Scott Ruggels

From what I remember, yes it was a player centric movement, but it wasn't so much about Cruel GM's as it was a reaction against Cruel Dice, and the ubiquity of dice based resolutions. The first system I remember coming out was Amber Diceless. It seems to be a reaction against bad due rolls ruining their character's star moment. IT was also against the disposability of characters in early D&D in low levels. (Uncharitably, is was a reaction from whiney actor types that didn't get or like the mechanics, which led to minimalism).

Kobold Press launches it's First packet of Playtest Material today: More to follow in March

Fixed. "become”. Autocorrect is my bane.

Funny, I cannot abide those minimalist rules, at all. For me, vanilla Hero internalizes the character, puts them into an internally self consistent environment, and allows the player to immerse themselves into the problem or scenario. In this situation, the players can immerse themselves into their characters, and use their powers and abilities plus teamwork to solve the problem in the world the GM has presented. The “story “ is what is told after the fact, and follows a dictum often cited by another GM I play with, that, “The dice tell the best stories “. Narrative systems, to me, artificialize the environment, and move a players observations from within the environment, to outside the environment. Narrative tools externalizevthe scenario, and change the priorities from solving a problem, to constructing a satisfying story, which often use tools like metacurrency to blunt the challenges of the scenario as presented originally by the GM. Now the use of metacurrency would be agreed to by all participants at the table, but for me it destroys the immersive feel of the environment, and changes the nature of the roleplay from the player responding immersively to their environment, to an improvisational performer. External factors become paramount, such as pacing, and how entertaining of a story the current plot is, and often how many tropes are name checked. The game becomes one step closer towards a board game. Rather than escapism, it becomes mere entertainment. There is a third leg of the aspects of a tabletop game, which is gamism. This is where a player plays with the rules and mechanics for their own goals, either efficiency, or to solve the scenario purely by mechanical means. This can also be disruptive to immersion, and everything else at the table, unless the GM is firm in their rulings, but in Champions, a lot of that impulse is directed to character efficiency, and clever power construction, which is much less disruptive. Champions started back in 1981 as a superhero battle simulator, and many of us who started back then still prefer it that way. It can be layer in other ways, but we all have our preferences. This is why mentally I stick with Hero. Recent modern games have mostly been about minimalism, tightly focused on a specific genre, or even more focused on a specific scenario (a heist). To me these are board games with some RP elements so as to foster collaborative storytelling. Fine if you like it, but definitely not my thing. I came into this hobby from wargaming, and as such my fun is solving the problem as my character in an internally consistent environment, and trusting the dice to deliver plausible randomness. Brought to you by: The iPhone 8 Insomnia and perusing Reddit/rpg

Yes and no. No, in that you need another program to launch it from a Windows 3.1 emulator. Once you have the emulator, it rung quickly in its 320x240 SVGA glory. I did this on my old machine and it worked, but I had to print to disk, as the printer drivers bear no resemblance to what modern printers require. But the program still produces BBB legal characters, and I much prefer the BBB 3 Collumn format for character sheets, if I could get them to print.

https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-rolls-naked-starship-prototype-to-test-site/ Ship 26 has been moved to the launch site for stacking.

This was to avoid systems with meta currency, minimalist rules, and a general focus on narrative construction. I did not want endless recommendations for Powered by The Apocalypse, Forged in the Dark, Fiasco, or Fate. Basically the types of games I would rather decline and go home than play.

Duke, did I sign up for a graduate class in my sleep? n I will let you in on my secret. I’m terrible at math because I have a bit of a phobia about it. I never built any of my own characters. I would do layouts, and stack up disadvantages, then pass it to a friend that make the math legal. However, not being able to do math, did not prevent me from finding ways to abuse the system, like how my draconic character, Lord Morvath Broadwing, abused, multi form, to turn from a weak, crippled exile, to a fire breathing, leather winged, pocket strategic bomber. 1st version of Fantasy Hero allowed it. Subsequent versions of Multiform made it far less possible. When the BBB came out, it came with a 3.5 inch floppy of Heromakr.exe. After that I didn’t need to bother my friends to square the math. It may be that the focus on the math was due to the software. There used to be a lot of spreadsheet based character generators for Hero, but I never learned to use spreadsheets. Math, don’t ya know. Most of my GMing, myself was Heroic level games, so I never had to deal with powers, and I allowed my players to design and build spells as long as they took advantages and limitations appropriate to their home cultures, and did not exeed X number of points. I wasn’t playing in the 5e era. And 6th came out during my exile in Los Angeles when I wasn’t gaming. But 6 was different enough to feel unfamiliar. Math, to me, was not a selling point. I did an experiment of Friday on Reddit that I may post, but asking for a crunchy, non-narrative TTRPG system gave interesting results.but the most recommended system was GURPS, followed by Pathfinder 2, and Savage Worlds. Hero was 4th or 5th.

IF you are doing street level, some 80's Daredevil, from the Frank Miller/ Ann Nocenti run would give you an idea of what can be done to the protagonists and also how deeply they can get involved with the NPCs and villains. I second the nomination of Marv Wolfman's run on Teen Titans, with George Perez. Verrrry soap opera.

That must look weird in the simulations, or photos. A disk with a lumpy ring?

Weekly Space News, by the cheerful Australian, Marcus House U.S. Air Force shoots down a high altitude "not a balloon" Over the Yukon. (with Canadian Permission) https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/high-altitude-object-shot-down-over-northern-canada/ar-AA17ndgF "Cylindrical Object" may be one of those Tic Tac shaped things the Navy spotted a few years ago. Canadian Forces get dibs on the wreckage.

Space-X completes a full duration test burn of the Starship First Stage! (Minus two engines) https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/02/as-early-as-today-starship-faces-its-final-exam-before-a-launch-attempt/

It seems that Hadbro’s misstep has been observed by investors: https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/hasbro-dilutes-magic-the-gathering-brand-stock-price-bank-america-2023-2?utm_source=reddit.com

The one and only. He was originally my P. C. Used mostly in Carl arigney’s epic play by post that spawned from an article in Alarums & Excursions. There is a 6e version of him.

At 48:25 comes the heavy Virtue signaling. It seems also he avoided the whole Chris Kayo (sic) issue. I neglected to post D&D Short's discussion of his communication with WoTC Employees. He's correct that the D&D community will have to watch WoTC's actions, rather than their words moving forward.

Architectural and psychological questions about Mars settlements.

Ah, she likes them bad boys.

Felix 9 would settle back in his chair and smirk. Thunderbird would upgrade the team phones, and add the police scanner app. He would probably talk and text more. Sgt. S. M. A. S. H. Enjoy the quiet.

This is fascinating. Was never a fan of Vancian magic either. There had got to be a simpler system that still emphasizes the limited resources of the lowest level mages, but without making them easily eaten pancakes for monsters. Again, 20 year campaign of Fantasy Hero served me well on the magic front.

Boeing's Starliner has been sidelined for most future space shots>

Deadly blow is one of those post 4e things? Splitting Deadly blow and deadly shot seem the most logical to do. I like combat magic, but then I do VFX for pay on rare occasions and enjoy the spectacle.

Fade, Fog(g) Umbra Nebel

Successful wet dress rehearsal, and nuclear rockets!