Any puzzle that requires exceptional levels of creativity to solve is going to leave some players stranded

They have played us all for absolute fools

Iirc there was a whole thing when Joker came out where people were trying to diagnose the Joker with some combination of real conditions, and the actor/writers came out and said nah we just gave him a bunch of behaviors generally accepted as dangerous red flags

I am abroad and have lots of friends that won’t download WhatsApp, so I use Instagram to contact them. Also, a couple of family friends have reached out to me with news or something. It does have a niche for me as a messaging app like Facebook, even if the only reason I use it is simply because other people won’t not use it.

You’re excited about this? Like it’s a competition you want women to win?

Giving up your right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is like giving up your freedom of speech because you have nothing to say.

Haven’t even looked at it to be honest, but it doesn’t surprise me. Unbalanced classes are exciting and entertaining and that’s what they are selling.

Fair take. I do wonder if that convolutedness of their ideas might benefit them when they are able to design a whole system to accommodate the ideas rather than just producing supplements to 5e.

Yeah you are right to foresee the comparison. Anyone who isn’t familiar with both to the point where they can differentiate their perspectives on their work might inform opinions on Colville’s/MCDM’s work by knowledge of Mercer/Critical Role’s work. Plus them sharing a first name doesn’t help.

They’ve already reached their stretch goals. If you’re unsure now just wait I think.

To be honest with you, I don’t think comparing MCDM to Critical Role is apples to apples.

I love watching Critical Role! They produce a fantastic spectacle. But their success doesn’t come from a deep understanding of the game or innovative ideas as far as game design goes. I don’t really pay attention to their promotions and stuff so I can’t say much about it.

MCDM, the way I see it, has a focus on producing game supplements, and a secondary entertainment aspect which promotes their focus. Similar to how I don’t investigate Critical Role’s systems etc., I don’t really tune into MCDM’s games to listen to.

Yes that too, thanks!

This seems like a neat idea, although I worry that if it’s not executed right it seems like I’m just making up weird stuff to make the game harder. As it stands, I stick to the RAW pretty closely so that I feel like I’m being reasonably fair. I tend to doubt myself a lot when I homebrew mechanics that work against the player.

I think I mentioned the word in the post but didn’t elaborate: dilemmas. It seems like this is a big part of what you’re suggesting: letting the players take part in deciding what negative consequences they suffer where there is no answer that is strictly positive for the players. I do feel like I have failed to present my dilemmas in a way that gets perceived as fair, it just seems like the players assumed that there must be time to loot the vault and escape from the demon without consequence, when I was trying to make it clear that they can either get away quickly, or loot the vault and have a powerful enemy catch up to them.

And to be honest that’s kind of been the most fun I’ve had is when I offer a choice between safety without maximum reward, or taking a risk that requires a clever solution to escape from. I feel like I telegraph the danger but I can’t overcome this underlying assumption that I’m not actually going to follow through on the threat.

Thanks for this, I’m interested in your take on what you do to make your games interesting for you as a DM. My issue isn’t so much that I can’t run a game my friend enjoys, it’s that I don’t really enjoy it because I feel like I know exactly what’s going to happen. I enjoy DMing with more complex and difficult encounters because I get unexpected situations out of it.

It’s interesting that you mention Fate because I’ve actually run it before at a retreat, and that same friend recommended Fate as a more beginner friendly, easier to set-up TTRPG. And when I ran it I thought of him because the whole system seems to almost guarantee the players’ success, and the drama is in the “complications” or whatever the jargon for Fate is. D&D by comparison doesn’t seem to lend itself to that success-but-at-a-cost.