The biggest thing to me is how quiet this game has gone.  I honestly didn't even remember it until my brother brought it up, and even then it was a bit fuzzy.

I suppose after getting 2.2 million dollars the author didn't need to make noise. Kelsie Dionne did the same thing when finishing ShadowDark.

I think your average D&D/Pathfinder game is probably much more rules heavy and crunchy than most people on this forum care for (or at least the rules-lite people tend to be more vocal, even though it's easier to snip a rules-heavy game down to rules-lite than vice-versa).

I don't know enough about DC20 to really comment on it directly, but I will say I'm optimistic for it. As with any game, it's got some things that I probably don't care for, but overall it sounds like it incorporates some nice ideas that I'd like to try out. I have some similar optimism towards MCDM RPG (Draw Steel) on a rules-level, although personally some of the tone/gonzo setting elements turn me off a bit. (Still willing to play in a game, but probably not run one unless I do some heavy lifting to map its rules to my own setting.)

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on June 14, 2024, 08:42:24 AMI've also come to prefer rules lite. We don't need statistics for chickens and housecats that, due to how damage works, can kill grown men in combat.

Ha!!!  So true.

Quote from: Man at Arms on April 21, 2025, 02:14:29 PM

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on June 14, 2024, 08:42:24 AMI've also come to prefer rules lite. We don't need statistics for chickens and housecats that, due to how damage works, can kill grown men in combat.

Ha!!!  So true.

I duuno.  The recent chicken jockey phenomenon might indicate an untapped need in the gaming space. 

Any game where your primary attributes don't matter, "Hey my magic user has strength 18 and he uses his muscles to cast fireball" is a fucking non-starter.  Bad game ideas are bad game idea.  Stats are meaningless in that game.

The mechanics do a good job of making all the classes feel different, but properly balancing that may be a bridge too far, and ultimately the thing which will make or break the game.

Quote from: honeydipperdavid on April 21, 2025, 03:34:22 PMAny game where your primary attributes don't matter, "Hey my magic user has strength 18 and he uses his muscles to cast fireball" is a fucking non-starter.  Bad game ideas are bad game idea.  Stats are meaningless in that game.

Reminds me a bit of Exalted Essence or FATE Accelerated where your Attributes/Approaches are "I use brute force" or "I use finesse" or "I just tough it out until I get through it."

Basically, it's all about making up some reason for why your best score should apply to this roll and so, in practice, you just use your best score for 99% of your rolls... and at that point the only reason the attribute number is there at all is so the probability lines up.

Ex. If the system actually uses the attributes to determine defenses/TNs for opposed checks, then you need to add something equivalent to that value if your goal is, say, a 50% success rate.

These days, if I'm not designing specifically in the d20/D&D adjacent design space, my design preference leans heavily towards dumping attributes entirely and just doing skill ranks (including things like Lifting, Endurance and Resolve as skills).

Ultimately, if a check was attribute + skill, it doesn't matter if the final value of 7 came from Stat 5 + Skill 2, Stat 3 + Skill 4, or Stat 1 + Skill 6 except in how you choose to present it in play.

If you want your beefy fighter, just make sure you have good ranks in the Lifting, Athletics, and Melee skills and say they're all from his massive muscles. No need for a separate Strength attribute that adds to all of them if the system provides enough points to allow for an equivalent build.

Quote from: honeydipperdavid on April 21, 2025, 03:34:22 PMAny game where your primary attributes don't matter, "Hey my magic user has strength 18 and he uses his muscles to cast fireball" is a fucking non-starter.  Bad game ideas are bad game idea.  Stats are meaningless in that game.

You won't like Tiny-D6 games.  Those games don't have stats.  You just have your class Hit Points, your class ability/power, and three other abilities you pick off of a list.

If you want an extra strong/wise/charismatic character, you pick that as one of the three abilities.  If you don't, just assume your hero is average.