Recent content by Lanefan

Plan B: long-range communication (via telepathy, magic device, or whatever) between characters such that the scout can report back on the fly and get up-to-the-minute instructions and-or questions from the rest of the party. If a party has this ability, I'll run the scouting character at the...

For WotC-era D&D: Gamist - snap to grid; movement in squares or 5-foot steps; area-of-effect rules Gamist - overly-fast hit point recovery through rest; fully-functional at 1 h.p. and dead or dying at 0 * Narrativist? - hit points as (some degree of) plot protection Gamist - cyclic turn-based...

The fourth one might want to use the word "conflict" rather than "combat", to allow for settings or games where social and-or environmental elements provide the challenges rather than foes to be physically fought and defeated. Well, that's kind of exactly what I want: in effect, Earth with...

Which mostly just serves to prove you're more flexible than some. I've known some very gamist players, who will take any situation and play it gamist all the way. All that matters is a) the rules and b) the dice-rolling. Abstraction all the way. I've known some, but fewer, quite...

Sometimes "not thinking deeply" is the way to go, though, because "just do it" gives better results. Many times this holds true in sports: a player will go into a slump and the main reason turns out to be that the player was overthinking what had to be done rather than just letting muscle...

Although in this respect one can argue narrative and sandbox games are the same, as ideally once play gets going in a sandbox game the GM is also fully reactionary. The main difference might be that the sandbox game has more behind the scenes prep going for it, but that's not necessarily always...

But the fiction isn't. To wit: --- I stepped off (or was knocked off) of a flying object or platform and fell --- I got panicked into running off a cliff and fell --- my Fly spell ran out and, as it didn't come with the cushy 5e safeguards built in, I fell --- something shook the tree I was...

Most often IME it's not even the GM doing the separating: the players/PCs do it to themselves either by accident (e.g. a wild magic surge puts some of them somewhere else) or intentionally (you three go that way, we'll go this way).

More to the point, perhaps: if doing some out-of-game deep introspection merely reinforced that I like what I do and how I do it, what then? Also, at what point does any of this qualify as overthinking that which doesn't need to be overthought?

I think you may have misinterpreted what @TwoSix was saying. The point being made wasn't about in-game play involving deep introspection, it was about using out-of-game deep introspection to analyse the way you already play/DM. Now, I've got no real use for deep analysis of how I do what I do...

Though I was playing and DMing at the time, I don't remember now whether the DL module series all came out in one go or were released over time in tandem with the novels they were tied to (which for sure were not all released at once). 'Cause if the modules were released sequentially over time...

For any edition or sub-edition, good sales for the core three books are essential. If they don't sell, nothing else in that edition is likely to sell either. So yes, 5.24's core three not selling well would, if true, be a very major faiing indeed. It's the "if true" bit there at which we can...

Simple-ish solution: when they split, if the group of three are intending to wait while the two go exploring, ask up front how long the three will wait (unless interrupted) and then hold them to their answer, no take-backs or mind-changing. If they say an hour then the two have an hour to get...

Depends whether they're on a time crunch or not. But indeed, strip it all down to the studs is a common SOP. :)

Well, ideally we'd be using straight-line measures and not counting squares on a grid in the first place. :) Snapping everything to grid is highly gamist. For [1]. [2], and [3] on that list, I mostly agree. Hit locations and 'called shots' are one of those gray areas where practicality and...