Recent content by Celebrim

Often the problem with a rule doesn't show up until you've tried to apply it in several situations. But sometimes the problem with a rule is completely obvious. For me one of the obvious ones I could bring up was RAW CoC character creation. The core rules don't allow you to create every...

There is a difference, but deliberately excluding or choosing not to use certain rules is itself a house rule. Similarly, if the system provides a large number of optional rules, specifying the list of which optional rules are in force is also a house rule.

I handled this by instead of having a fighter combat matrix or a thief combat matrix, I clipped a "Bob" combat matrix and a "Mike" combat matrix to my DMs screen with their to-hit versus AC with their commonly used weapons precalculated for their level, strength, degree of proficiency, and...

I never play any game with more than say a 20-page rulebook RAW. Heck, I'm ready to start house ruling Wingspan. Most RPGs get house rules by the second session and often before we start play if CharGen is noticeably wonky and unbalanced. Usually about 20 or 30 sessions in I'm ready to...

You've already touched on this somewhat, but to add to what @Charlaquin said about D&D being largely written lately by people with little background in religion, most ancient societies defined "gods" rather more loosely than we would to today where "god" means something like the Abrahamic god...

This is a setting decision just as the decision to have abstract or nonexistent deities are. It doesn't reflect how gods are observed as active in source material like Greek myths, or even how the Greeks and Romans recorded their own histories. In my homebrew, you can make divine...

I voted an '8' but a lot of people would probably consider my tastes closer to a '9'. The thing is that I like a very simple and clean core mechanic but an abundance of supplemental rules for handling pretty much anything that could happen in the setting. So I want mass combat rules, crafting...

I have long claimed that the RPG landscape has too many systems as it is, and people should pick a "good enough" system and focus on producing good IP for that system. Unique systems are I think a waste of time now for a designer, and represent a creative impulse that while I perfectly...

They certainly can be and are often intended to be, but I think it's possible for that to cross the line. D6 has a "force point" that is both a meta currency and intended to represent something that does exist in the setting. Whether the ability to occasionally dramatically access the force...

Obi Wan isn't prominent prequel trilogy character? I don't see how if I'd listed Captain Panaka, Jango Fett, and Obi Wan Kenobi it would have made a difference to my point. Or Captain Rex if you prefer. Either way, all in the same universe meaningfully together and also capable of interacting...

I've been running Star Wars as an RPG for the last 4 years or so and I guess I'm not a guy that puts as much attention to the details as you, but I don't see it. I will say this though, the RPG won't feel like Star Wars to me if you can't have Obi Wan Kenobi, Han Solo, and Cassian Andor...

Setting obviously. At times, tone, in that one is rated "PG" and the other rated "R" and so there are certain topics that are handled more graphically and less sensitively in one than the other. Pulp Fiction is trying to hit you in the face with blood splatter, and Star Wars typically is more...

I don't make a distinction nor do I agree that they are different. I assume that the only difference between scrappy Andor and Obi Wan Kenobi in the prequels is the level of the character (as it were). And in general, the dice pools do seem to make this happen as large dice pools make for...

Isn't this true of adapting all fiction to a game though? In the fiction, the characters have plot protection always. That is, whatever happens to them is ultimately just the whim of the author. But in no game does the character have plot protection always. They are always subject to the...

I detest 2D20. Personally, I think the answer is D6 with hit points and levels (of a sort) plus much more rigorous balancing of the supplemental content like races, equipment, vehicles, etc. After running D6 for about 4 years I'm beginning to see where the system needs to go. Maybe in four...