Opal

Bronze! And not just because I like Glorantha. Ok, actually the Bronze/magic vs magic-incompatible iron thing, is cool. The Glorantha version where Bronze & Battlemagic is the norm and iron rare is an intriguing variation. Next fantasy game I run I'm thinking of doing late Neolithic, with mystical-seeming metals being revealed as it progresses.

IMX, a character idea that leads to me finishing the Disads first usually turns out easier to build and more fun to play.

Typically "world with you in charge," seems like?

Imagine an even worse world and scare everybody with It?

I'd add that it's key the character can be different from you, and the game's mechanics can model those differences. Lack of adequately playable resolution for social interaction holds back a lot of games, that way. You may be able to play your version of the Scarlet Pimpernel when he's fencing or shooting or maybe even making a daring escape, but when it comes to sly manipulation or bluff or seduction, it's just you try'n to BS your GM into saying it worked.

Just, as a general rule, I invariably feel offended by the whole "fixed that for you" neticism, even if its something I'd agree with. But, yeah, y'know, hating your own nation/culture is a solid reason for never wanting to even play at (gold/silver age) simple heroism.

If they want to be edgy, depressive, angst-ridden, self-destructive, anti-heroes in a morally shades-of-dark-grey, ethically bankrupt, dystopian nightmare hellworld, why can't they just go get jobs in Corporate America?

Oh, I did have a few of these ... Grossemesser & Kriegshammer (MF) - merc npcs in a grimmfarce setting where all the real supers were long gone and it was down to hasbeens and wannabes. They were superhumanly strong, like 28, but, think about a conventional gun with a calculated 28 STRmin. Salt & Pepper (FF) street level conjured-knife thrower and rapid fire punch microbrick. Thunder & Lightning (FF) brick w/linked flash:hearing & energy projector w/linked flash:sight. Painfully obvious. Standard silver age.

When I say worst, I am, like giving 0e, AD&D1, and B/X a lot of attaboys, slack, and general handicapping for being developed in the hobby's first decade. And 5e some serious demerits for actively choosing to throw away progress made by 3e and 4e. Just objectively, 5e is less messed up than those early editions. Mainly because it didn't undo 3e's consolidation of all resolution on the d20. Complexity is interesting, because there's both quantifiable complexity (all RPGs are pretty complex, some push that complexity to the GM), and perceived complexity. A lot of older D&D fans find 0e, AD&D, B/X, OSR games & 5e simple, because familiarity can mask complexity. So I'm guessing you have a more objective view.

I guess this thread has come full circle, then, from announcing ONE to giving it up as a bad idea. That means we're getting Ten More Years of 5e, arguably the worst D&D ever. huzzah 😐

I'll never forgive FASERIP for what it did to Gamma World. (No, it's not rational, just a grudge )

What is it with people only wanting to run awful systems? Ah. 😐

You might check out Fate and Powered by the Apocalypse games. Those are both core systems that have been used to create a number of games each. PbtA uses a structured system for resolving non-combat challenges that includes setting stakes and a 'clock' the players beat to succeed. (Im not doing it justice) The one Fate game I've played was Dresden Files, I did like the way it gave you different approaches to social tasks - I haven't played in like 10 years, but the one that stuck with me was "open up" where you share an experience to elicit some information. So you have to think about whether it's a good approach, mechanically, and about your character's past and willingness to be vulnerable. (But, yeah, then you roll the weird fudge dice and count +'s & -'s )

...

That's a more mythic take, I like it. Relics and artifacts sometimes start out like that. I can imagine building a FH character around bearing such an item, an inheritor or fated weirder, taking advantage of the way indestructible/irreplaceable foci work.

One interesting observation I came across is that early D&D had a lot in common with the Wild West (heck, it even had the "Gold Rush economy"). Kinda obvious once I heard it. You explore, kill whatever's living there already, pick up gold, carve a new land out of the wilderness. My personal take is that Greyhawk was a post-apocalypse sci-fi setting with sufficiently advanced (and forgotten) ancient technology. That's what all those artifacts, relics, and weirdly common powerful magic items are. I mean, it was inspired by the Dying Earth, afterall.

Straight up and simple: overpowered casters, unbounded by any sense of game balance or genre fidelity, let alone realism; and strictly inferior non-casters, struggling against the system to do much at all, and, if anything, more constrained in options and ability than actual reality. Fortunately you're not going for that.

You mean you don't just randomly generate the planets as the players get to them?

Anything like Rogue f/ X-Men? Rogue was a head-scratcher for my old group for a long time. What we finally settled on, since the victim is out for the duration and Rogue was affected by their personality/emotions, was: :drumroll: Mind Control No, really. It worked because, their emotions &c could overwhelm her and end the effect. There were some goofy doublethink limitations along the lines of "leaves body behind," but it surprisingly modeled at least one take on what her powers accomplished. So, for your player's Mystique type, what happens to the target she touched & how long does it last?

I get the appeal, I just see it as a you had to be there kind of appeal. I wouldn't want to inflict it on zoomers cause it was "good nuff for me when I was your age" or anything ; IDK if you meant to imply old-school dungeon crawling wasn't actually an RPG But, yeah, it kinda wasn't. And for those reasons I pointed out, that you weren't really playing a denizen of a fantasy world, but a 20th century nerd being clever. It was more of an immersive immaginary puzzle game. With survival horror imaginary stakes

Queen of the Denonweb Pits seemed plenty high-level to me, at the time...

I'm not sure I buy that OSR is gaining on the overwhelming popularity of current ed D&D (relative to all those other TTRPGs with 0 mainstream awareness), and even granting that, I see no reason it's anything beyond the obvious coattails effect from the same 80s comeback that's propelling 5e D&D. (And maybe the OGL scandal, if were talking very recently)

I still play, but I'm an edition behind. The classic dungeon crawl with all the explicit poking and listening and such arguably died with 3.0 and skill checks that actually worked. Your passive perception could spot traps & ambushes your disable device could actually disarm a trap. Your knowledge skills can identify monsters and recall their special abilities. Less of the incongruous "player knowledge" being all important.

They get a big limitation for the sanctum (more than -1, though IDK which version you're on days to change a power sounds major), so no, I wouldn't consider arbitrarily giving more real pts. I'd imagine an adventuring mage would establish a sanctum when he moves into a region and adventure around it for a while before taking it down and moving on. I quite like the idea of lesser spells using just the key burning END. It's be flavorful if it was just a handful of simple, well-known spells, so when a sanctum is lost the mage is not just weaker, but more predictable.

There's no latter D&D AoOs,,no, but held actions and multiple attack option cover it, in concept. Sounds fine. Weave a web of steel and hold back three men at once! Until one finally breaks through your defense. ( I'm assuming Barrier is like earlier versions' Force Wall.) Or you could do a continuous-controllable AE around yourself, everyone passing by you gets hurt. Extraordinary Intimidate could do the trick... Or power based on that. Oratory to impugn their honor if they don't face you honorably could work similarly.