Recent content by dbm

I don’t think those logically follow from each other, although I agree some people go that route. As evidence, I would offer Kriegspiel, which was a war simulation used for training real officers by the Prussian Army very successfully. It is most definitely a simulation with no need to consider...

I think it is useful to remember George Box when thinking about simulation: “all models are wrong, some are useful”. It’s often applied to physical laws like Newtonian Physics versus General Relativity - both will tell you what effect gravity will have on a body and while General Relativity...

That sounds more like a specific counter-punch to Runequest (subject to the exact publication dates) which brought in mechanics similar to what the quote mentions. Runequest’s pitch was essentially ‘more realistic than D&D’ and this is a pitch of ‘yeah but D&D is more fun to play’.

Savage Worlds is a hodgepodge of influences, to be sure. I don’t think being genre flexible is a barrier to being strongly simulationist. GURPS is probably the poster-child for strongly simulationist games, though even it has bits which move away from that ‘platonic ideal’.

Verisimilitude is very important to me, however I don’t see that as intrinsically simulationist. A good set of narrative mechanics would create verisimilitude for a specific genre, and good supers games often fit into that space, for example. For me, a more defining feature of sumulationist...

That’s cool, and thanks for replying @TreChriron. I have many fond memories of RM, it was the system we used for one of the best and longest running campaigns I ever played in. I am curious about the new version, however I have two pretty full sets (2e and Standard System) which stops me from...

The Broken Empires (kickstarter link) is due for general release mid-2026 and non-backers can pre-order for that time

Small digression - did you play the earlier additions? If so, how do you feel RMU improves them?

How to make combat fun is an interesting topic, might be worth a thread of it’s own.

‘Convert the fluff, not the crunch’ - it’s the maxim I operate by.

For battle maps specifically, assuming you are playing face-to-face, map books are great. I have a collection of Loke Battlemap books and they can be used to spin up an interesting and sufficiently representative map in a few seconds. All their books are designed to work together so you can mix...

I still feel RM has one of the best class and level system implementations for that reason. By the time you got all the 2e Companions there was something crazy like 50 classes, too. Pretty much every imaginable niche had a class or three (one per type of magic) covering it.

We have a rotating roster of 4-5 GMs in my two regular groups, so I get to play more than I GM.

I get great value out of map books, in my case Loke but others are available. They have a wide array of fantasy map books, plus some sci-fi and cyberpunk stuff.

Presumably to encourage Critters who are not already Prime members to sign up? And lots of views will drive the algorithm to promote it more widely.