D&D General Un-Fun D&D: A Thought Experiment

[pemerton]

I view my anti-D&D is a overly complicated Casino game. Everything from what you are, what you encounter, and what the outcome is is a crapshoot. The only really strategy is knowing when to hold and when to fold before you get blown out. And there is no reason to do better because sucks and will always suck so the only thing you can do is make it suck less for yourself via money and power.

I don't see this in your OP. Nothing in your OP precludes planning, and play based around that planning. Nor does your OP seem to preclude the players having their PCs - once they get to higher levels - having an impact on the world.

Has anyone mentioned Torchbearer yet?

Torchbearer isn't a D&D variant. And in play, at least in my experience, does not have a
lot in common with the sort of game the OP describes:

* The DM is Ruthlessly Neutral: The DM is expected to be an absolute neutral arbiter of the game. Dice rolls are expected to be adhered to regardless of outcome. There is no fudging, no reducing the monster's hit points, to targeting stronger allies to avoid kicking weak ones when down. The DM is fair, but plays to win.
* The Game is Procedurally Generated. That is, the game expects much of the DMs work to be done via table generation and after-the-fact justification. Random Encounters, Treasure, adventure design, etc is expected to be done via random generation to limit DM influencing outcomes for either themselves or the players.
* Characters are randomly generated: Every mechanical aspect of a character is randomly generated: Ability scores, race, class, gear, HP, etc. Good luck on these rolls will give you advantages over those who roll badly. There is no re-rolls, no "hopeless character" rules, no offsetting bad rolls.
* Characters are not balanced: Some options (races, classes, etc) are superior to others. If you roll and get lucky enough to have access to the superior option, you are just that much farther ahead. The Paladin is superior to the fighter, balanced stringent requirements to access and play that character. Quadratic Wizards and Linear Fighters are a feature, not bug. Trap options abound.
* The World is Not Fair: Racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and other cruelties exist, and the PCs are not immune to them. An orc going into a human village should expect a mob and not a warm welcome. Clerics of the wrong faith best leave quickly.
* Limits on meta-currency. Options like Heroic Inspiration, Action Points, Luck points, or even getting Advantage on a roll is ALWAYS in the hands of the DM and never automatically granted the player by class or feature.
* Life is Not Fair, Death Even Less So: One-Hit Kills, Save or Die, Energy Drain, and worse fates befall adventurers routinely. TPKs are a very real possibility.
* Crits: Critical Hits can lead to permanent injuries, amputations, or even death. Critical fumbles can lead to broken equipment, destroyed treasure, or errant swings at allies.
* Death is a Fail State: Resurrection magic is rare and difficult. Death means starting over. From level 1.
* The World is Dying: The world is not a fun or enjoyable place. Life is nasty, brutish, and short. People scramble to get what they can in a world overrun by deadly monsters, disease, famine, and disasters. Crime is an unfortunate reality, prejudice a common mindset. Hope is in short supply.
* Play Hard, Play Smart, Play to Survive: All of this leads to a game where the deck is stacked against the players and the DM is bound by neutrality to enforce that. Life is cheap, characters are disposable, and lucky rolls are as valuable as tactical play or creative thinking. No one is owed a happy ending. The only thing the world owes you is death from starvation, unless you can make something better with luck, skill and power.

Torchbearer doesn't use neutral GMing (its approach to GMing is, unsurprisingly, closer to Burning Wheel). It uses procedural generation in some places, but not for adventure design. PCs are not randomly generated, and are (or at least are intended to be) mechanically balanced. There is a lot of metacurrency - in fact, earning and spending Fate and Persona is what drives the game - and there are no critical hits or save-or-die of the sort the OP describes. And death does not mean starting over; you can Pay the Terrible Price.

And the setting of Torchbearer doesn't have to be as the OP describes either.