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Which is like saying that being on active duty in WWII is more casual than being a proto-SEAL in WWII, so therefore it is casual. It's not. Heck, it isn't even that it's closer to casual than to hardcore. It's far closer to hardcore than it is to anything actually casual. That's the point I'm...

The person I replied to rejected session zero as a possibility from the beginning. Because I can quite easily write a dragonborn character backstory that links into the beginning of a campaign with a session zero. I prefer to, when possible, as that tends to lead to more interesting story down...

If I may--what on earth does that mean? I know what 3e gestalt rules are, not sure about "fixie" in this context (and I fear google-fu failed me).

So the GM gets absolute control, and the players meekly play along, no objections whatsoever? I'm using harsh language here, but I'm making a point with it. You get frustrated by the players "negging" you as GM--but aren't you as GM "negging" the players by laying down only and exclusively what...

Why should my backstory include the other party members I haven't even met yet? Seriously, I'm terribly confused here. In fact, forget why--how am I supposed to write a backstory that includes people I haven't met? And if my character is literally a Nameless Faceless Gender-Neutral...

Conversely, the way I see this, you're saying "never ever bring me anything but a dead-empty blank slate with slightly less flavor than plain oatmeal." I find it not particularly engaging or interesting to play Unflavored Oatmeal characters for 10+ sessions before I'm permitted to be something...

Whereas I think it makes no impact one way or the other. Why does that make it feel like an MMO? Almost all MMOs actively work to make you feel part of the world nearly instantly. That's like a core storytelling step for them. Intro quests which get your feet firmly planted. People throw...

They don't though. Nobody ever needs to know that much. At most, you need to learn like, one or two useful things. Players do this all the time in video games, board games, and sports, all of which get far, far more players than D&D has ever had. Why is it an impossible onerous burden for D&D...

Perhaps. But this brings up another aspect. You mention the players having a stable of characters, or at least character concepts. Something I have noticed is...a lot, and I mean a LOT, of GMs don't really want their players being very creative or offbeat with their characters. They want...

It emphatically did not. Like...in numerous ways, it is not a casual game. I have been teaching someone to play it recently. It is not a casual game. Not by a long shot. He's struggling, and only helped by the fact that I already taught him how to play Dungeon World, so he has context for the...

It's a fair question, certainly. If the players like centaurs, is it possible to integrate centaurs in an interesting way? Integration of some kind is always possible, but getting it done well is less certain, even if it isn't that difficult most times. But yes, there is an interesting...

Well, consider this: The players are naturally othered from the setting. The don't know anything about the world unless told. They can't see anything unless you go out of your way to describe it. They have no background in what the setting contains. Hence, being an outsider is a more natural...

Why? Genuinely. Why? Why is that bad? Why is it good that every hero actually be 100% solo material? Why is it good to be five completely individual people who just coincidentally happen to adventure in the same place at the same time?

I did restrain myself from including an option to the tune of "Characters do not reach level 4 because they usually die first." Because, other than with Hussar's group, that has in fact been my experience with nearly every 5e game I've played. Reaching level 4 was very rare outside of the group...

Okay, this is something I can work with. It immediately invites a follow-up question: Why do people want to play a cooperative game that expects teamwork...by playing whatever they want with zero consideration of their friends and what they're doing? Because that, that very specific thing, is...

The gnoll inclusion there is quite interesting. It might be helpful to iterate on that. That is, consider a party of 5 where three of them are all the same thing, e.g.: Dragonborn Tiefling Genasi Goliath etc. And consider which, if any, cause this effect for you. That could be used to figure...

I fully do so as well. My problem comes in when the rules as intended directly and unavoidably conflict with the rules as written. By which I mean, the rules were written trying to make P happen, and instead they directly cause P to not happen. Like the designers openly pursued a goal and then...

Okay. Do you agree that games are designed for one or more purposes, that is, that there are wiser choices and less wise choices, and the designer chooses which things are given incentives and which things are given disincentives? So, for example, a hockey player wants to get the puck into the...

Do you disagree that D&D is and has been presented as, played as, and seen as a teamwork-based game for, at the very least, the entirety of the new millennium thus far?

Perhaps so. Personally, I just...naturally take a detail-oriented approach and attempt to respond to claims as they are made. When possible, I strive to capture the whole of each point, and when I fail to do so, I attempt to make up for it. Then... Shouldn't the design be to make basic...