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Put me in the d100 roll under camp. It's absolutely perfect having the percentage chance of success written right on the character sheet. Tell me the odds! I also like the d20 roll under as well, though I think the lower granularity can be an issue over very long campaigns if constant growth is...

Second for Mothership, it's a fantastic game!

Freedom City for Mutants & Masterminds, and Ptolus, are the ones I am familiar with. Both were well done, with Ptolus being a masterclass in detail.

No no, you misunderstand. They get five seconds to make a decision. It takes longer than that to describe what's happening and rolling the dice and narrating results and all that, though I do prioritize making combat flow quickly. Mostly because I want it to feel more like a fast hectic...

For the most part I don't run games that have tactically complex combat (no minis). Combat in the majority of the systems I run is a narrative exercise in line with every other type of activity one can partake. So precise positioning isn't really all that important. Ranges are usually quite...

The 4D crowd on YouTube have a whole bunch of "in character only" Actual Plays you can watch. That's the whole point of the 4D style according to the proponents of it, in character (preferably first person narration) as much as possible. I myself don't strictly run 4D style, but I do encourage...

Dragonbane! Mausritter! Pendragon!

For a very short time in the mid 90s when my players insisted that I run games using pre written plotlines. I go off on too many tangents when trying to prepare plotlines in advance and it stresses me right out to the point of not being able to make headway. Lucky for me my players realized...

Oh, yeah, totally, sorry. I love Pendragon, it's my favorite game! The Personality Traits are what make it such a great game. I have met a fair number of people though that utterly refuse to play Pendragon because they absolutely will not allow their PCs actions to be dictated by the system.

Pendragon doesn't have mental attributes.

Good for them?!?! If the players want to try to force other players into taking action then that's something they need to do themselves. As a GM I don't feel that it's my job to force the players into doing anything. If you as a GM want to do that, go ahead. We as GMs and players have different...

It's the players who decide what, if anything, their PCs are going to do. If the players want to spend the whole session discussing what to do, that's up to them. I as GM don't feel the need to "spur the heroes to action" because I don't feel that it's my job to do so. At most I would insist...

If nothing else, reading this thread has opened my eyes to just how completely restricted a GM can make player choices and not be accused of railroading.

All equal if the mechanics are allowed to be the benchmark by which the world and NPCs react to things the PCs do.

That's the way I see it, as functionally there is no difference between a "linear" game and a railroad; in that the GM decides what all the plot points, story beats, major scenes, and main encounters are going to be ahead of time. The only real difference is whether or not the players are okay...

Scaling DC is dumb. As others have pointed out, it completely defeats the point in gaining levels. Also, levels are dumb, but that's a whole different thing.

Not even in the slightest. When I played BG3 I wanted to go to to Waterdeep to see if I could find a cure for the tadpole, but the GM railroaded me into going to Baldur's Gate and confronting the giant Brain Monster instead. I constantly use BG3 as an example of how a railroad game and a...

Possibly, but a game that features prepared plotlines and such guarantees that outcome, as actions PCs take will not alter the sequence of events that MUST happen according to what the GM has prepared. No matter what you do in BG3 you MUST go to Baldur's Gate and confront the Brain Monster. In a...

3 or 4.

For me it's pretty simple. If there are predetermined scenes, plotlines, story beats, encounters, or solutions to problems, that the PCs cannot change and must engage with the way the GM has decided they will, it's a railroad. Functionally, I don't see any difference between a "linear" game and...