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  1. Thomas Shey

    Which table concerns do you consider the most significant?

    I don't disagree with your general point, but I think some of those can be more intractable than others.
  2. Thomas Shey

    Which table concerns do you consider the most significant?

    One I don't think quite fits any of yours is player perception of failures in GM judgment. This can lead to issues with GM authority, but the authority per se is not the issue, though it can compound it.
  3. Thomas Shey

    No More Massive Tomes of Rules

    I've gone around this circle as many times as I'm going to, thanks.
  4. Thomas Shey

    No More Massive Tomes of Rules

    Everyone is modelling something, even if its in terms of expected results and consequences.
  5. Thomas Shey

    No More Massive Tomes of Rules

    I will give you that if you're dealing with full blown task resolution with no interim steps you have a point. I'd argue that's not usually even Cortex, and given the particular topic at hand, yes I was not assuming super powers.
  6. Thomas Shey

    The Ethics of Two Way Ignore

    People are not any better over a long enough time hiding their nature in text than in person. If anything you're more likely to hit them when they're unprepared and not guarding properly in a online text environment than in normal social ones.
  7. Thomas Shey

    No More Massive Tomes of Rules

    Sure. I don't think lumping D&D and the other games I was thinking of together is particularly useful, but if you want to accuse me of thinking in a relatively trad paradigm in these posts I'll plead guilty. However I'll disagree that Cortex+ is going to automatically answer the question if...
  8. Thomas Shey

    D&D (2024) Deborah Ann Woll and Matt Mercer consulted on the 2024 DMG.

    Sure, but it at least works for some people actually playing. Watching--I have serious questions how many, if any, that works for.
  9. Thomas Shey

    D&D (2024) Deborah Ann Woll and Matt Mercer consulted on the 2024 DMG.

    Well, it may just be that their perception is that there shouldn't be a lot of attribute rolls that aren't skill checks. In most systems that's often how I see it.
  10. Thomas Shey

    D&D (2024) Deborah Ann Woll and Matt Mercer consulted on the 2024 DMG.

    I'm not actually sold sandboxes are a particularly good choice for that sort of broadcast game anyway. A lot of what goes on in sandboxes can be unfocused and rambling, which can still kind of work for the participants, but isn't exactly a thrill to observers.
  11. Thomas Shey

    No More Massive Tomes of Rules

    Only if your perception of it, especially on the fly, isn't more ridiculous than you think it is.
  12. Thomas Shey

    No More Massive Tomes of Rules

    I guess I'm just having a combination of seeing what you describe negatively as being relatively rare in games I mostly engage with (including in their stat blocks) and in the cases where it does occur, its because the target is supposed to be capable but not terribly distinctive. Big cats will...
  13. Thomas Shey

    No More Massive Tomes of Rules

    Who said anything about doing it intentionally? Or even that the GM is going to automatically realize its crappy before he does it? There are people out there who produce what they think of as good climbing or stealth systems that are anything but that, but that doesn't mean they set out to...
  14. Thomas Shey

    Looking for a Cyberpunk Genre Game

    Reworked 5e to other genres is one of those things that really works for the people it does, and leaves pretty much everyone else going "Uh, okay, if you guys like it this way, but..." I mean this isn't the first case of that kind of thing--it occurred with 3e and sometimes PF1e too, but a lot...
  15. Thomas Shey

    No More Massive Tomes of Rules

    I think part of this is, again, you're using "stat block" really oddly. Things like movement and stealthy will absolutely be expressed in most stat blocks formats I've ever seen, as will size, speed and mode of movement. Sensory capability will too to the extent its liable to be relevant...
  16. Thomas Shey

    No More Massive Tomes of Rules

    Naw, you still can, because you can fail to see what the probable result of your attempt to get to that output will do. As you say, that's less likely the better you understand the core system, but applying it to situations that have no parallel within the game as-is is still fraught. That's...
  17. Thomas Shey

    RPG Systems that allow for characters of diverse levels of Power

    Yeah, that's the sort of thing you really need, but then you have to deal with the same people who have issues with things like non-magical "encounter" or "daily" powers getting weird about it, when the real answer is that it works that way by convention, not any real in-world reason in a lot of...
  18. Thomas Shey

    No More Massive Tomes of Rules

    But that's where you lose me. I don't think its bad design. Its just design that hasn't bothered to serve needs it doesn't expect its users to have. Most mundane RuneQuest animals are a set of stats and skills and nothing more. Sometimes they may have a special attack form outside that. But...
  19. Thomas Shey

    No More Massive Tomes of Rules

    Celebrim actually did a pretty good example with climbing above. So let's do stealth. Let's say your group of ER docs is trying to sneak into a warehouse because they know there's an injured fellow in there being held by criminals and he may die if they don't get to him (since presumably since...
  20. Thomas Shey

    No More Massive Tomes of Rules

    I think when you use a genre/setting quite that specific and narrow, you're not proving much, since I still stand by my opinion that if any of those three do come up, a simple task result roll is going to most likely produce a really cruddy result. You're just accepting that cruddy result...
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