Indeed there are free web-based rollers, a discord-bot, a free app, and even a free 1st party Fantasy Flight app. Still get a lot of eyerolling at the dice.

“Rules are IMO less important than setting” that’s the hottest take I’ve gotten so far. I agree in spirit. I love it when the rules get out of the way of narrative and immersion. That’s probably why I love Electric Bastionland so much. It’s got a real solid simple foundation that I can use for any story about exploring a dangerous space.

That blog is a fascinating pitch. Thanks for the rec.

5e rulebook has a very weird balance of lore/rules. There is so much lore, like pages for each race, but they are fairly vague. I have a hard time imagining anyone using the loosely Tolkien races strictly as presented in the rulebook. So I ask why so many pages dedicated to that?

Sure. I’m still trying to get the lay of the land over here. In my defense, I’m not selling anything and would really like to talk about lore in rulebooks.

That’s a neat example. I bounced off of teaching myself fate from the big book because it didn’t seem worth the trouble, I guess I should have looked at the little one.