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With sufficient suspension of disbelief, sure. Howard wasn't a cultural anthropologist but rather a pulp writer, he chose the cultures and locations to tell rip-roaring adventure stories. But given that framework, and the other themes of his stories (i.e. that civilization = degeneration), he...

Not necessarily. Streamlining should generally aim at making play faster and more fun; that often involves reducing die rolls, but not always. For example, my suggested streamline is to get rid of the mini-based combat where the minutiae of tactical positioning is relatively important; not a...

Frankly, pretty much none of what I posted is gonna happen, because as I noted I don't think elegance or streamlining are particularly high on WOTC's list of priorities. But the thread seems to be about what people would like to see more than what is likely to happen, so there you go.

Frankly, I don't know if "elegant" is an especially important part of WOTC's design guidelines. But if I was in charge: - d20 Modern's basic/advanced/prestige class system; meaning relatively generic base classes with increasingly specialized advanced and prestige classes that trade flexibility...

I'm going strictly by my creaky old memory, but I don't think so. IIRC, the bad guys don't really know about Tharizdun, so you don't get any intel from them. The ritual magic items of his clergy are used to get into various secret areas in his temple, but Monte Cook used that as a source for...

It's been a very long time since I played it, but as I recall we ran into it as a side-quest during S4. We approached the place kinda non-chalantly and got caught up in an epic meatgrinder of a battle that took all night to play out. From a player's perspective, it was notable mostly for that...

That's nice. It's still not in the rulebook, and thus an omission from same rulebook. As such, I don't think it's out of bounds to note that multiclassing is not in the rulebook. Again, that's nice. It's still not in the rulebook, and thus noting that you don't get a bestiary in what some...

No. That would be my main discontent with C&C as a product line - that TLG have chosen not to release a relatively complete book - but doesn't really impact on my opinion of the system. So far as I can tell the original poster wasn't asking about anybody's opinion of specific rules systems that...

For any game hoping to bring back the feel of 1E AD&D (or any D&D), lack of multiclassing is pretty much a gamebreaker, IMHO. I was also disappointed not to see a full bestiary, and various other bits and pieces. That pretty much confirmed that it's a nostalgia fad product, intended only for an...

In terms of geography, it's kinda flipped east/west (Barrier Peaks/Hellfurnaces/etc. are the Urals, proceed east from there). In terms of culture, most of the nations have evolved far beyond their analogues. Some are still obvious - for example, the Frost/Ice/Snow barbarians are vikings - but...

I was pretty disappointed when I saw the C&C book - some relatively important stuff seems to have not made it in. It looks like it's being marketed more as a nostalgic fad than a truly robust and complete game system. I dunno whether that's a good marketing decision or not, but I do know that it...

I cheat and use dualism instead of monotheism - people believe there are two divine entities in opposition/balance with each other. One usually has the positive attributes associated with it (life, growth, knowledge, light, etc.) and the other has the more negative attributes (death, decay...

That's probably because you ignored the part represented by the ellipsis, which is "where the rules reflect the setting rather than constrain it." Class-based systems, by definition, constrain character representations to those archetypes covered by the classes, which obviously has a large...

I guess it kinda depends on how you define "Rules Lite". I tend to define Rules Lite games as being those with simple, consistent rules where the rules reflect the setting rather than constrain it. By that standard, anything with a class system is unlikely to make the cut, and most d20-type...

Seems to me that what approach is justified is determined mostly by the use and role you intend for the character. The key in the Atomic Brain example isn't the source of each power, it's that TAB and his armour don't operate independently from one another in the normal course of play. So in...

If I were creating a player character, this is the one I'd do. Straightforward and easy. As an NPC, it'd depend on what my plans were, but absent any other considerations the more straightforward the better. One of the villains in the M&M book, The Atomic Brain, is "... little more than an...

I'm not much of a Firefly fan - I thought it was OK, but not worth setting time aside for on a Friday night before it got cancelled; apparently I was far from alone in that category. I'm a huge fan of old westerns. Part of the reason I didn't think Firefly was anything special was because the...

Yup. Take Evasion, too, so even if you do get hit you use your Dex in the damage save and save some points on Con. At this point you probably want to get into the realm of M&M house rules. It's a nice system, but there are various ways to break it that aren't very hard to find, and "Captain...

Twilight 2000 was originally published in 1984. The weapons and equipment are based on projections of non-secret procurement and development plans at the time, and they've actually held up reasonably well (T2000's war starts in 1995, so they were projecting about 10 years into the future - not...

I haven't seen any simplified d20-based set of rules that struck me as particularly good. Some of them are OK, but none are really outstanding. So I tend to look for non-d20 sets when I want a solid, simple set of core rules. BTRC once published (and possibly still do, no idea if they're still...