My character has an 18 strength.
DM) ok, roll dice to force the gate open.

My character has an 18 charisma.
DM) ok, it only works if you personally also have an 18 charisma and can act it out.

It also bothers me when someone’s character has like 7 charisma, but the player still acts like the sales guy he is in real life.

I was playing a max charisma warlock and the wizard with his whole 13 charisma kept trying to lead all the conversations. Irritating.

Personally, I think D&D’s social skills are so bad they should just rip charisma out of the game. I’d rather they no-ass it than half-ass it.

What the player says determines what the character says - but the dice determine how they say it.

It’s just like everything else, the player chooses what to attack, but the dice say how it goes.

Naturally, the player’s choice of words could give them a boost or hinder them. Also, I wouldn’t let the player just “roll to seduce.” You gotta rp a little if you want a rp reward.

Intelligence is also an issue.

A friend of mine who is IRL quite smart and loves riddles was playing a really dumb dwarf. He had serious issues sticking to his character and halfway though the campaign he abandoned trying to play dumb alltogether.

But it can also go the other way round.

Some identical to D&D with better rules

That is not the definition of identical

Maybe people should just stop playing D&D. It’s a game mired in ancient game design and forced through a cheese grater of updates over the years to try and make it OK.

Also it’s owned by Hasbro.

There are dozens of better role playing games. Some identical to D&D with better rules, others excellent with imaginative worlds that aren’t just rehashes of lord of the rings and Arthurian legends.

I would love a few recommendations, if you don’t mind. I played mostly Warhammer 2nd edition but can’t seem to get around to the latest 4th edition. It feels convoluted and not “balanced”, if that makes sense. Every few sessions I keep thinking there has to be a better and/or less complicated system out there.

I mostly want the rules to get out of the way of the story we are playing, but still want some depth, differentiation and player choices. And I need a decent magic system, which seems to be the hardest to get right.

Any ideas ?

I came here to say this and I’m glad someone got here first

I would love a few recommendations, if you don’t mind. I played mostly Warhammer 2nd edition but can’t seem to get around to the latest 4th edition. It feels convoluted and not “balanced”, if that makes sense. Every few sessions I keep thinking there has to be a better and/or less complicated system out there.

I mostly want the rules to get out of the way of the story we are playing, but still want some depth, differentiation and player choices. And I need a decent magic system, which seems to be the hardest to get right.

Any ideas ?

What the player says determines what the character says - but the dice determine how they say it.

It’s just like everything else, the player chooses what to attack, but the dice say how it goes.

Naturally, the player’s choice of words could give them a boost or hinder them. Also, I wouldn’t let the player just “roll to seduce.” You gotta rp a little if you want a rp reward.

My character has an 18 strength.
DM) ok, roll dice to force the gate open.

My character has an 18 charisma.
DM) ok, it only works if you personally also have an 18 charisma and can act it out.

Man I’ve so many times been required to say word for word what my character says in my charisma rolls, but because I suck at improv it’s been bad. I’ve gotten nat 20s this way but my DM is like “well what you said is cringy so it wouldn’t fly”. Literally every DM I have ever had ignored the dice roll and only cared about the improv

"Where’d you get that boy pussy? Clown college?

If you want DND with working rules, Pathfinder 2e is what people recommend. Not first edition. I’m not a huge fan since it’s still basically DND.

If you want a lightweight system that’s mostly about narrative, I’m a fan of Fate. But Fate is absolutely not a crunchy system, and it’s largely up to the group to agree on what makes sense. Like, if you want character differentiation you can lean on “aspects as permission” and it’s right there. (That is, stuff that’s true about your character permits you to try stuff. The barbarian can’t even try to decipher the runes, because nothing about his character implies he could do that. You can’t just blindly roll something. The wizard can try, because of course wizards know runes)

The core rules are free, but you can find books with more specifics. I think there’s a Dresden files book people like? They don’t provide a complex magic system in the core books, but it has some ideas and the toolkit book has more.

I also liked the chronicles of darkness games, but they’re generally all modern day occult. You can take the core rules and move them to fantasy, if you wanted. It’s pretty light and I like it more than DND in all the ways I care about.

Always bothered me. Means that anyone who can’t improv well is locked to low char characters.

Man I’ve so many times been required to say word for word what my character says in my charisma rolls, but because I suck at improv it’s been bad. I’ve gotten nat 20s this way but my DM is like “well what you said is cringy so it wouldn’t fly”. Literally every DM I have ever had ignored the dice roll and only cared about the improv

I would love a few recommendations, if you don’t mind. I played mostly Warhammer 2nd edition but can’t seem to get around to the latest 4th edition. It feels convoluted and not “balanced”, if that makes sense. Every few sessions I keep thinking there has to be a better and/or less complicated system out there.

I mostly want the rules to get out of the way of the story we are playing, but still want some depth, differentiation and player choices. And I need a decent magic system, which seems to be the hardest to get right.

Any ideas ?