I really, really enjoyed The Witcher 3. It’s one of the best games I’ve played in a long time. The writing is solid. The combat is simple but engaging. Once I finally picked up Gwent, I briefly became addicted. It did so many things right — but there were still a few things that really bothered me.

Most of the upgrades and tweaks in the game are small numbers. The Muscle Memory ability will increase your fast attack damage by 5%. Crushing Blows increases the critical chance of your strong attacks by 2%. Basic-level oils will increase your attack power by a whopping 10%. You know what I have to say to that? Boooooring.

These buffs are just too damn small. When I kill that cockatrice, I have no idea if that 5% saved my ass, and it’s impossible to tell for sure. But my guess is that it probably wasn't a big enough deal to make the difference between success and failure. This is a problem. I am playing to kill monsters (and beat local merchants at a trading card game), and I want to know that my decisions are making a difference.

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My Great-great-great-great-great-uncle John Peery fought in the revolutionary war. His militia did pretty well until the Battle of Guilford Court House, where his son Thomas Peery was killed.

John himself was “frightfully wounded” by a saber blow. According to the accounts, “while prostrate, as Tarleton’s troops passed their stricken foe, each brutal Briton gave him a cut with the saber. He received fifty-four saber cuts so that his head and arms were literally cut to pieces.”

This sounds like the end of Uncle John’s story, but the histories continue, saying, “Despite these severe wounds, he survived and returned to his home on the Clinch River, where he lived a number of years enjoying the freedom for which he had given a gallant son and suffered so much himself.”

Sometimes the human body can take an incredible amount of abuse. But on the flipside, Harold Godwinson, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, famously caught an arrow in the eye in 1066. Needless to say, he did not survive this calamity.

There are a number of common-sense expectations you might have for combat. A skilled fighter should be able to wade into combat without worrying that he’s going to get killed at the first blow. On the other hand, taking an arrow to the eye will kill just about anyone, no matter how tough or experienced they are.

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We’ve been working on Fantastic off and on for a little over two years now, but its true history dates back much further. Like most things I do in my spare time, Fantastic is the result of a deep dissatisfaction with other options in the same space. At the core of Fantastic is its resource system, originally called “Fantastic Points.” We feel that this system solves a number of annoyances that have long been bugbears in our years playing RPGs. This is its origin story.

I’ve played a fair amount of Dungeons & Dragons (3rd, 3.5th, & 5th editions), but I’ve spent far more time complaining about it with my friends. One of the mechanics that I’ve given the most amount of gripe time to is the idea that a 20th level wizard – a being with power rivaling a god – can only cast Magic Missile four times before they can’t cast any first level spell at all. They can still cast Fireball (or even Wish!), but not Magic Missile. It’s always seemed wrong. Surely, such minor magic should be of no more concern to this wizard than throwing a stone.

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