Lianodel

Top of the list, I think, is... just some old-school D&D. Technically, probably Old-Shool Essentials or Dolmenwood, both of which are retroclones of B/X D&D.

I just got into watching Dungeon Meshi and playing Caves of Qud, both of which are just dripping with old-school D&D influence. Plus I've never actually ran a full dungeon or hex crawl.

Honorable mention to Burning Wheel, 16-time annual winner of My Favorite Game I've Never Played. :P

I love that kind of history. On the topic of cooking, Tasting History is one of my favorites!

And I'm also adding that book to my reading list. I'm kicking myself for not reading enough books, but I've gone on a nonfiction kick out of nowhere.

I almost skipped over this video, because I thought it was about some other drama about the origins of D&D, which is mostly just outrage tourism.

Happy to be mistaken! It's been a little bit since I watched Matt Colville, so I'll give this a watch when I have the time. And it includes a book recommendation on top of that!

"It's going to be a maze."

My favorite was death panels.

"The government is going to decide who lives and dies by gatekeeping access to healthcare!" Motherfucker, that's what insurance does now. The potential failures of a collectivized system are treated with more scrutiny than capitalism working as intended.

Short answer: yes.

Long answer: yes, obviously.

I've made a habit of saying "Look, [city] was a powderkeg ready to go off before we even got there." It's come up in multiple campaigns.

Personally, I also like genericizing D&D.

It's a shorthand for folks outside or new to the hobby, it skips a hurdle to talk to people about other RPGs with those people, and it weakens the brand identity. Considering how much D&D has coasted on brand identity as the game suffered, I'm all for that.

I'm less likely to do it places like here, because it causes more confusion, but still. It's fun to say, "Pathfinder is a great way to play D&D." :P

I'm super excited to give Barkeep on the Borderlands a go! :D

Also, this paragraph stuck out to me:

Before we take a look at Barkeep, I want to drop a few quick examples to demonstrate how tone can be affected by writing, mechanics, art, etc. I firmly believe that the tone communicated by an RPG author is inteded to be replicated by the GM. So while you could run Blades in the Dark as a sexy dating game, I don’t think that would properly reflect the game’s tone.

I absolutely agree. Burning Wheel has stuck with me for a decade and a half, even though I haven't played it yet, because it's the first time I opened a game with a clear authorial voice, and it was explicitly explaining to you not just how, but why the rules work the way they do.

Obviously that's an extremely explicit example, but it's also something that clicked for me with the -Borg games. The ratio of style to substance greatly favors style. That's not to knock the substance, but the games are light and, to be honest, pretty standard for a new-school renaissance type game. It's not that the rule book is also, separately, an art book. It's that, when the rule book is an art book, then the acts of bringing it to the table and opening it up to reference the rules become acts that set and reinforce a tone. It made me realize that all games do this, even if it's sometimes unsuccessful, or negligible.

Heck, to go back to Burning Wheel, I love the digest-sized hardcover with matte pages, because it looks and feels like a novel, and I think the game intends to create that style of play. I might join a Fabula Ultima game, and that rulebook looks and feels like a manga, which had to be intentional. It works.

So I really jive with what the author says about how RPGs should communicate their intentions, especially tone in an adventure like this. Obviously any GM will put their own spin on the performance, but hey, if they're laughing and having fun just reading through potential encounters, that's the vibe the GM is going to cultivate in turn. :)

"If you'd rather play D&D, are you willing to DM while I recharge?"

In my group, yes. :| We actually have plenty of players willing to run games.

That said, they're also willing to try out new games, so it all works out just fine. :)

I'd really like to give Monster of the Week a try! I really enjoyed when The Adventure Zone ran it.

Haha, thanks. I just meant that sentence at first blush, I know it's a reasonable position after that. :P

I'm not sure I'd like it, because I "got" Blades in the Dark, but realized it wasn't for me. It does what it does well, but my group and I didn't like so much the "one session, one job" paradigm, and it seemed too abstract at times. I read a comment that said narrative games are like writing with the other players, and it seemed to click. I might just not like that kind of approach, as a matter of personal preference.

But I might like DW2 more, as it incorporates more of a traditional style. That and, to be honest, I might love Blades and other FitD games with some light tweaking. I need to explore!