Are you are suggesting Blades in the Dark is some kind of derivative of D&D? If so, that is a very hot take. And even if you like 5e, imo, Pathfinder 2e is right there doing the same thing but better.

It is crazy that it has become this much of a problem and it feels like it is on almost no one’s radar. Is this even reversible at this point? I assume not, but that it can definitely get worse.

It is truly a blessing for the times I torture my players with a 4 hour boss fight which was, of course, preceded by 1.5 hours of them being indecisive at the magic shop.

Having run and participated in a few multi-year games with busy adults with children, my absolutely unsolicited advice for anyone wondering how to do the same is the following:

1. Run the game online. I still like in-person better but you cannot underestimate how much logistical burden is removed by allowing folks to log in and jump on mic/video. I recommend FoundrtVTT - no subscription and it has support for a ton of different systems, particular shout out for the masterpiece that is it’s PF2e support.

2. Get more players. This seems counter-intuitive since that is more points of scheduling conflict. However, what you do if you want to run a 4-person game is get like 6 players. If at least 3 or 4 can make it, have the game. The PCs whose players can’t make it just fade into the background and can reappear next session. Sounds weird but it keeps things moving. You’ll get a feel for balancing encounters based on who shows up the most and will get better at that.

3. Run shorter sessions. I feel like I see a lot of posts about people running 4+ hour sessions and when we do get in person, we do that. But for week-to-week games, that is a significant commitment. I know for our group we keep them 7:30pm-10pm with some understanding that the first 15 minutes is usually time spent letting delayed people show up and going over what happened last time (good opportunity to give out inspiration/hero points). A rushed hour-and-half session is still better than a canceled session.

4. Talk to your players. I think this supercedes the above but just chat with people to see what can work. I mentioned our start time of 7:30 but if people are not able to start that early, we’ll postpone to 8 or even 8:30 that night. That comes from communication. Check in with each other periodically to see if there should be other times considered. Essentially, focus on what works for your table. Be flexible, allow folks to miss a bunch of games consecutively if needed. Make sure it’s a fun thing and not an obligation.

All that being said, if people aren’t engaged in the game or that interested in playing, there’s not really anything you can or should do about that aside from find other players.

Yeah. Unpopular opinion, I know, but I really like alignment. It’s pretty easy to say “puts self above others” = evil and “puts others before self” = good.

My quick version of law v chaos is “puts societal structure above individual freedom” = law and “puts individual freedom above societal structure”.

Feels like a framework closer to how people actually behave and doesn’t invite in-party conflict.

This feels like apples to oranges. I think the only time I’ve seen people comparing number of classes between the systems has been 5e and PF2e. I’m fairly certain PF1 has more classes than 3.5e, though it’s been too long since I’ve played either.

And to each their own but I much prefer PF2e over 3.5, and much preferred 3.5 over 5e. Didn’t play white enough PF1 to slot it in but it was pretty consistent with 3.5.

Agreed. I would feel terrible about it if I didn’t just grab all my art from google/pinterest before AI.

I totally agree. That’s why I put “rules light” in quotes. Any any given moment there aren’t a ton of rules to know but there are a lot of rules to cover a lot of those different moments, if that makes sense.

It can be a huge problem. Thankfully, I’ve been using midjourney for character art for a little over a year now. It’s nice. No porn or porn-adjacent art needed. Not that I have a problem with it, I just don’t need it in my tabletop game.

Blades is great! Switched to Blades/FitD from 5e for a change of pace. We really enjoyed it but eventually switched again to PF2e for some crunchier combat and character building.

But I do think Blades is my favorite “rules light” system I’ve tried. Works really well for TotM but still has enough crunch to feel like a game.

I don’t believe so. Climbing a rope in PF2E is typically DC15. As for flying up a rope at 10th level, I think the only characters doing that will be those who have heavily invested in both strength and the athletics skill.

Though if they’ve done both of those things and are 10th level, they probably should be flying up a rope. In this case that means spending 3 actions (their whole turn) to climb 30 feet of rope, assuming they started their turn in a position to climb the rope and don’t need to use actions for anything else like stowing gear to have free hands. Seems pretty fine for incredibly strong and athletic seasoned adventurers.

I hate bounded accuracy so much. Although the crux of this issue is a DM asking for checks when the aren’t really necessary. This is probably fine in combat but isn’t really needed outside of that context.

It is! Though I’ve ignored that in my games because I feel like recall knowledge is a little limited. I allow one attempt out of combat to recall knowledge, allow repeated checks in combat to identify creatures, and don’t don’t give incorrect information on a crit fail. The last bit is why I don’t bother making the rolls secret.

I think this is a totally fine method tbh.

This is one of those things I love about PF2. There is the Secret trait on quite a few different checks, which means the GM rolls in secret.

We play virtually so players initiate the roll but the result is blindly sent to the GM. Great example of this is stealth checks - there’s no “oh, I rolled poorly so just kidding I actually only barely move”.

Alternative PF2 Text:

Panel 1 - You roll a nat 20!

Panel 2 - it’s only a success

FitD is my favorite non-crunchy system. I don’t want to call it “rules light” because it isn’t that light. But it is great.

Hey, that is a fun fact!

Nah, this totally makes sense. Revivify costs 300 gp, which is about 5 months of work for a skilled hireling (or 4 years for an unskilled one). Laws are only for the poor.

If you convert to the relative value of labor instead of the real life value of diamonds, it’s probably something like $40k to $60k to revivify someone. Seems like enough cash on hand to somehow get away with murder.

It is straight up delusional to believe we could just flip a switch and not have cars anymore. And I also notice you still haven’t provided an actual solution outside of “just use trains, bicycles, or walk.”

Whenever I see takes like this, I just assume they aren’t from, or maybe have never visited, America. The majority of the country was built on the assumption of travel via automobile from public transportation (or the lack thereof) to urban planning to housing. For the country to function without cars, it would require massive renovations to rebuild cities vertically, install a vast and complex rail system, and completely alter the culture of work and trade. And we can totally do this, but it will be very expensive and take a very long time, and to suggest investing in EVs in the meantime is somehow foolish because it doesn’t fully solve the problem is a bit dense. You can do both at once, not that we are, to be fair.

Fully investing in sustainable public transportation and infrastructure is something that would have to take at least a decade, even with absolute maximum commitment. So, yes, anyone who thinks that you can “just switch to trains, bicycles, or walking” is incredibly naive and absolutely fantasizing. Not suggesting it can’t be done but we have to live in reality where cost, labor, time, and public interest are factors and those make “just” doing it a bit more complex.

I love the childish smug energy of this comic which simultaneously suggests merely mitigating a serious problem is inadequate and also provides no proposed solution whatsoever. If solutions which have compromise because they are rooted in reality are a problem, I suggest finding a way to live in a world of fantasy.