Things I’ve worked on, or that I’m working on, intended for publication.
Actions in D&D 3.x got fairly complicated in the end. They range from full-round through standard action, move action, swift action, free action, to immediate action. Plus ‘not an action’, but since those… things people do are by definitions ‘not actions’, I’ll ignore them. There are distinct differences between them, …
Origin of the Name It is not explicitly spelled out in the D&D 3.x core books that play changes significantly through the various levels. The lack of this explicit statement has caused, for many people, a detachment between the levels of power and the styles of play appropriate to those …
So, October’s been rather lighter on posts than I really wanted. Between trying to get my act together health-wise (eat better, sleep more, work out better), a compelling project (Vale of Elsir map for Nik) and work (the next release of our primary service is now staging for release next …
When I first read of the token pool mechanic in Iron Heroes (the core of which can be found on this site in the Open Gaming Content Library under Token Pools) I wasn’t pleased. I thought they would be a pain to track. In the last few years I’ve been …
In a recent thread in rec.games.frp.dnd, I was asked if I would really allow a player character to have “any bizarre talent of his level just because he feels like it”. The short answer: sure, why not? As long as it makes some sense for the character, I see no …
One of the sticky bits I’ve faced in building monsters in Echelon is a lack of energy resistance and energy immunity talents. This was something of a challenge because immunity should cost more than resistance, but there are creatures in the RSRD (mephits) that are immune to one or more …
Here’s a nice, quick, easy one, and it’s a modification that can work with the RSRD rules as written. Let’s start by reviewing how weapons might work with regards to melee damage. Weapons used two-handed can do more damage than weapons used one-handed. Light weapons tend to depend more on …
I’ve been examining damage charts, especially the damage for increasing monster size and weapon sizes. This is post is largely analysis and comparison. I’m not done with this topic. I think I’ve got something (several somethings, in fact) that are better than the RSRD version, but I’m not satisfied yet …
I thought I’d take a look at flight. It’s a pretty common ability, even in real life. It should be possible for creatures to fly. Fairly close again, I think. 75% of the creatures can pay for their flight out of the slots available at their tier, and it’s not …
About a month and a half ago I posted an article that said that I expected it to be tricky to implement dragons in my ‘monster reconstruction’ scheme. That may still be so, but I realized recently that they may actually be quite easy in Echelon. It was a fair …