I’ve been doing Thing a Day for a couple of weeks now (already!) and have gotten some feedback and conversation that has caused me to make some changes. Rather than going back and changing my previous posts, I’ll collect the changes here. Eventually I’ll want to collect things into a …
Given the scope of the changes I have planned for Echelon, and even just what I’m got in mind for my D&D 3.x campaign, I think it’s a good time to review alignment systems to see what would best fit my settings. It’s pretty easy to say “no alignments”, and …
Working out when you’re angry, while it can be somewhat cathartic, is not a very good idea. Totally blew my pacing on this workout, had to stop before finishing my routine because I had nothing left in my legs, almost had a visit from Pukie the Clown, and am now …
Some discussion around the draft spellcaster talents I posted suggests that while they might be workable as a placeholder, they are too incomplete in that they really cover only wizard spells. A bit of consideration reminded me of the Eldritch Weaver class from Green Ronin’s Advanced Player’s Manual; a quick …
I’ve described what is likely to be the core of the Echelon combat talents (Martial Training), but a major element of fantasy roleplaying games is spellcasting. I’m not entirely sure what I want spellcasting to look like, rules-wise, so this material is very much draft and subject to change. The …
I’ve posted some talents for specific character facets (combat and spellcasting), but there are some general improvements that can be made to any character that are probably worth presenting. Everyone has ability scores, and it seems everyone wants to improve their saving throws. It’s easy to write talents that give …
This morning I posted what is likely to be the core of the combat talents (Martial Training) and some examples of what supporting talents might look like. There were some questions about how the individual talents work, particularly with regard to improving over time. Unless otherwise indicated, at each tier …
I’ve described the basic framework for Echelon character and monster development, but haven’t done much to describe the talents that go into the slots. I will be doing a series of articles describing various character facets such as combat, spellcasting, and skill use. I’ll start with some martial talents since …
Echelon is derived from D&D 3.x and tries to address problems experienced or described with that edition. Some elements are drawn from D&D 4e, but this game is an evolution of 3.x. The rules of play are much as they were, unless specifically changed, and the same ability scores and …
Echelon is my name for my next version of d20, so named in part because I am trying to remember to be conscious of the varying levels of power experienced through the levels. In my design of Echelon I am trying to address many of the failures of D&D described …