Information is treasure. If you let players pick any spell from the PHB, you're cheating them out of finding them in hoards & on slain enemies. If you use standard monster abilities, you're cheating players out of finding that info in tomes & from sages. Useful lore is fun!
My intended nuance was that I don't want a crunchy game OR an optionless rules-light game. But it occurs to me that I WOULD play Shadowdark, bc I could add a couple options without breaking it. Meanwhile, maybe PF2 actually IS balanced; I just don't have the patience for the crunch.
D&D doesn't have a playable dog species
Penrod Pooch, AKA Hong Kong Phooey
Why can Millennials play a Teenage Mutant Ninja Tortle but I can't play Hong Kong Phooey?? #UnfairToGenX
Certainly, but I regard both PF2 & 5e to be at the high end of options & crunch. I was comparing crunchy to light. Even so, are PF2 feats at every level for every class all equal? Maybe they are & the requirements & exceptions are why the system is so complicated?
I never played In Search of the Unknown (B1), but it looks like a much better adventure... EXCEPT it just describes the rooms (of an abandoned dungeon) & requires the DM to assign (newly moved in) monsters & treasure to every room. Terrible burden for a new DM.
The more options a PC has when leveling, the more difficult & less balanced the system is going to be. Always.
The more options a PC has each round, the slower & more difficult combat is going to be. Always.
But NO options (like fighters in old-school D&D) is worse.
What's the ideal first adventure? It's not the Caves of Chaos, which is nearly all combat & very repetitive. It's probably a ruins with creepy crawlies (so no ganging up) & traps, puzzles, & secrets—low lethality. Maybe others have been there first, so some traps have been sprung & treasure looted.
“Missing isn’t fun. Characters shouldn’t miss. Sometimes it takes 15 minutes just to get back around to your turn!”
Jamie Hyneman hands you option bloat.
Vampires drink the blood of the innocent, because that's who has more soul than spirit, which gives the vampire a brief period of satiation & contentment. And that's why animal blood is no good to them: too little soul.
Is this an Old West setting? (Modern plumbing and North American cactuses)
Core mechanic idea: Roll 1d20 plus 2d3. Penalty takes away a d3 or two. Bonus adds more.
Easy travel: "Go to Hexley Manor & ask for the old abbey trail—or go thru the woods & risk getting lost. Take the trail to the river ford & on to the abbey—or find a hermit up a lane who can tell of a shortcut." Shortcuts are fast but rough (cost more hp) or dangerous (higher chance of monster).
Table showing the difficult target number for tasks that are easy, medium, or difficult vs a character that is unskilled, skilled, or highly skilled.
Every time I think I've got the perfect game system worked out, I'm reminded of Professor DM's principle of "everything is just easy, medium, or hard vs unskilled, skilled, or highly skilled", and I feel like you could run a whole rules-light system off that.
5e players talk all the time about total party kills. We never had that back in the day. Is it that they've been conditioned to think they can win every fight so they try to fight everything?
Well, if he'd said "painted", he'd have had to credit a gay man.
I’m going to add some language to my game that explicitly tells GMs to just disallow exploits & rule hacks. That’s the point of having a human referee.
YouTubers who like to "really examine the implications of a world with magic" are bad for the game. They push designers to write rules like legal contracts.
"Cantrips are unlimited? Then nobles would teach everyone to cast cantrips & employ them to cast fire spells all day to heat their homes!"
Trident gum commercial frame grab showing "4 out of 5 dentists surveyed recommend sugarless gum for their patients who chew gum."
It's not 9 out of 10 dentists.
Wizards of the Coast has just released its new version of craps. Instead of bothering to roll the dice, you can just take the average result, a 7. Everybody wins, which is, after all, the object of the game.
TIL Wordpress not only automatically changes double hyphens to N-dash, which was annoying, but also changes TRIPLE hyphens to M-DASH, & joy has reentered by life.
Forget tracking supplies. Say the heroes can get an XP bonus (or inspiration) if they make up a plausible problem they have to deal with (supplies low; torch goes out; damaged armor reduces AC). Offer it at key points, including in a city; it's worth much more at the climax of the adventure, tho.
why do they say "tactical grid-based cinematic small-team skirmish action with deep customization" instead of "crunchy-punchy"
Part of the world's largest discount store sketch
Writing sketches again....
Good morning! I’m drawing a Neolithic pig cauldron
Raider of the Lost Ark travel montage
If your PCs aren't traveling like Indiana Jones, you're running a low-budget campaign.
I've decided to make charisma important enough to keep.
🔹Reaction rolls for NPCs.
🔹Persuasion, negotiation, & deceit checks.
🔹Search checks.
🔹Attune to more magic items.
🔹Certain bard abilities.
🔹Saves vs mind control magic & fear.
🔹Morale: taunting foes & encouraging allies.
Loot that drops after defeating me:
🛠several tiny tools
🍪four Oreo Double-Stufs
⭕a roll of Gaffer tape
📝an unfinished comedy sketch script
📜an unfinished RPG
🤡a glitter bomb of bouncing emojis
Stop making a big deal out of taverns. The Princess Bride didn't have a tavern scene. Die Hard wasn't set in a McDonald's.
Amazon "Custom Tapestry" product screen capture with map of a ruined castle.
Did you know that, for a few dollars, you could have a giant print of your dungeon map on fabric? Pin it to your game mat or use spray adhesive to tack it to a piece of cardboard. Just make sure the number of squares horizontally & vertically roughly match the size.
No. That's quite interesting. It's odd that they appear to be going the complete opposite direction but still lots of crunch.
