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I have thought about this a lot over the years. First, there is no one best answer in my opinion, and second multiple options can and probably should exist in the same game system. I have previously called these ‘gated abilities’ versus ‘skill penalty abilities’. Compare a system like GURPS...

Didn’t play SLA Industries myself but I do remember it from ‘back in the day’. As a Scottish publication maybe it had more market in the UK than other places? I remember a key setting conceit was that the adventures of the party are live-broadcast to an audience and you get rewarded based on...

GURPS does this with templates and lenses. Templates are recipes / pre-spent points to create a certain type of characters, while lenses are similar but smaller in scope (fewer points) and intended to be added to a template. So the mix of template and lens helps quickly create characters with a...

I didn’tread the Forge personally. The best explanation I have is that procedures and mechanics are both examples of rules but mechanics are the smaller more discrete things like skill rolls or attack rolls and procedures are the bigger things like how combat works (incorporating rules like...

One of the reasons Savage Worlds is my favourite RPG is that it has some great procedures which cover scenarios that come up often in gaming, beyond combat. I really like the Dramatic Task system, which is an evolution of various skill challenge systems that other systems also have. There are...

I would say that is a very common rule in general, now. Even GURPS says not to roll Driving skill for a trip to the shops, and with the now-common design concept of (generalising) “don’t roll a skill unless there is an interesting outcome for both results“ it seems to be becoming a default in GM...

I find the asymmetry of Daggerheart attack rolls quite interesting. Players use 2d12 (triangle distribution) while NPCs use d20 (linear distribution). The implication of this is that the output of players will be a bit more normalised while the output of monsters will be a bit more varied. I...

I can totally understand that. One of the tools in GURPS is a set of general difficulty modifiers, so you can just think about how tricky in a narrative or world-sim way you want something to be and apply that level of mod. The calibration should work out at the macro level as people are given...

First, let me put my cards on the table as a person who really like triangle and bell-curve distributions. In my opinion, it’s not about normalising people. It’s about having a more normalised set of outcomes. In a system like GURPS someone who is high skill can reliably perform at a given...

Rolemaster is the system you are looking for. That is literally how their three* types of magic are defined: channelling, essence, and mentalism respectively. * There is a fourth type of magic, Arcane, introduced in some supplements which ‘predates’ the separation of magic into the three realms.

I think it is a fair comment. I had to read DS cover-to-cover twice before I really understood what it was offering me that was different from the many other fantasy RPGs I already have.

If you found a nice patisserie that would be the closest thing. There are some in the UK.

If colonial-types (;)) want to understand the true British pudding and have the chance to visit Blighty then this is an essential pilgrimage to include in your itinerary: The Pudding Club

I’m in the North West - Preston to be specific. Amongst other things it had the very first KFC in the UK, though no idea why.

This feels a bit like the half-cut plot about the droid planet in KOTOR2, but at least with a TTRPG we can choose to run the original adventure premise if we want to. 🙂 We came across some of those obelisks and the planned reveal could have been really cool.

Book 32 pt 1 is coming this year, that’s been shared by Holmgard Press.

It comes from pinball machines. If you tried to cheat by lifting the machine they went into ‘tilt’ mode.

Very interesting, thanks for the write-up. Are you familiar with Trinity Continuum Core? If so, how would you compare them?

The collectors edition line stalled I think; someone else was publishing them. The new series are the Definitive Editions and published directly by Holmgard Press (Ben Devere’s company).

I think it is useful to differentiate between mechanics and procedures. D20 games have a solid mechanic in d20 + mods vs DC. And they tend to have a robust combat procedure which uses that mechanic. But often they don’t have many other procedures. A game which balances this well, for me, is...