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The image on the right is obviously superior, in terms of looking more "realistic", than the image on the left. I don't play top-tier games anyway, so I imagine I won't see much of an impact on my personal gaming decisions until the 2030s. But the fact that this seems to be a technological...

Post 44.

But that's my favorite part of D&D; the part where it generates weird results nobody was expecting. All things being equal, I'd rather have reincarnate as the only "bring back to life" option, and remove the raise dead/resurrection spells.

Some other time. I thought I was saying something fairly innocuous and trivial; since it seems to not be the case, I don't want to derail the thread in a discussion over semantics.

You don't, IMO.

You’re almost certainly correct, but I like to keep the various options in context for the broader thread readership.

Or maybe they don’t! Strategic and tactical thinking is not a requirement for lots of kinds of RPGs.

Combat is just another way to develop prompts that generate narratives. You win the combat, you follow narrative A. You lose, you switch to narrative B. Without resources to deploy, the only input is narrative input (the playing the situation/“tactical infinity” that OSR likes) and the die...

Both. Newer books added options, that when mixed with the strongest options in core, produced an even stronger combination. But the core "overly strong" classes were problematically strong even from the PHB. You didn't anything beyond the material in the 3 core books to be able to handle...

I adore the idea of a loot-based/currency game for a D&D-like dungeon crawl/site-exploration. Lots of potions, scrolls, items with charges, spells that require spell reagents that have to be bought, etc. Makes a strong gameplay loop of "acquire treasure, then spend treasure to beat the next...

I mean, they aren't meaningful in the scope of the adventure, and in being an actual determiner of a real "success-failure" fork in the road. They're useful in the context of "we designed this game around a long, detailed skill list; if we don't make the players roll skill checks a lot, they're...

What else would you call it, if the game doesn't have any resources that can be consumed? The gameplay is more than likely going to have some sort of chance-based resolution method (dice, cards, etc.), which provides a success or failure based on the narrative input, and resolves into a curated...

Book 5 is even more "a lot". It's my favorite of the 7 I've read.

Preferences aside, whether or not managing finite resources "matters" is a pretty fundamental distinction between different kinds of RPGs. If they don't, the game is going to function primarily as a prompt engine with randomizers for generating narratives. The more resources the game wants you...

I mean, I have a lot more sympathy for the argument of “passive noticing skills are bad” than “all skills are bad”.

You could do that, but I think making it supernatural makes a lot more sense. It’s a better simulation of how a fantasy D&D world would really work.

That's not meta at all. That's just using XP as a measurement of a diegetic, spiritual essence. If undead can suck the XP out of you as level drain, why can't a mage siphon that power via spellcraft?

Yea, definitely still a relevant distiction. I haven't seen those specific terms before, but I've definitely referenced the idea of preferring to develop my character during play, rather than have a detailed sketch of the character before play starts (although some systems prefer the latter...

One overlooked aspect: BE the kind of player that other good players want to play with.

Don’t look at me, I made the Rambo joke. Doing my part to keep things not painfully nerdy. :)