Recent content by pemerton

This is at least leaning in the same direction as the aesthetic opinion that I expressed not far upthread!

Or even a Master of Ceremonies?

Outrageous! I'm not trying to make my preference central to a discussion of how RPGs should be played. But I am expressing an aesthetic preference, about what I think is most distinctive and valuable about RPGing as a medium.

I think it's not just "design and prep" being the thing. There's also something about the experience of leading others through it: of putting it on display. And RPGing permits this in a way that is different from something like a video game mod. This also goes back to the "priority" point that...

Absolutely. For me, it's up there with "trade offs" as a completely unhelpful framework for making sense of a voluntary leisure activity driven by a shared interest in game play and genre aesthetics. Yeah, these things too.

I don't think anyone is under an obligation to accept whatever IP holders shovel at them. But I think that endless whinging about new versions of things can get tiring. I think 4e D&D is a better RPG than any other version of the game since the early 1980s, both in mechanics/game play and in...

I remember, in the mid-90s when the internet was still a new thing for grad students in Arts faculties, discovering and enjoying a "Pissed of X-Fan FAQ", which was an extensively documented lament about the state of X-Men comics post-Claremont. My enjoyment came from the fact that I was largely...

I GMed my first session of Mythic Bastionland yesterday: Mythic Bastionland actual play The players knew nothing about the game or the setting except what I explained to them in introducing the game, working through PC build, etc. But they started caring about the setting information straight...

I think the militant saints and the miracle-working knights/kings are all pretty closely tied together, particularly when filtered through the lens of game design many centuries later than the culture that conceived of them. So I agree with you about how they tie into Clerics; but see the...

Right. The archetype that clerics and paladins draw from is the mediaeval idea of the rightful knight/king who can heal with a touch, and perhaps perform other miracles; and is wrathful and warlike against the enemies of the divinity. D&D obviously sources some of the miracles from the Bible...

That was going to be my answer. My understanding (from hearsay - I've never read a Drizzt novel) is that Drizzt fought with two weapons because that was a Drow ability; and had a Figurine of Wondrous Power. But then these got turned into ranger abilities. Although there is a (modest) overlap...

My experience is the opposite of this. I've had no trouble GMing Marvel Heroic RP, and I don't find settings without FR/WoD-style metaplot to be "nicely painted facades".

Can you elaborate a bit more on this? I think that the "no hard failure" idea sometimes gets mixed up with some other things: * Not grinding the adventure to a halt - but this notion only has purchase if there is a "the adventure" which has a pre-determined trajectory, and so shouldn't really...

Cats; peacocks; monks; shepherds; Mountain.

This relates to some of what I posted in the other thread: what determines if there is a risk? Eg in a social situation, what creates a risk that the PC might be embarrassed or disheartened? I tend to default to Burning Wheel norms - if the situation is putting something the PC is invested in...