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In general, I use the more random tables, like the OSR ones, as sort of random generators in my head. In that if I need an idea, I might remember one I saw on a table and use that, as you say, as a creativity starter.

Yes, but relying so heavily on randomness to the point of being unwilling to make things up is a bit of a problem. All I know is, I wouldn't want to play in a game where everything was either prepped or random. I'd feel like I was torn between computer-like efficiency at the expensive of RPGs...

Then what are you saying? The GM making stuff up is not the GM having total control. It's just the GM making stuff up. What the GM does with the stuff determines the level of their control. As an example, you talked about an arctic environment. Whether the GM chooses a storm or rolls randomly...

They've said "random table" and are against the idea of the dice creating "quantum cooks", meaning that the GM makes up something in response to the player's actions and die rolls. So, probably not. It's more things like "100 random NPCs in a bar". Which is why I find it so weird. Tables are...

So you never, ever make up anything by yourself, is what you're saying? Yeah, I'm going to say that really misses most of the point, and fun, of an RPG. And honestly, I cannot imagine how a random die roll makes anything more meaningful than something that actually has had some thought into it...

I think this is going to be one of those times where it's the same things but different terminology. In all of the games you've mentioned, you're going to sometimes have hints that there's something bad coming. The pool of blood, the weird drag marks, the brutally murdered corpse, whatever. You...

Sorry. Thanks for the correction!

Hmm, no, I hadn't gotten around to reading all the frames yet. Thanks for the suggestion!

There's nothing wrong with tables. It's the idea of only using tables that's weird, if that's what @The Firebird actually meant.

It's not intended that you're limited to that list except through the genre's convention. MotW is a game about hunting monsters, as per Supernatural or Buffy. So then you have to ask yourself: in a typical MotW game about hunting monsters and saving people, what else is the GM going to need to...

Is there a reason why you can't just make it up in your head instead of random tables? Do you simply not want to? Is it something you feel you're not good at? A soft move is "You see an orc; what do you do?" A hard move is "As soon as you see the orc, it raises its sword and charges! Roll for...

This. Back in 1e, there was an optional rule in the DMG that, after every in-game month, the players needed to make percentile checks to see if they caught a disease, such as "cardiovascular-renal" afflictions (possibly fatal in d12 days), leprosy, or a UTI, or a parasite. Was this realistic...

In my group, I tend to read a lot of RPGs and then write up reviews for them for my friends to read. This is primarily to help me actually read the book (ADHD is an expletive-deleted, lemme tell ya). Many of my friends had heard good things about Daggerheart, but after reading my review their...

It's not skipping those details and procedures. What it's doing is not (necessarily) requiring a roll for each and every one of them. Did you forget about the roleplaying part? Even if you never roll dice, you can still roleplay. The only way you can really lose at an RPG is if you didn't...

Except those aren't constraints. They're simply the same things that every GM does, but written down in a handy bulleted list. Here's the list from MotW: Separate Them: Ever had a bridge break when only have the party has crossed over? Heck, AD&D has a "bend bars/lift gates" roll just for...

What is? That it's baked into the rules?

I disagree. That makes everything feel scripted and unchanging. So, what, the PCs can't interact with NPCs unless you have deemed them "meaningful" in some way? How is that not incredibly railroading?

...OK, you know it doesn't have to be a cook, right? It could be a member of the house having a midnight snack. It could be the dog. It could be that the PC knocks over a stack of pots and pans, making a huge clattering noise, or the shutters slam back noisily. It could be that the window or the...

No, I got that you believe that. But it's not true. The player can learn and manipulate the situation--they'll often have moves to let them do just that--and it doesn't turn anything into any sort of "procedurally dynamic situation", whatever that actually means to you. What actually happens is...