I think I’ll start my ‘Thing a Day’ series with a description of why and how I think D&D fails. This is likely to be a work in progress, the points below are more or less off the top of my head. I’ve been playing RPGs for almost thirty years, …
In an effort to get back into the habit of writing regularly, I’m staring a ‘Thing a Day’ series here while I load my older writings. I’ve gotten a fair number of ideas just by rereading my old articles, but I could use some more. Suggestions and requests are welcome. …
Tetsubo and I have spent some time in the last couple of years discussing weapon design and rules in D&D 3.5. I have come to the conclusion that the existing rules do not work the way I’d like. These rules are adapted from the Weapon Group rules presented in Unearthed …
For some time I’ve seen comments that the separation between good saving throws and poor saving throws is too big, and that it is difficult to find challenges appropriate to higher-level characters with different saving throw progressions. Mathematically, I can see the argument for this. A high-level spell from a …
Something I’m considering for my next campaign is largely divorcing gods and the like from alignments altogether. Basically, the more powerful the god, the less the god is aligned. The idea here is that to gain full power over something, the god must encompass all aspects of it. This would …
I’ve never been entirely happy with how bastard weapons were handled in 3.x. I’ve had characters use them where it was a good fit for the character concept (okay, one PC that I played, and some NPCs), but most of the time it’s grossly inefficient. If you want more damage …
While reviewing Thieves’ World: Player’s Manual from Green Ronin, I found an expanded list of combat styles for rangers. I posted it to rec.games.frp.dnd, where people proposed additional ranger styles. This article collects them. ‘Ranged’ and ‘Two-Weapon’ styles below are as per RSRD, but the others are new. Unless otherwise …
I was asked to review Dream Machine Productions‘ mini-adventure, The Complex of Zombies. Biases Here are some things you should know about me, to better understand my review. The Review I’ll start by saying that overall I like this adventure. I don’t think I would have written one quite like …
Most creatures, when they die, simply pass on. Their spirit may linger near the mortal world for a short time, and may even be called back by the right magics (such as raise dead and the like), but even this is uncommon. Less frequently, a dying creature with unfinished business …
One of the things I like about my Revised Character Advancement rules is that they allow (require, in a sense) that a character grow in a way that suits his racial archetype. Orcs are usually tough and violent, elves are quick and graceful, and so on. It also allows me …