Recent content by John Dallman

I ticked that one because of a player who can't stop talking about his employee benefits, although they are of no interest to anyone else.

"There's none of them round here, lad. Dragons and elementals in this world aren't interested in breeding with humans, and half-demons are treated as demons."

It depends on the setting, and the premise. The last time I had to be firm about this was with a campaign within the great big meta-campaign, where the characters were a newly formed squad within a city's police force. One of the players was immediately thinking in terms of exotic cross-breeds...

Exactly. RPGs are a medium of their own. Trying to emulate different medium's forms of story in them is fraught with peril.

This is why I prefer to know a fair bit more than I show. It makes creating scenarios more work, but knowing more about why something is there avoids glitches and makes the setting more consistent.

I've successfully run a multi-session segment of a campaign featuring an NPC who was more knowledgeable and magically skilled than the party, but less used to combat. There wasn't much violence: they were exploring a region of the astral plane. It probably helped that they'd known and trusted...

The problem comes with games that build "balancing" for combat encounters into the rules, which more or less started with D&D 3e. It makes running games much easier and safer for new GMs, but has this downside. It may have others, but I've rarely played and never run such games, so I don't know.

Cursed ruined city: no trees.

Blades in the Dark: Gave up; will play RQ.

Essentially, the states of stress and their effects lack subtlety and nuance. There are almost-audible clicks as the system changes state to "desperate" and the like. Also, the Roll20 character and group sheets are too complex and quite confusing. The GM believed it wasn't necessary to...

Edited into previous post.

I'm playing in AD&D1e and GURPS 4e campaigns, both of which I'm very satisfied with, and running two GURPS 4e campaigns, likewise. In all cases, the ruleset being used fits well with the setting and the style of play. My answer in the poll was "Very satisfied" for GURPS 4e, because that's the...

I treasure the look I saw on a player's face as he recognised the sequence of saving throws he was rolling, and realised his character was hovering above a beholder they couldn't see.

Privateers of the Complications: To Orinoco's delta, via hurricane.

AD&D1e, Avalon campaign: Heroes Feast for village children.