Unpopular opinions go here

[Jorren]

Oh yeah, Daniel Craig is the best Bond. By far. No, it's not even close.

And yes, I have seen every Bond movie.

 

[Guest 7042500]

TSR ruined D&D when they switched their marketing from adult wargamers to adolescent boys.

And yes, it was deliberate, Jim Ward confirmed it.

 

[Guest 7042500]

If you can't handle a game of DIPLOMACY, you need to grow up.

 

[overgeeked]

All the mechanics of a game push play towards a particular style and feel. AD&D with XP for gold feels and plays very differently than AD&D with XP for monsters, for example. If you think the game's mechanics do not focus and push play in particular directions, you're not paying attention.

 

[Guest 7042500]

If you took XP for gold out of your 1E AD&D game, decided XP was only for monster kills, did not raise the amount of XP for killing a monster, and ignored the rules on reaction and morale, it is NOT Gary Gygax's fault that your game is a bloodbath.

 

[overgeeked]

If you took XP for gold out of your 1E AD&D game, decided XP was only for monster kills, did not raise the amount of XP for killing a monster, and ignored the rules on reaction and morale, it is NOT Gary Gygax's fault that your game is a bloodbath.

Thank you for illustrating my point.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Sorry I misunderstood, then! My bad.

What WERE you saying?

That the extremes -- wizards should be dropping major spells 24/7 or wizards should do one thing a day and then sit in the corner for the rest of the game -- are both bad choices.

Rationing spells is fine -- I love how it works in games with spellcasting checks with the chance of losing access to the spell with a bad roll -- but the amount of spellcasting needs to be more than "well, you got to do your one thing, today, Dave. How about you toss out the pizza boxes while the rest of us play?"

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

it is NOT Gary Gygax's fault that your game is a bloodbath.

The rulebooks were eccentrically organized back in the day, and lots of rules were scattered throughout the books, rather than being placed together and explained clearly, as they typically are today in games like OSE.

The state of the art for presentation and clarity has advanced a lot since the late 1970s, to be sure, due in part to the desktop publishing revolution, but if it's not Gary's fault that plenty of people missed some or all of what he was saying, whose fault is it? Even if it's unfair to expect the old books to be OSE-level in clarity, they could certainly have been more clear than they were.

 

[Alzrius]

The rulebooks were eccentrically organized back in the day, and lots of rules were scattered throughout the books, rather than being placed together and explained clearly, as they typically are today in games like OSE.

The state of the art for presentation and clarity has advanced a lot since the late 1970s, to be sure, due in part to the desktop publishing revolution, but if it's not Gary's fault that plenty of people missed some or all of what he was saying, whose fault is it? Even if it's unfair to expect the old books to be OSE-level in clarity, they could certainly have been more clear than they were.

I get what you're saying here, but at the opposite end of the spectrum, I recall more than a few people saying that it was WotC's fault that the clause about monsters' alignments not being set in stone in the 5E Monster Manual apparently flew under the radar for so many people, despite how clearly that book was laid out. (Though I certainly think there's something to be said for reintroducing 3E's "often/usually/always" tags.)

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

wizards should do one thing a day and then sit in the corner for the rest of the game -- are both bad choices.

Ah! Agreed.

I always thought that was more appropriate for a modern fantasy/sci-fi/horror game, where “kewl powerz” were rare and difficult to use or acquire. A character might only have an handful of powers. Maybe only one. And ESPECIALLY in those cases, the character really needs to be able to do something else.

I had a PC in a supers game who was a powerful, but limited, psychic. He could perceive things others could not, across great distances and through obstacles with the power of his mind. Even his mundane senses could be enhanced when he focused his mind. He synergized that with investigative skills and an eidetic memory.

But he didn’t have any mind reading/control, TK or other flashy psychic abilities.

So while that’s great for gathering intel and finding things, it’s not going to single-handedly take out a room of enemies, nor help you shrug off attacks.

So he took some martial arts training, had some tactical armor and carried a 50 caliber Desert Eagle. He couldn’t go toe to toe with someone like Dr. Doom, but he sure as heck was going to keep the mooks from annoying the heavyweights.