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The odds of rolling an 8 on 3d6 are 21 in 216 (ie about 10%). The odds of rolling an 8 or less are 56 in 216 (ie just a touch over 25%). So we can tentatively infer that a D&D character with INT of 8 is in the cleverer half of the least clever quarter of the population. Even before we get into...

The Torchbearer 2e version of Lightning Bolt can only be cast during a "warfare" conflict, that is, a skirmish or battle involving units on each side: The magician channels the terror, hatred and ecstasy of armies in battle into a bolt of white fire from the heavens — hammering down on their...

To add to this: while the PCs, typically, do not want to be in combat, I assume that people playing a game which has an intricate combat system enjoy that system. And so the reason for having combats as part of the game is that pleasure. Part of the pleasure consists, as you say, in...

Sure, I mentioned this upthread. But the same techniques that can be used in 4e to maintain pressure on the PCs, so that the players can't just rest at will, seem like they should be usable in 5e. It's basically about brining the action to the PCs, rather than hoping they will follow bread...

Your last para moves from "can"/possibility to "must"/necessity - which are not the same thing. But anyway, in D&D there is always a degree of relaxation of pressure, at least in combat: namely, when it's not your turn. And there are other ways in which RPGs typically dial back the pressure for...

This is one reason why I don't really advocate a "quest" approach to FRPGing. As per the posts I linked to, rather than a deadline caused by something the GM thinks the players should care about (eg the hostages will be sacrificed in 3 days time), I think it makes more sense for the GM to...

Doesn't that depend a bit? I mean, constant pressure in my real life is exhausting. But pressure - in the sense of being confronted by challenges/obstacles that I can't ignore - in a game seems like an aspect of playing the game. The (rough) uniformity of resource suites in 4e D&D certainly...

I did this occasionally in 4e D&D - eg when the PCs fought Torog, I haven't dug out my notes to see what level of encounter I treated this as - I suspect level 30, given the expected contribution of the escalation die. I assume similar sorts of approximations can be used in 5e? That's not my...

I GMed 4e D&D with the same group for something like 150+ sessions (the full 30 levels, over nearly 8 years). These rest issues didn't come up. I can think of two main reasons for this: (1) There was no intra-party tension, because everyone was on the same schedule. (2) The players understood...

Confining myself to the context of 5e D&D, I think this is where the sorts of things that @AnotherGuy mentioned become relevant: I don't see how 5e D&D is all that different from classic D&D, when it comes to the "rest economy" in these sorts of adventures. A group playing AD&D or B/X has...

I think that the "watcmaking" simulationist RPGs - the one I know best is Rolemaster - are especially trying to mechanically represent inputs into the given task. A limitation that can arise is that they don't necessarily correlate that full spectrum of inputs into a "realistic" range of...

I'll mention Torchbearer 2e. It has skill-based PC build, where the PCs have long skill lists (a bit like the classic sim games such as RM, albeit a little more streamlined in some respects). Conflict resolution is a bit more abstract than a classic sim game - although it still has armour as...

Burning Wheel + Torchbearer 2e (I'm gonna count these as one!) Prince Valiant Classic Traveller

Torchbearer 2e: Bats, explosion, temples, iron mask.

5e D&D doesn't, by default, have techniques like applying a penalty to all rolls to reflect the fact that the passage of time has set back the PCs (because it doesn't use that sort of abstract approach to setting difficulties). It relies on the GM manipulating the fiction - the "narrative...

I don't have a strong intuition about the timeline. But I've got no reason to think that those saying "tomorrow" or "2031" are any better placed. And frankly, a product that sells strongly for the next 5 years looks to me like a win for WotC! In addition to this, I find the idea that there is...

My favourite version of D&D is 4e D&D. It's maths is tight, it's game play is pretty intense, and it does not require the GM to "balance" the "adventuring day", because all classes are (more or less, and setting aside some Essentials classes) on the same recovery schedule. I also find it very...

Upthread you've called for statistically valid surveys. Are these observations of yours statistically grounded? I'm not seeing what your evidence is. I mean, given that 5e has been around for 10 years, I assume that most 5e players are not fans of any of the earlier editions that you mention...

At a lot of tables, the GM doesn't control things by anticipating the maths. The GM controls things by intervening directly, fudging dice rolls or manipulating the fictional situation.

To add to Parmandur's post: Looser design and looser maths makes it easier for the system to drift, and creates more room for GM injection of control over the direction of play. Both these things seem fairly central to a lot of mainstream D&D play. Another effect of tighter maths is to make...