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I'm reminded of a World of Darkness conversation I wasn't even involved in: "Why is your character starting with a 5 in Intelligence?" "Talent, I guess." Angry Storyteller glares.

It usually comes up in the initial playtest phases when developing new systems. You get a couple dozen to a few hundred people (or whatever you can wrangle or afford), and try to talk to them afterwards about feelings about this or that. Sometimes in person, sometimes surveys. I might be...

Obviously you have to hold the burning oil up in the air. Duh!

4 steps is about the limit of tolerance for most people I've met. You can always have situations that require more steps, but those should generally be few and far between (grapples and the like). Some game designers violate KISS in a major way in pursuit of innovation, but I've seen even 5 or 6...

I find armor is just Temporary Hit Points with an element of choice. You can use your THP immediately, or save it to defend against attacks with bad effects.

I still snitch, I just do it discreetly after the game. "Hey, I noticed that Bob got flanking with his conjuration during that last battle. I double checked, and it looks like conjurations don't get flanking." Thus, the GM is informed and can make a ruling on it as they see fit. I do the same...

I go both ways. An Haich-Pee A Hit Point

I've absolutely stepped on toes that were not even in my niche. It wasn't intended in the slightest. Sometimes I've openly apologized, but more often I just silently note it and never try to do it again - always letting Jane take the spotlight on those times, or sometimes being the "Helper" that...

I think this is a good way to put it. If you're not concerned with table dynamics, all manner of discomfort and hurt feelings can come about. Be that from an optimizer who dramatically overshadows other players, to an aloof player who plays on their phone and needs to be reminded every turn of...

The only section I found somewhat problematic was Section 11.2, which essentially says "If we change the license, you have to accept the changes or you can't update your content." I doubt Darrington Press would ever change their license in an abusive or exploitative way within the tenure of the...

Rich wanted Trinity and Scion to have the same core mechanics, but both games were in development at the same time, and Trinity had priority. So there were times where the Trinity team would send us changes to their core mechanics, and Neall had to rework whole sections to work with those...

Yeah, Scion 1E was absolutely infamous for being a Paper/Rock/Scissors system. There was so much to love about the setting as a whole, but things could spiral into madness very quickly if your players were not either A) very creative or B) willing to indulge the system and bring Scissors against...

Yes! This is exactly what I was going for. Fear reduces guilt about being "fair" so you can instigate shenanigans, and the players are cool with it because you "paid for it."

I was really pleased that Daggerheart's no initiative system allows specialists to shine if that's how everyone wants to play. The game encourages every player to share the spotlight as part of good faith play, but if the players themselves want a combat or social specialist to go over and over...

Niche protection comes up a lot in those kind of comparisons, too. Many groups (but not all) are okay when the combat specialist does his thing, similarly when the social specialist does her thing, etc. But when two people occupy a similar niche, like both being melee attackers or both being a...

I have been known to scribble mine on toilet paper. :cry:

No, I have fun in many different kinds of games. From the angst-ridden Chronicles of Darkness, to a lot of Daggerheart recently, to Nobilis/Scion/Exalted style games where screaming stars out of existence is just part of the game. When I'm not the GM, I love playing support characters and...

This feels way too far off the deep end in an otherwise polite conversation.

The Technocracy got up to some crazy stuff. They took over entire deep Horizon Realms and transformed them into factory dimensions, waged wars against local Horizon Realms to clear them out of undesirable ideas and then modify them to bleed influence into the subconscious of mankind. They had...

It's a good question. What does "-5" look like, on the -5/+5 scale someone proposed a while back? Is it strictly having very low stats? Taking trap feats? Is it having abilities on your sheet that would be great in certain circumstances and not using them? Is optimization restricted to character...