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Agreed wholeheartedly! Games should embrace their fictional side instead of shying away from it. I think this is why many classic games have endured in ways that the newer titles struggle with. In the past, there were many limits to game technology and complexity, so you had to come to grips...

Full disclosure: I'm a wargamer at heart. I only dug into "true" TTRPGs after growing tired of the predictable, birds-eye view present in typical wargames, so I might be one those old-school players you're referring to. With that said, I prefer a detailed and thorough inventory system, even if...

But then we'd lose the alliteration in Cults, Clans, and Kingdoms! /s I didn't know there was a difference, so thanks for a tiny sociology lesson! Still, I think clans in fantasy settings are generally depicted closer to real-world hordes than actual clans (i.e., the Kolaghan from MtG). I guess...

Lots of great replies already for describing monster groups, so I'll just share the three basic organizations that monsters form: * The Cult: a mysterious, invite-only clique, often plagued with disturbing history and ongoing internal strife. Favorite pasttimes include performing rituals...

Haha, so true. Jokes aside, some of the best games I've played ended with player deaths. I used to run a basic dungeon I'd homebrew when bored. I'm not particularly creative, so I dubbed it "The Cave" and wrote some simple rules. It was your typical dungeon with a simple twist: the map was...

Yeah, you're right. Besides, I was fixated on the 1 in 64mil odds, but those odds only apply if we declare a 6-roll sequence from the outset. But that's not how we think about patterns as humans. We don't think, "I'm going to roll my next six d20s and see if I land a 20 on all of them" Instead...

Well, that's frankly insane. I guess it was bound to happen to somebody. Besides, the overlap between sequences of rolls does make 6 d20s a little more possible. Congrats on your incredible luck :) Maybe you should grab a lotto ticket!

I've had similar streaks happen at my tables. More likely, you weren't actually and rolling the die, but spin-rolling it. This is a common sleight of hand in informal, high-stakes gambling. There's a very small chance you rolled each of those 20s by sheer luck. However, it's very possible you...

Hey, maybe we don't see so differently after all, then! :) Yeah, I realize that encounter goes beyond basic combat in the game. I just like to roll for characters' damage regardless of the actual, immediate stakes at play, even when we're leaning into an RP-driven combat. I do this partly out of...

From the DM's point of view, sure. But this is why I said that public, stakes-declared rolling reduces player uncertainty :) If they know what the possible outcomes are in advance of every roll, there can be no immediate surprises from the players' perspective. When a monster strikes for heavy...

Hmm, all fair points. But isn't there something to be said for player uncertainty? As the chief architect of the players' world, the DM works not just to manage the game mechanics, but also to build atmosphere. Sometimes, even if I've mentally ruled out player death in an encounter, I roll...

To each their own. I'll just repeat that the dice to me are secondary to the gameplay. And just to be clear, when I say gameplay, I'm referring to the experience players have within the game I don't alter player dice or override their decisions, so I don't think I'm compromising their...

I don't see the dice as binding in any way. I see them merely as one of many tools for storytelling, not a foundation of the game per se. To me, the foundation of my game is the story we want to tell and the gameplay we'd like to have along the way. As a heavy homebrewer, my games can often be...

Again, I understand that you value transparency with your players, and that's absolutely fine. I just believe that fudging--misrepresenting how my dice rolled--helps me preserve uncertainty where it matters. I see the dice as merely advisory, telling me what I could do if I followed the tides of...

EzekielRaiden, I see your point. Maybe I wasn't fully clear in my initial post, but I fully understand if a DM and party chooses to go the public dice route. That's an absolutely valid way to play the game, and I'm sure it can work well at many tables. But at the same time, I encourage you to...

I've always struggled with this in my own games. I used to be a hardcore proponent for dice absolutism, but that often gave me premature player deaths and a frustrated party. These days, I've learned to take the dice a little less seriously. I think there's a place for fudging at most tables...