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Same and same!

Thanks for the kind words! I've been hoping to have Ben on for a while! I hope you enjoy it!

It was cool to learn the origin story! Thanks for watching!

Thanks! There's a couple more coming up before I take a little vacation. But September is looking good too!

I hope you enjoy it!

Thanks so much! It was a fun one to do!

Lots of retro clones include ascending AC. Also, Target 20 makes descending AC as simple as ascending.

I think modern designers are beholden to a way of thinking that "best practice" is to have everything be resolved on a single die (typically d20) rolled high. Modifier arithmetic is considered the pinnacle of good design. At least to me, the original attack matrix of OD&D 3LBB '74 was made specifically to avoid doing modifier arithmetic where the DM just says: "roll and tell me what you get" then looks things up on the back of the DM screen in a table. Stat and weapon modifiers were +1 though and more rare, so a matrix that eliminated the need to math out level-based modifiers did most of the work for the DM. I think the entire streamlining of the rules philosophy comes about from making the rules "neater" to present to the players for tracking, which makes for more player-centric products which in turn make for much higher sales figures. I suppose there are two camps, the modern arithmetic player-centric streamline view of things and the old school mentality that appreciates the quirks and idiosyncrasies of older games. I would def consider myself in the latter camp, but I can appreciate both. Its just irritating to have the modern approach always be presented as definitively being better, when its becoming obvious that its just designer preference, desire to differentiate from earlier work, or even OCD.

It's a good idea, but it then requires time away from designing games. Nobody goes into the field of game design wanting to be a logistics expert. Most designers begrudgingly do the business end of things in the first place, and they just want to create cool games. The best scenario is finding somebody who already has a business doing this that can provide expertise for a niche audience. In my own investigation, by far, the biggest expense/risk of making a game is distribution and fulfillment. You need somebody with a proven track record of knowing what they're doing. Having a large collection of game designers that aren't interested in logistics is probably not going to work well. My 2 cents.

Normally I would ignore a stupid rant like this, but I need to call you out. Could I not also say shame on you for backing the project? Anyways, don't come on my channel and make dumb accusations.