Recent content by Reynard

I went with this. Looking forward to it.

I am not positing a setting. I am saying D&D 5.5 should have a setting made specifically for it. I think we can all imagine what sorts of elements might be incorporated intoa setting to make it unique while still allowing for "if it is in the 5.5 core books, it is in this setting." Settings I...

White space is useful, but it isn't the same as intentional system design. not every GM is capable of easily adjudicating every kind of situation not covered by the rules.

At least as far as I can tell, DH is getting a lot of actual play. I don't think it is a shelf game.

More geek things should be stand alone. One season of a show. One movie. One novel. One comic miniseries.

Sure. But there is also room for mechanical subsystems that cover specific things, making it easier to use 5E for different subgenres and story types.

That is not the same thing as being good for this or that style of play or fantasy subgenre.

It was a great opportunity for WotC to introduce some of those tools into D&D. I used to love when each new Paizo AP would introduce a new subsystem integral to that adventure, always expanding on what Pathfinder was capable of.

Over the weekend, I listened to the brief (3 hour) lecture series "A Short History of Role-Playing Games" by Jamin Warren, from the Great Courses and available on Audible. In short: it is okay. It is definitely a "short history" and glosses over much of the kind of historical detail that...

I find it very strange when people will simultaneously argue that 5E is laser focused on making awesome dungeon crawling gameplay, but also is so general in its design that you can do anything.

5E has a pretty narrow scope for its mechanical implementation. So while you can do courtly intrigue or romantasy, the system does not help you in any way. Nor can you do world building kind of magic.

At the very least, that backlash surely contributed to Daggerheart wearing its inspirations on its sleeves and acknowledging all the elements it drew on from other games.

If the answer is neither on the character sheet nor in the rulebook, there is a distinct danger of failure to communicate. I am not saying that you can't play an RPG in that space, but people need to be clear about intent and adjudication -- and then write down what you did, because that's "in...

I avoided this series for a long time, mostly because I love the comics so much and I was afraid an adaptation would not be able to do the story justice. I just finished S1 and boy do I feel wrong and stupid for sleeping on it. So good.

Also, write this stuff down when you make a ruling. It isn't necessarily "law" but players appreciate consistency and when a similar situation pops up 6 sessions later, it is valuable to have a ruling to look back on.