Search results

Part of Ernie's contribution to gaming, per the WOTC lawsuit:

Worlds without number?

I thought 19:18 was interesting, in that he says that the new edition was driven by management, not desires, and specifically by 2020 trends, i.e. getting more players online. This seemed obvious from some of the playtests, when they really seemed to be designing for the ability to code the...

Yes. Knight at the Opera writes about it here: The New School, the Old School, and 5th Edition D&D But I think in the interview Mearls also says that 5e design has moved away from OSR principles. And some of it was an awkward fit for OSR principles to begin with (things like doing perception...

If Shadowdark is compatible with b/x, couldn't you just use this?

Yeah, we get the Grognard/Munchkin vocabulary from the late 70s/early 80s as precisely a generational war over the audience for dnd.

Why would you make this assumption? I'm a companion level 'grognard' and I haven't bought a wotc book since 2017, and even then only ever purchased the core books plus a couple supplements. Our group, whatever we play, uses a free vtt (owlbear rodeo) and has no interest in any subscription...

I think official dnd should include high levels (say, levels 11-20) but that all that info should be in a PHB2 for the 5% of players that actually want it. Such a book would have space for legit high level options, like bringing back prestige classes, high level feats, more high level spells...

Though, one of the things that Mearls says--and regrets--is that they were trying to appeal to a new audience with 4e (e.g. people who played WoW but not TTRPGs), and in doing so lost a lot of their 3.x audience

On the campaigns ending at 7th level thing: 5e should clearly just go to level 10, with some of the good ideas currently in the 11-20 range being rewritten for the 7-10 level range. It's a huge waste of space detailing all the 6-9th level spells that people never use, that could be in an...

1:00 - Mearls talks about the problem with bonus actions slowing down combat 2:56 - On how games could have multiple action economies for different character types, influenced by magic the gathering 5:20 - on the lack of tension in 5e fights, and how they are boring. “Spreadsheet design gone...

The Dungeoncraft channel just posted an interesting interview ith @mearls. (Ignore the clickbait title; the actual interview is good)

So, is this thread just acknowledging that non-dnd games exist, and listing them? :ROFLMAO:

Perhaps here you've answered your question. Not only are the games you mention here different modes of play, but they each have their own full ecosystem of games with their own variations. Just think of how many people have made games with "story-driving mechanics" as opposed to the dnd-style...

I think any game will want to say to its prospective audience, 'hey, I'm this kind of game.' Just as a matter of definitions. If I'm at a convention and someone is advertising a Shadowdark OSR experience, that label helps me understand what about it might be different than someone running 5e...

Yet, in practice, players know that they have an intimidation score, they know which player has the highest intimidation score, and they expect the DM to allow them to use it rather than, say, coming up with a 2d6 reaction roll and subbing that into their games because of 'rule 0.' That's why...

Yes, the GM can ignore the mechanical structure of the rules, including things like perception and investigation skills. They could sub in player skill type play from OSR games. They could sub in "success with consequence" mechanics from pbta games. But I don't think either of those cases...

Right, so that's all I'm really saying here. There's a type of gameplay that 5e players don't find fun, and so 5e skips over that part. You can go around searching for traps with a 10 foot poll, relying on GM adjudication over skill rolls, but contemporary players tend to not like that and...