Michael Prescott Surprises. Yeah! 

The obvious one is that interoperability actually isn’t a core value. Then that led me to several conversations online that all discussed mutually incompatible definitions. So Paul Mitchener is definitely right that OSR conversations always veer of into definitions territory. Own the language and you own the argument. Just like in indieland, Forgeland, theoryland, gamers in general I assume. Identity. Claiming the identity is the one common value.

The fact that Jason Morningstar has a dungeon delving game was a surprise.

The dWHATEVER design of DCC is intriguing. I don’t know how you execute a d27 at the table but I like where his head’s at. I’d probably just have some random number generating tool on my smartphone take care of that, but then that’s weird given the general nostalgia vibe of the whole scene.

I enjoyed kirin robinson’s interview. I did not know he was a Designer of Note! So, cool.

The secrecy + adversarial DM thing is less of a bugbear for me today than it was a decade-and-some ago. There are plenty of boardgames that rely on secrecy and adversarial play and not cheating. TBH I think it’s much easier to execute than secrecy + I think this is interesting. Adversity means everyone knows what you think is interesting, and that’s beating the shit out of the PCs.