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My personal preferences shape at least some of what I post (see, eg, references to Burning Wheel and Prince Valiant). But I try to do more than just express my preferences. To me, posts are interesting when they (i) contain analysis, explanation, etc, or (ii) contain illuminating/interesting...

The fighter in my game was mostly using a polearm, and was based around reach, forced movement, and multi-/area attacks - so Come and Get It was just of a piece with his Passing Attack, Footwork Lure, etc - he was constantly in motion, wrong-footing his opponents, etc. CaGI didn't raise any...

I think my approach - especially for party play like 4e D&D - is heavily influenced by Claremont X-Men.

When I'm reflecting on RPGing, I find it helpful to distinguish between mere colour/flavour, and fiction that actually matters to the play of the game. Eg in dungeon-crawling D&D, the colour of the NPC's trousers normally is mere colour; whereas the location of the door in the wall, or the...

Absolutely! This is true in Torchbearer also. I'd say that it not only feels robust, but is robust.

You probably won't be shocked that I'm going to put in a good word for Burning Wheel here: generally it uses binary success/failure on the roll; but by distinguishing intent and task, and emphasising that failure means failure of intent, it allows for similar sorts of consequences as does a...

Or do you . . . .? For me, one of the more striking things about some talk of immersion is that people are not talking about a psychological experience - that is, how they feel during play - but rather are talking directly about the "logical" structure of play, independently of any psychological...

For my part, I don't play with the goal of creating great dialogue (though if it occurs, I have no objection to it). But I do want this: Gripping and exciting scenes, including social scenes, are something I do want in my RPGing.

Which is basically the opposite of organic!

I'm not an actor, and no one whom I play with is a thespian, voice actor or other sort of performer. But social resolution mechanics have reliably produced strong social scenes. And the more robust mechanics of more "modern" games have done so better: the Rolemaster influence and interaction...

Yeah, the suggestion that the damage/hit point systems is just an afterthought - that beating a Pit Fiend in combat is just a modest mechanical variant on climbing a cliff - is pretty odd.

I've never played BitD, and don't know it super-well, but thought I'd have a look at what the rules say about clocks: Progress Clocks | Blades in the Dark RPG This seems like it's relevant to the current conversation: Remember that a clock tracks progress. It reflects the fictional situation...

Rolling a d20 for success/fail, and rolling a d20 to see whether I get to roll damage to ablate an opponent's hit points, are not the same resolution mode. Suppose that the swim from an island to shore, through a raging storm, is DC 20. The 15th level PC with 20 STR and Athletics training has a...

Metagaming!

Here's a simple example: In Burning Wheel and Torchbearer 2e, if the consequence for a character is death, but the player of that character has a Persona point, then the player can spend the point and declare "I have the will to live". And then the PC doesn't die: rather, they survive but...

I find D&D combat too limiting of my agency. The GM keeps telling me, "the Orc deftly stabs in under your shield and . . " and I'm all like "Hang on, how come I'm not allowed to move my shield down to block their blow?"

I don't know if it helps at all to frame it as an ethical rather than moral choice (using "ethical" in the sense of pertaining to the living of a good life, as opposed to "moral" in the sense of satisfying the duties one owes to others). And so with the example of Keeler and the young sentry...

I've read, and re-read, that example. Rising conflict across a moral line: as you say, the ugly choice isn't about the player's priorities for the character, but the GM's priorities for prompting the player to reveal the truth about Keeler - ie she's a ruthless killer. Presumably a permissible...

Is the conflict trigger the connected part, or the connecting part? That is, the bridge between set-up and consequence. Let me spell out your elaboration of Harper's example: MC: OK, so you sneak into the garage but there's Plover right there, about to notice you any second now. What do you...

I've always found it a bit strange that the differentiation between classes would be found in the mechanics of action economy and resource recovery, rather than in what a character of that class can actually do. When I read someone saying that they'd rather be rid of bonus actions, I don't think...