So then it becomes: I wanna hit them. Fight. I want to trip them. Fight. I want to grab them. Fight.

There’s probably tons of ways to tackle this subject, this is just my way.

Give the players A, B, or C options like powered by the apocalypse actions. You can boil down all fighting to one “fight action” & rather than having different actions and rules for damage, grappling, shoving etc, the result of a successful “fight” action is options for those outcomes.

For me, starting with “Why does this rule need to exist?” If I find a reason, I design with that goal in mind just how you write a novel with an audience in mind. My 2nd goal is to make it as easy as possible to arbitrate for the GM. Once I hit those 2 things, my method for adding depth:

Nice!! My big wake up #Ttrpg was monster of the week, where I was like “wtf is this and why is it so much fun?!” I hope you find some cool content creators making stuff in your area of interests!

What games are grabbing your interests these days?

I liked him a lot! But his attachment to DnD just eventually caused me to drift from his content.

It’s fun! My wife and I are designing it, very close to releasing draft 3 and finishing the core rulebook. Then it’ll be designing laying out the pdf to be pretty! We introduce a couple of revolutionary mechanics for narrative conflict. Our banner system and crafting system gives the game flavor!

There is Zephyr made by @fsohns.bsky.social. I don’t know if the designer is indigenous, but I know their whole thing was like providing a ttrpg set from the viewpoint of indigenous-like cultures. I haven’t played it (yet), I just see it discussed in my feed occasionally.

Can the party convince the Queen to drop her blood feud against her sister? The narrative is the part of the story that in dnd can go anywhere and why I think. The biggest actual plays are about cool stories and moving characters rather than big fights with mechanically interesting builds. 😵‍💫🧐🙄

As a parent you take your child to the ball pit to wear them out while they have fun. And I end up just waiting for the other content that actually has stakes. Can the party beat a CR 17 fallen angel? Mathematically yes, the system expects them to be able to do that. However…

The one deadly encounter you toss them, is challenging in that they’ll have a 20% chance of failing. So with that expectation most DnD combat (3/4 encounters by the rules) is tossing stuff at your players you expect them to crush so they spend resources. Which is where my ball pit analogy comes in.

It’s sooo hard for me to keep my thoughts on this short! I agree, but I don’t think it’s totally a bad thing. I call dnd combat a ball pit. You have to do so much astronomical work for players to be threatened in combat. DnD requires 3+ encounters a day that your players are expected to win just so

That’s super cool! I want to try Fabula Ultima so bad! But can’t squeeze it into my current schedule of ttrpg gaming.

Tales &Twists just lets the hostess say whenever she wants “this happens” without needing to roll. (This is incase balance gets too difficult and that other 20% where players fail needs to be in the story)

Yeah, I’ve been having more fun lately throwing balance out at the window and approaching things with the idea that players will succeed on 80% of the stuff they succeed. And I’m chill letting that 80% be as flavorful and cool and epic as they want. But the system I am playing…

No! I think you hit my point really well! Levels kind of invite that idea that higher level abilities are more powerful than lower level abilities which just makes things harder to mix and match when they’re worth different design values. Gets easier if it’s flatter or the system accommodates that

Dnd forces alignment of players and dm by strong arming the dm into presenting stat blocks to hit and players getting a bunch of abilities to hit stat blocks. Players seldom feel they regret their decisions. But, a game where you can do anything asks for way more session 0 communication. (14/14)