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Does it? I could be convinced (I'd kind of like to be) but I'm somewhat sceptical. I did a bit of quick digging earlier. I couldn't find all that much that was recent on Google Scholar but this article from 2014 talks about the social conditions in which people started wearing swords more...

What historians are we talking about?

I have to admit I find the obnoxiousness here somewhat puzzling.

A thing is a thing regardless of what it's called. I mean at the time they were all just called "swords". In my 15th century game I included a weapon "Sidesword/Rapier" because I figured it wasn't necessary to get into the weeds. But I didn't give it a reach advantage over an arming sword as...

Honestly I don't even understand what point you are trying to aggressively prove here. Are you saying that what is usually called a Rapier by Hema people existed in the 15th century? Or are you arguing that what is usually called a sidesword should just be conflated with 'rapier' under the one...

The blade shape and hilt puts that in the category of what is usually called a sidesword. As noted several times previously the terms can be somewhat imprecise but there is in any case an underlying distinction in how the weapon was used which is the reason for the rapier/sidesword distinction.

I'm running a game set in Italy in the 15th century at the moment and I have to agree that I could find no evidence that rapiers were around at that point. At least what is technically called a rapier in modern Hema typology anyway. (That said a sidesword is just as adequate for buckling...

Like other people I'm confused about the idea that this is happening now. For one as mentioned upthread, 5e already seemed to be moving away from that player centric culture when it was released (and all those adventure paths were aimed at DMs). Some of the games mentioned as indicative of...

Yeah I seem to recall this isn't the first time I've ignore listed you.

I'm really not entirely sure what you mean here.

Reading the room. And how do you know if the group want's that or not. By reading the room! (Also why do people always treat the players as one mind with several bodies. It's not group dependant it's player dependent - which is why you really need to read the room). I can't think why you...

There is a school of thought that says that as long as the GM just sticks to what is predetermined all's fair in love and war. To which I always think, no sometimes the GM has to be able to read the room.

I think the Isekai thing is actually one of the most interesting challenges in rpg design. You can of course get around it by having the players contribute to the setting. Another way is just to choose a genre and lean into it heavily. But for more setting dense worlds (which I prefer) this...

The thing with this is that it skirts the issue - which is: was modelling the real chances of someone being able to successfully do something even actually a consideration? You are right that the dice mechanics are essentially binary - but the odds of success equate to percentage chances. And...

Only if you treat the context of the game as an interchangeable slot to put the widget in. Not everyone is running campaigns with 20 year established histories. If for example you are putting together a campaign world for your friends to game in, it would seem to make some sense to me to...

If whether you are willing to make an accommodation for the player is not dependant on who the player is and the nature of your relationship with them, then at least for the purposes of the discussion here, they are interchangeable widgets.

The issue here is what D&D is supposed to be simulating. (Also I don't understand the Sim-meter comment - all games have secondary worlds therefore, in the common meaning of the world, they have some element of simulation - that's trivially true - it doesn't tell us anything about priorities.)

People have enough in common that we can meaningfully talk about system tendencies.

To be fair I've been reading a lot of the defences of the traditional GM role in this thread and thinking the whole time "you are writing as if players are interchangeable widgets"