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That’s the part that’s delegated to the play culture (just like with newer editions where those practices are something one has to learn as part of acquiring the skills of DMing). The culture in question is the miniature wargaming culture that existed prior to the release of OD&D and informed...

Thank you for the clarification. I assume that would be why OD&D refers to itself as a set of miniatures rules while also saying that the use of miniatures is optional. It’s not a miniatures game per se, but it came out of that culture, and they didn’t yet have the language to call it what it...

He didn’t add it after the fact. OD&D developed out of the Braunstein play that Arneson had been doing. The addition of role-playing in those campaigns lead to Arneson’s Blackmoor campaign which eventually resulted in the creation of D&D. It didn’t happen the other way around. I disagree that...

I don’t think the intent of OD&D was to be a complete text. From what I understand, the wargaming culture of the time left a lot up to the referee. You see that kind of play today in FKR games that likewise trust the referee to handle a lot of things “modern” games might codify in rules text...

The thief class added in Supplement I advanced according to the table. That was also the case in Holmes Basic and B/X. AD&D 1e also had a static table for the thief class. NWPs, allocating thief skills, etc all came later. That seems to agree with what you’re saying, but I want to make sure I’m...

According to the cited text, classic D&D lacks the playing-style reinforcement that is being treated as synonymous with RPG elements. Is there more to it, or is that all there is to RPGs according to that text? Because if it’s the latter, then a definition of RPG that doesn’t include D&D in all...

The process still works more or less as described in this post. When a player indicates they want something, the referee enumerates possible consequences. If you can’t do that, there’s nothing at stake, and the PC gets what they want. If you can, then the procedure continues. There may be some...

See below regarding how consequences are incorporated into the resolution process. Players can do a few thing to mitigate consequences. That’s currently WIP. In previous iterations, you could sacrifice or spend things to gain bonuses to the roll (e.g., extra dice). For an example, see post #275...

Here is the agreement. That doesn’t seem any better than the DM’s Guild. At least before, you could release your OGL content outside of the platform (because OGL). While that’s still an option, you can’t use any of the PF2 Remaster content.

I saw I got an XP on this post, so I thought I’d follow up. The current state of things is I’m looking at 2d6 again, which means I’m going to need to look at some method for using non-fixed target numbers if I want to use more than a tiny range of modifiers (which I do). I’m thinking a base...

The new term is terrible, self-aggrandizing crap. When I want to talk about maps that are designed for exploration, I’m just going to call them exploration-oriented maps. I like Justin’s series on the topic, but I’m not going to use the term. I thought the original term was a nice...

It uses the CC-BY SRD 5.1.

Mine came recently as well. It’s nice though surprisingly small compared to SWN and WWN. This is the CC0 SRD for those who want to use any of the game’s mechanics.

The Cities Without Number SRD is up on DriveThruRPG.

There are ways to communicate information without being mechanical if that’s what one prefers, but assuming (or preferring) one way or the other doesn’t affect the discussion that follows. I touch on this a bit in post #42.

The situation given in the OP indicates the PCs have only the “barest information” about potential difficulties. I think what you say makes sense, and I’d want to obtain more information to make a better decision. Otherwise, I think one’s ability to make a good decision is pretty limited. The...

Note that I haven’t said anything about “agency”, and that’s intentional. I find “agency” as it’s used in gaming to be a rather nebulously defined bit of jargon. I would rather focus on the decision space and what one can do in it. We seem to agree that the decision space when all one knows is...

I’m looking at it from what the players can do. Can they investigate further to determine what kind of dangers may be out there? That’s how they become more informed. If they’re stuck with the initial information they get, having some hints is better than none, but it’s still a reduced decision...

See my reply above in post #34. I would consider just knowing you have options as a starting point. It may be “informed” in a technical sense, but it’s just barely so. We don’t know that because the odds are hidden (per the OP). If the extra danger is something that can be mitigated, then the...

I agree, but I would not consider knowing just enough information to get started as being particularly informed. It’s better than nothing I suppose, but it’s not by much. There’s little you can do to effectively mitigate or manage the risk of the “more dangerous” path knowing just that it is...