docbuzzard

Yes, but introducing a new set of rules for the twinks to twink doesn't make for a roleplayer either.
While I don't particularly mind the existence of systems which allow for mechanical creation of character background, I dislike systems which provide for a mechanical bonus for roleplaying. People will either role play their character or roll play it. The rules in question don't make a hell of a difference (in my experience). It's all on the player.

A twink in a 'roleplaying' oriented game will just find a way to game that system to his advantage.

Like Ninja Pirate says, a logical and consistent framework for the resolution of actions in the game is more important than rules that try to shoehorn people into roleplaying.

I run a living campaign at the conventions in my area which uses a modification of the Spycraft system (220). You won't find many people who will go on about the wonders of roleplaying in a d20 system, but the roleplaying I get at my tables is great, and the campaign is known for it.

Good players and GMs make for good roleplaying. Rules do not.

I suppose I better put a big IMO around here somewhere or you'll try and cite some 'expert' and 'consensus' on why I'm wrong or something.

I used to have one of the players in my home game playing over Skype. We had a web cam focused on the battle map (3.5 D&D game), and we all could hear him just fine. He wasn't able to come over because he wife worked nights and he had to watch the kids. It all worked out well enough. He eventually dropped out though.

This is certainly true. Tabletop gaming had been doing pretty well until the recession's impact hit the scene. I go to my local cons every year (two of them), and they had been growing in size up to about two years ago. This does not indicated the death of tabletop RPGs.

To be quite honest, things like MMOs are in some ways beneficial to tabletop RPGs. They get people shallowly into the concept of role playing, and if their appetite gets whetted and wish to explore the experience in more depth, with more human interaction, they head for cons, game stores, and home games.

You don't have even the vaguest understanding of peer review or repeatability.

In fact you also haven't the foggiest notion of why your arguments are rubbish.

Opinions on RPGs are just that, opinions. They are not scientifically reproducible facts. Citing the opinion of an 'expert' on RPGs is like citing an expert opinion of whether they like chocolate or not. It's still just an opinion. Nothing of the sort will change someone else's opinion of that product.

Also, as it has been mentioned, rpg.net is a self selected group which has effectively banished dissenting voices over time. If you wandered over to, say, ENWorld for example you would get a completely different set of opinions on gaming, with a completely different set of 'experts' providing your 'facts'.

I can cite Monte Cook for a completely different take on gaming to your cited game developer, and I'm willing to bet Monte has published games with a hell of a greater circulation (you know, like 3rd edition D&D). Nonetheless, Monte would be no more factual on matters of opinion than your 'experts'.

You think RPG.net is experts?

Quote someone who matters (like maybe a decent game designer or writer), not an internet forum.

While I am unfamiliar with 4th Ed. there have always been means by which character backgrounds can be generated in older versions (and Pathfinder). It's just that most people don't use them since they are not necessarily important to running the story at hand.

Some people do, after all, play the game from the point of view of a gamer. They just want to play a game, they don't want to be an amateur thespian.

Umm, this is new? You know as well as I do that this has always been the case. Stacked buff/debuff teams have always been the most powerful in the game. Mixing the ATs from both sides has had no effect in this regard.

You know, I really don't understand this "growing a pair" nonsense. Neville was quite active before that, and was part of the incursion into the Ministry of magic where he acquitted himself quite well until he got it in the chops and couldn't pronounce spells anymore. The only difference was in taking a leadership roll. I would never say his courage was really in question.

He wasn't airsick. He was either hungover or it was a result of the palladium (or was it cadmium?) poisoning.

I don't know about vertigo, but I sure as hell didn't finish it.

I get no crits whatsoever on my APP powers. I use both laser beam eyes and energy torrent all the time, and neither have registered a single crit.

Rather an efficient time saver which does both.

Actually I thought 5 was superfluous. The shot of Churchill with the tommy gun is real, they didn't need to strap a bandoleer of grenades on his chest and a LMG on his back.

But that's just me. I've read some of his books about what he did in his youth, and he was badass enough without hyperbole.