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The difference is pretty subtle overall, but I feel like most of the player-facing rules are improved in 5.5e and most of the DM-facing rules are… side-grades.

I find levels 3-5 to be the sweet spot for 5e (either version). And I don’t want to just start in the sweet spot, because then the game can only go downhill from there. I like to have a little bit of build-up before reaching that peak, and a little wind-down after. So I tend to prefer to start...

I don’t think The VVitch ever really gets scary, though I suppose I probably would find it much scarier if I was a Puritan settler in 1600s New England. Likewise, Mountains of Madness isn’t scary to me, but might be if I was a white supremacist. I appreciate both works more for their atmosphere...

My own take on Ravenloft borrows a lot from the final season of The Magnus Archive. The Dark Powers are very much like the Fears, and the Dark Lords are their Avatars.

I gotta disagree with you there. It’s a slow burn, but many of the best horror stories are.

Death of the Author is one thing, but also his beliefs are deeply ingrained into is writing. And I’m not just talking about Rats in the Walls. In most of his stories, the fundamental fear being expressed is of regression to a more “primitive” state, especially through miscegenation. Now, I love...

Pastiche means to imitate the style of. Putting Cthulhu in D&D isn’t imitating the style of HP Lovecraft, it’s just crossover. I really don’t care what Gygax did. I do think that Mythos threats in a D&D campaign - something akin to Cthulhu by Torchlight, which I have previously held up as an...

Putting Cthulhu in Ravenloft is pastiche? I think you need to double check what that word means. Ok? D&D can be silly, but it is not inherently so. Lovecraft Mythos is horror, and what we find horrifying is highly context-dependent. The context in which Lovecraft was writing isn’t really...

The Amber Vestiges are never explicitly confirmed to be the Dark Powers. Perkins and his team (wisely, IMO) left it ambiguous enough that there is room to interpret them that way, or as their own thing separate from the Dark Powers. Though, personally I find arguments for the latter...

I have, in this conversation, repeatedly advocated for pastiche. By all means, bring on the Lovecraft Pastiche to Ravenloft, that would fit with Ravenloft’s core identity. Directly bringing actual factual Cthulhu into Ravenloft isn’t pastiche, it’s just crossover. As I said, the former is fine...

No Oh, boy! Some of the spirit of the different IP?! When you put it like that, how could anyone ever ask for more? 🙄

Well, no. It just casts a very wide net. For any given IP something like Fortnite or Universes Beyond crosses over with, the majority of the audience is probably indifferent about it. But, the portion of their audience that are also fans of that IP will like it. And if you do as many crossovers...

Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me

Pastiche is fine and often good. Campy crossover can be fun in small doses. Modern entertainment has blended all pop culture into bland, flavorless slop, and it’s terrible. I just want things to be unashamed to be themselves again. Be the best they can be at the thing that makes them unique...