Recent content by AbdulAlhazred

Welcome to EnWorld, lol.

I don't think so. I don't think the specific character of 4e, aside from it being rather different from previous editions, mattered much at all. I mean, 70% of its detractors are clueless about the game, so that tells you a lot. Multiple roles would just muddle class design. Role is useful to...

I agree, this is exactly how 4e's 'short list' type system works, where you get better at stuff, and have a decent chance to do a lot of things, but certain 'approaches' to solving problems will be favored by each character, due to ability and proficiency. This is because, largely, in the...

Nope! It is a system which says "at this point, when we have passed N skill checks, you WILL be obliged to grant us our intent." That is 100% what it is for, and it is 100% there to prevent GMs from sandbagging and asking for a few more checks until things end up how they want regardless of how...

So, basically the probability that you can swim 100 meters, in total, is effectively zilch. Yeah, that's a great skill system! I want that! ROFLMAO! Seriously, nobody, outside of combats that happen at very small scales, uses it that way, it's unworkable.

This is fundamentally the way the entire ritual system works in Heroes of Myth and Legend. All a ritual is is a substitution effect which creates some specific fiction that provides the position needed to enable use of skill/ability X instead of Y. It is beautiful because it ties directly and...

3e's skill system is a hot mess. There's no limit to the list of skills, so who knows what core basic 'everyone can do this' competency will suddenly vanish in a puff of smoke because someone decides to name a skill for that? WORSE, you can only advance if you have some skill points to burn on...

We obviously can't validate this idea, but it is the only plausible alternate 4e universe theory that I have seen. Released under OGL 4e gets wide 3PP support, there's no PF, etc. Instead perhaps we get a wide variety of variant 4e games. Some might well essentially bring back or emulate other...

Right, but also in a sort of game activity sense. Like, you will be encountering the next outcome of a GM move, and you're going to be overcoming whatever challenge/taking some action, a move will happen, 2d6 will be tossed again, etc. There's generally room there to reach goals and to do more...

It's a nice piece of art, and breaks with the standard depiction of characters in the midst of some battle or physical danger nicely enough. I'd prefer it to typical post-1e covers.

I think what @kenada is pointing out is that copyright is far from the only IP potentially at issue. There are patents, design patents, trade dress, etc. that can be at issue when discussing something like a game. IMHO this kind of thing is unlikely to be a problem, but I am no more a lawyer...

If you have played Agon at all, it works in a very similar way (no surprise there of course). The GM constructs an Island, which has a cast of characters in conflict, plus possibly some basic locations and the signs of the gods. There are generally 5-ish important characters and from 3-5...

So, you are proposing that a 'specific resolution', by which I would assume is meant some sort of rule, a very specific procedure which spells out a result, etc. is implied. And this can adequately deal with all the possible juxtapositions of fictional position which may exist and impact it? I...

Ah, right, everything Gary said is just hufflefluff. OK, so then how about what he DID? Is D&D at all realistic? No! Gary knew this full well and also understood that IN PLAY there has to be some sort of cognizable way for players to predict the consequences of actions, which even in Narrativist...

And then we return exactly to where we left off, that you now have to explain why, in 50 years of trying (according to you, presumably at least A FEW designers tried if it was wanted) no progress has been made in this direction whatsoever. Now, maybe the game designers of the 1970s were such...