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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8644713" data-attributes="member: 6790260">How is it not easier to add ambiguity than to remove it?Throw in more randomized actions: recharges, effects that vary wildly based on random die rolls, effects that have a chance to split the party so their synergy no longer applies (e.g. raising walls so they can no longer see one another). Randomize HP values, or other statistics if you feel like it. Roll a d6: 1-2 means reduce HP, 3-4 means keep it the same, 5-6 means raise it. Then roll some amount of dice (perhaps picking an arbitrary number of d6 out of a bag) and apply them as needed.I could almost certainly write a full page (or more) on tools of this kind to make it harder to predict how things will go. You will, of course, be inviting more PC deaths and TPKs as a direct consequence, but I presume that that is a desired element here (otherwise you'd be wanting ambiguity and yet also wanting certainty which...doesn't work). Or I could just refer you to the "Nastier Specials" examples in 13th Age (sadly, I don't think there's a database of these, but it would be super cool if there was such a thing.)In order to remove baked-in ambiguity, you'd have to rewrite most monsters from the ground up. That's a huge ask. Adding a couple quirks to any given monster is perhaps five minutes' effort. Rewriting the MM would take ages. I don't see how there's any way to argue that the above is even remotely the same level of effort. Yes, it will still be AN effort. Obviously. If you're playing a system that doesn't do everything literally exactly the way you want it, you're going to have to put in some effort, that's how this works. But all efforts are not created equal.Do you think RPGs are valued purely as decorative accessories, to be fashionable or eye-catching, and not as (abstract) devices designed to perform a function?</blockquote>

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