Recent content by Reynard

Map design should facilitate looking for secrets -- secret doors, hidden alcoves, traps, etc... -- by enticing the players to wonder why this particular area feels different. If we are just reducing it to automatic die rolls, what is the point?

So who precisely am I gatekeeping? Please do be specific and bring receipts.

Maybe? I don't have the first idea of how one would go about it, what kind of financial investment it would require, or how you would make the contacts in the industry in order to help get the data you would be looking to collect, report and share. it sounds hard.

(We're way off topic, but this was a rant thread anyway, so who cares) No, BG3 is a video game. it is a cool video game, but like all video games, any sense of agency is an illusion. What makes a TTRPG a TTRPG is player agency, what someone on these boards (IIRC) has called "tactical infinity"...

This I actually agree with. oftentimes "it is too hard" is an excuse that covers for "I just want to play." Which is fine. Everyone has preferences. But that isn't really what i am talking about here.

This may sound controversial, but I actually think it would be harder to design an AI player than an AI GM. Not an AI character. We have seen tons of those in video games already. But AI players would be different: capricious, mercurial, impatient and entitled. Not all players are that way, of...

It is relevant at least from the perspective of talking about oo many people believing GMing is too difficult, and so if AI GMs become good enough, many folks will just opt for that. Which in turn means that no new GMs get experience, so ultimately the only option is the AI GM because no one had...

Except they were all "damage is this, so this is damage." You did not actually make an argument that damage represented a thing in threads fiction. What you did was define "damage" as "anything" and that tautolohical.

I see. You are using "damage" tautologically. That isn't particularly helpful for talking about simulation, though.

Except when they represent luck. or skill. Or a close shave. Which we have had so many arguments over it is baffling that one would actually assert "they represent damage." 1st level fights: The ogre swings at you with his club and it connects causing 12 points of damage, obliterating your...

No. They ARE how much damage your can take before being taken out of play. They don't represent anything in the fiction, though. The are purely a gamist construct. If they were simulationist, your weight and size would have a biig impact, and your skill level with picking locks certainly wouldn't.

I strongly suggest you look into Matt Coville and Ginni Di's videos on YouTube. As I stated in the OP, there are plenty of not-grifters there to help you learn how to GM and gain confidence.

At first glance, sure. but any actual consideration and the whole idea falls apart. Why does getting your brown belt make you better at resisiting poison? Can an PhD candidate really safely fall from twice the height as a Freshman? Why am I so much better at punching people after I get my CDL?

This is another thing that a dedicated TTRPG advocacy group could help figure out. Is there a shortage of GMs? If so, with regards to what games? What demographics? Why? Etc.

As it related specifically to Hit Points, I think there is room to say "Hit points represent a combination of luck, skill and grit" and use them as is when fighting orcs and dragons and stuff, AND say that falling from great heights or getting submerged in lava are deal breakers. You can use the...