Unnatural Twenty

A friend recently proposed that we play D&D with as many rules for social behaviour as for combat. My response was to use the D&D 5e rules as a framework to come up with feats and social combat styles that apply when speaking. So there would be social damage, and social fighting styles that mirror the dueling/two handed weapon/two weapon fighting styles. Nobody else seemed to be interested in this, and one player wasn't interested in any set of rules for social interactions. His opinion was mechanics are for combat, which we can't do for ourselves. The social interactions we can just role play, so we don't need any rules there. The thing is, the game still has social skills, that we are using anyway. So it still seems strange that a fight has round after round of checks, but an attempt at persuasion is a single roll. Another idea I had was to reduce the fights from multiple rolls to a single roll, rather than require multiple rounds for social interactions. A char...

I've been thinking about discovery in role playing games recently. A science fiction setting where you can explore new star systems and new planets is pretty topical. A West Marches style fantasy game has become a staple. But there is also discovery of plots, storylines and new characters. A player might even discover new mechanical options among rulebooks and websites, or come up with combinations of abilities that provide more power or more fun. Some players like this, some don't care for it, I guess some would even oppose it altogether. But how to provide it in an RPG? So telling your friends that you're starting a new campaign about discovery might mean different things to different players. They might assume the characters will literally be exploring the unknown, something like King Solomon's Mines. One player might think there will be scientific research going on, like the Xcom games, or magical research and discoveries to be made. Some players might even wonder...