Might be a showing of my aging, culminating into a grumpy wizard.
Might be the limited attention span, after imposed hours on the blue teleprompters.
Might be that I've been serving as a conduit to people's first TTRPG experience.
Might be that my sessions are getting shortened due to busy lives.
So...
I strongly believe elf games should strive to withhold The Rule of THREE.
Why? Easy to remember, not overwhelming. For some groups I ain't got no time for the last portion of Dungeons & Dragons & Accounting.
Some Examples:
Keep just three Classes: Fighter, Magic-User, Thief. Remove the Cleric, for good. Fine, if you are a heretic munchkin, or your players fund a violent coup, have three subclasses per class: Barbarian/Ranger/Warrior, Assassin/Thief/Tongue, Alchemist/Sourcerer/Wizard.
Three bulky items until your encumbrance goes way up, and you are slowed down.
Get a +1 for every 3 points above 10 on a stat, -1 for every 3 points under.
How many rations/torches make up an encumbrance slot? Yes, three.
Three types of armor: leather, chain, plate.
Three categories
of weapons: light (daggers, slings, darts, etc.), medium (swords, bows,
axes), heavy (polearms, crossbows, etc). If your group are munchkins, add tags, special abilities, conditions, and more to them.
There should be three roles in the party: Treasurer (keeps track of loot, encumbrances), Mapper (or journaler), Caller.
How many coins fit into an encumbrance slot? 300.
How many magic items can a PC carry until they get all twisted and corrupted by the eldritch forces imbued in their possessions? THREE
Three Alignments: Law, Chaos, Neutral
Three things expected from the GM: Builder (of adventure
sites, worlds, fantasies), Referee (during actual play), Secretary
(scheduling games, managing props, introducing new players to the
mantle)
Three interesting NPCs in the homebase town.
Three starting adventure sites for the group's first delve.
Three warring and competing factions for the players to bite their teeth in.Between gaming sessions, introduce three elements as potential hooks or enticing quests. Drama should catch up to them.
For every three rooms in the dungeon there should be: one empty (with clues, graffitis, dead bodies), one trap/special, one monster (lair, NPC, active outpost).
My biggest concession is to keep the six traditional stats: Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha. I just can't run away from them. Reducing it to three like your Into the Odds, Cairns, or Mausritters didn't provide a satisfying experience for my group in the past.