Metaplot is one of many reasons I drifted away from using anything published and started making my own settings. I've never seen a metaplot or progressing installment that went in a way that I felt bettered the setting, and I don't care for people I don't know and never will know telling me how...
They're more refreshing to see than orcs, and despite being a much older concept, they feel more unique to me. Their human traits also give them an "us, but monsters" angle that can be interesting thematically. You don't really get that with orcs or goblins where they're entirely non-human races.
Given its rocky and delayed development, I'm not surprised if he feels burnt out or overwhelmed. I'd be drinking too if this was who was interviewing me.
Agreed. Voices are good if you can do them well, but they're not mandatory and are usually a detriment if you're not good at them. As long as your NPCs have interesting dialogue and you try to talk in 1st person, you're fine. A GM doing no voice at all with well-spoken dialogue is much better...
I like Demon Lord's rules, especially paths over classes, but the edginess gets on my nerves fast. Even if you don't use the Rul setting, there's a lot of that stuff in monster descriptions, paths, spells, etc. Weird Wizard doesn't interest me either, because despite dulling the edgy content, it...
I think an obsession with being original is just as bad as being painfully bland. Not everything needs to be some new spin, take, or subversion on something else, and not everything needs to be crazy and wild to make for a good world, you just need to try making something worth a damn out of it...
I'm a lot pickier than I used to be. I don't even like older settings anymore, or premade settings in general. "If you want it done right, do it yourself" has become my mindset the last couple years. I'd rather decide the confines of my own world than work within another's.
I've found Cthulhu Dark Ages blended with Pulp Cthulhu works really well for grittier fantasy games. Tried Mythras and RQ and both were too crunchy or awkward for my tastes. Haven't played BRP Core yet, but so far I'd say CoC is the best overall framework for running games that are generally...
8. Aesthetic and minimalist design
I miss the old style of RPG books with elaborate art. Rule descriptions and character sheets should be minimalistic, but the books themselves should be fun to read as well as play, IMO.
The "O.G." era of D&D was long before my time, but from the players around that time I've talked with, it always seemed to be popular. The games required your imagination and inevitably roleplaying helped encourage that, plus the fact that for most people if you were just playing to roll dice...
I don't remember how I ended up with Zweihander on DTRPG, but I never enjoyed it in the few games I played. One of the dullest systems I've ever experienced. As for Fox himself, he was demanding games be woke before wokeness was even the current fad. I think he was loud and aggressive about...
If you Fight Back, you have to beat your target's success level. Ties mean the attacker wins, better success means they fail and you hit them, and the attacker can fail and you can succeed and do damage instead, but Fight Back attacks can't Impale (CoC's equivalent of a crit). If you dodge, you...
I've had success taking Call of Cthulhu, stripping the Cthulhu elements, and using it as a revised lightweight BRP. It's just better in every way than BRP Classic, I've found. Mythras/RQ are too crunchy for my tastes though.
General gun and weapon porn. You don't just have a polearm, you have a billhook, pike, or halberd. You don't have a .45 pistol, you have a Colt M1911, a USP45, etc. etc. I feel like the extra detail helps any system's combat feel more engrossing.
I used to be really into WFRP 2e (my username was even supposed to be Warhammery), but over the years I got increasingly disinterested in it. Now, I find WFRP and the Warhammer setting itself irritating, unenjoyable, and overrated.
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