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So you instantly suspect people have been lying to you if they ever use the word "Honestly..." to begin a sentence? Seriously?

Certainly. "Little white lies" became the de facto standard. They make up the bulk of small talk, which I find terribly tedious much of the time because--as noted--the vast majority of responses are straight-up falsehoods simply spoken so that you can be socially seen as recognizing others. A...

It's a way of expressing earnestness in the statement; it's equivalent to "I'm gonna level with you" or "to be honest". Does the use of adverbs like "honestly" or "frankly" indicate to you that that person would otherwise have lied? Because--frankly--the truth is that yes, a lot of people DO...

"Not gonna lie"

In fairness to Hussar, catharsis is fun for some folks, and not all catharsis is about sadness. The new Doom games, for example, were surprisingly cathartic for me. The gameplay isn't sad in the least. It is over-the-top gory violent. I am, IRL, something of a pacifist, or a weenie if you...

Unfortunately, NGL, for me, if I knew there was no hope like in that former example, I probably would just...waste away. I can't bring myself to be cruel to others, and hedonism has no appeal. I know I'm incapable of any physical fighting (or even much in the way of manual labor), and trying...

It's worth noting, I don't personally see 4e as a "combat game". I see it as a game where the combat has been very well-made--and the non-combat has a reasonably useful structure (Skill Challenges) and otherwise gets the hell out of the way so the group can do it as they like. I'd like more...

I have not, no. Not for lack of interest, per se, but more for lack of opportunity. Haven't been looking for it and haven't met anyone currently running it.

Perhaps that is so, for some folks. For me, it just...isn't cathartic. I deal with enough "is there any point to it all?" IRL. I don't need to be reminded of the idea that what you're doing can feel like it's pointless.

What are you looking for from the game, then? Because what you describe is precisely how I felt about 3e, and is more or less how I feel about 5e (it's a bit different but still similar). 4e was the exact opposite. It was finally a game actually doing the things I'd always wanted. Of course, I...

I vastly prefer settings of hope over despair. A setting of despair makes me despair. Like literally. It actually makes me think depressive thoughts more, inclines me to be a less-good person to the people around me, and heightens existing mental health concerns. A setting of hope doesn't do...

I believe I had replied. In brief, I believe 2e is your favorite (and I'm pretty sure you've specifically said so), and 4e is (by far) your least favorite. The rough order would be 2e (Big gap) 3e/5e Basic/OD&D/1e (Enormous gap) 4e Like if 2e is set at 100, then 3e/5e are in the 70s, Basic...

Would it surprise you to know I have had the same thought about your own reviews on things? And yes, I know most people who play 5e now are like that. Most people who play 5e were not the people who almost totally dominated the sample space when 5e was being developed. The 5e community today...

"All X must Y" claims of this kind are nearly always overblown in the first place, or are a bad, lossy gloss of a much more nuanced thought. "Greatsword is an especially strong weapon because it gets more out of its Style feat than other large weapons" is accurate. "All Fighters should use...

Then you are a highly unusual exception among those who professed such dislike for 4e. The vast majority of people who disliked 4e thought 5e was just the ticket.

I'm well aware that 5e is the apology edition.

No individual person's experience will be universal, sure. But "feel[ing] caster-y" should at least have a loose constellation of effects which all fit into that. If we get several distinct answers, we can try to find common threads. If we get several answers with a lot in common, then we've...

Answering this question requires that we identify what elements produce "feel[ing] caster-y". So--what does that feeling feel like? What visuals do you see when you're having that feeling? What actions can reliably pull it off? Are there spells that don't feel "caster-y" even when you are, in...

So the players can discover information about the world without you having to tell them? How do they do this?

This would be exactly the sort of thing I'm thinking of. You created pressure--but it lasted much longer than you intended it to. It wasn't the players out of the blue insert pressure, unprompted, no reason other than because they feel like applying pressure. You then needed to work with them...