rolled up their PCs, then I rolled up a random starting world...

Dunno. My campaign didn't have much trade in it (only one episode of trade in 20+ sessions, as best I recall) but there was still the need to track mortgage payments, fuel payments, life support payments, upkeep and repair of the vessel, payment of crew salaries (for 12 crew), etc. The player I...

This is pretty similar (not identical) in Classic Traveller. The player of the ship owner/captain in my Classic game has complained about the accounting aspect - and he's a pretty experienced RPGer/wargmaer/Civilization player. I (as GM) have a spreadsheet to keep track of his crew salary...

I think Classic Traveller remains a brilliant, very playable RPG. (See eg this thread.) In terms of popularity, though, I think it is an issue that it doesn't offer a clear core play experience in the way that D&D does: there is no real analogue in Traveller to dungeon exploration, with its...

Greyhawk is one of two D&D settings that I've tried to follow in a comprehensive fashion; the other is OA (including Kara-Tur). Part of what I mean by that is that these are the only two settings that I've bought a product for because it was associated with that setting. But I've never had any...

Not my experience at all! The 2nd ed AD&D spell entries are generally cleaner than the original AD&D ones. The 3E spell descriptions - especially for more complex spells, like Sepia Snake Sigil - seemed to me to be incorporating Sage Advice (and similar edge-case rules). Personally I prefer the...

It's a long time since I've been to a convention (that was also "back in the day"), but the best convention games I played allowed the players to inject a judgement or opinion about resolution at the moment of crisis. I think there's an important distinction between that sort of set-up and a...

I would add to this - at least back in the day (many days ago!), I found that when players (especially new players) did try to come up with motivations for their PCs, the GMs would tend to ignore them, or run roughshod over them. At worst, those sorts of players were characterised as "problem...

I've not watched more than a few minutes of Critical Role. But as best I understand it, from how I've seen it described, the answer is yes.

And yet I've done it! (A bit like refuting Zeno, by walking across the room.)

Agreed. It's a baseline of playing a RPG that the players get to declare actions for their PCs. This doesn't tell us how the scene was framed, what is at stake, or how outcomes are determined.

A lot of "open world" play remains very GM-driven: it is the GM who decides the significant content of the presented scenes, and the stakes, and the outcomes - the lattermost often by reference to backstory considerations known only to the GM. Right again.

As I've posted upthread, So how can I tell if this is happening? Because the GM decides, without regard to player concerns, the significant content of the presented scenes; the GM decides what is at stakes in those scenes; and the GM decides what happens next, without a meaningful degree of...

Why is gaming facing an actual problem? From time to time various individual RPGers, or RPG groups, fact actual problems: namely, GM techniques that produce play that is more GM-driven than they prefer. Many of those individuals have that experience while playing; some have it while GMing - they...

Either HeroWars/Quest, or Burning Wheel.

I'm not sure what you're referring to by "it". Do you mean railroading? I've never used the word "authoritarian". I don't think it's useful. I've talked about the methods used by the GM to decide what they say about the fiction. And my view is that most D&D play is very GM-driven. Which you...

But one can tell the difference. It's just not captured by your description "DM describes scenario, players react, DM tallies results, and then the DM or players describe what happened." If you think I can't tell when I am playing in a game I don't enjoy, because of the method the GM uses to...

That's why I think it could be different for different of these abilities. Like @UngeheuerLich posted.

Let's grant that this is true. It doesn't tell us very much about railroading. How did the GM decide what scenario to describe? Or what to describe as happening in response to the actions the players declare for their PCs? That is what makes the difference, when it comes to railroading. Back...

I don't see why you have to be able to see the target of Hold Person when you cast it. The spell wording is: Choose a Humanoid that you can see within range. The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or have the Paralyzed condition for the duration. That is all a description of the...