Paul Beakley – At one level I agree with you. tremulus is judged differently by the masses than by the l33t haxxors because those two communities are looking for different things. But I’m not sure there isn’t a minimum bar we’ve got to clear here. AW is supposed to snowball; if the game doesn’t snowball it’s hard for me to say it’s a good game.

I guess my point here is that most of the hacks that are really different (like Dream Askew) are so different that I have to judge them completely on their own merits. I don’t really think much about AW when I’m thinking about whether or now Dream Askew works. It was clearly designed to be its own thing and should be judged by how well it accomplishes its goals, regardless of what parts of AW it lifts.

But most hacks aren’t like that. Most AW hacks are just repackaged moves draped with the thin veneer of a new genre. The play doesn’t produce snowballing fiction in line with the genre or the tight experience that Mikael Andersson describes. Instead its a sort of soft push through a new setting with a lot of 10+/7-9/6- moves. And I’m not sure it’s a “bad hack,” but I know it’s “bad design” because it’s sloppy, uninteresting design.

Ralph Mazza – Yeah, we agree for sure on the goal! We added Escape to Urban Shadows precisely because people kept trying to run away. We needed a move to address that uncertainty. But there are lots of situations that aren’t uncertain, and the GM needs to issue rulings to resolve those situations and move along. (BUT THIS IS A DIFFERENT DISCUSSION and we should have this conversation on a podcast or over beers or somewhere more interesting than Paul’s feed.)

Brand Robins – Your ability to make a game work doesn’t transfer to other players and groups. Also, you gave us the most insightful critical feedback on US so now you’re just trolling.