I think this is an incredibly fair assessment and really appreciate the time and thought put into this. I still consider myself pretty new at game design and always find myself struggling when considering usability. Do you tend to favor things that are more generic and by definition universal or rules specific? When you run modules or one-shots at your table, do you prefer everything to be spelled out in detail or rounded to give you the ability to bend things to your table's preferences?
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Hey! Glad you found my feedback useful.
To answer your questions, yes I do tend to prefer generic fantasy (though I'd use the word classic), and I think there's a balance to be struck between aesthetics/flavor and mechanics. My preference is slightly more spelled out mechanics than what you see in core Shadowdark, but it's definitely a hard thing to balance, and a lot of it is personal preference.