The Gaming Den

- Rocket launcher tag. It takes high level spells to be rockets, high level people should be functionally immune to spells, by virtue of saving on a 2+. Wizards clear the field of mooks (because they save on a 14+, not because they have 1 HP), the team fights their champions together. - Focus fire,...

because, in character, class names don't exist even a little bit because, in character, like, no one's ever going to notice I can cast flaming sphere once a day. No one in the real world would ever call a human being a "boxer", or "rocket scientist" just because that was a fair ...

C&C is pretty oldschool. It's basically remaking AD&D with a very streamlined d20 system under the hood, using a simple stat-focused skill and save system (of level + stat mod (stat-9)/3) and some handwaving in the DCs. Fairly freeform in the nature of what your characters can try, you just ...

That's bullshit Frank, I don't have to criticise the Nazi Party to have genuine concerns about how people will take Winds of Fate out here in the real world. You don't care about those concerns? Good on you, have fun with that. 4e didn't think anyone cared about verisimilitude, how'd that work out f...

1st ed. and 2nd ed. had pretty similar spell lists and game mechanics for magic from what I've seen, though I didn't actually start until the 2e era myself. I guess warriors got some nerfs between 1e and 2e (e.g. no double-specialization, no barbarians or cavaliers) so wizards perhaps got a little ...

I can see any of it being explained within the context of some sort of fog-of-war something-something ... done. simple as that. There's lots of explanations that are internally consistent, but most of them are still about removing player control of the character. A trick 3e used there was to say yo...

Didn't stop Bo9S from being probably the most well-liked book this side of 3.5E, didn't it? PHB II seemed more popular, as did the Dread Necro, Archivist, even the Warlock. Definitely better than the book of 3 magic systems no one used, or the book of blue souls, or most other things. Shit, some pe...

I find their lack of imagination... disturbing. What I find disturbing is the idea that every D&D beginner boxed set in the last 20 years has been unsuccessful*, but this one will be different, right? The basic sets for 20 years have spectacularly failed in being an actual role playing game. OK...

"Magic is a capricious force, and at any moment some spells will flow freely while others fizzle" - good WoF justification. It goes further than that too though, eh. If it's the nature of magic that forces your hand, it should be forcing the other guys hand the same way at the same time, ...

Take your feats, and they are a construct of 2.5, that a majority of people didn't like as it added crap in a fashion that creates a false choice. Most people loved them, better than all the things they'd tacked onto the WP system over the years at least. There's only a small selection in the 3.0 P...

If I made something unclear in my anger at MEarls when posting, I will be happy to explain it better if I know which part requires explaining form a post. The polling Mearls is doing is garbage, it's just an attempt to get the fans to think a certain way about the issues of the day. You can design ...

concepts that indicate that you are using fuzzy thinking and holding incompatible ideas in your head simultaneously. I have another explanation for parts of that, not sure how well it's been said around here in the past. In regards the grab-bag feeling, some players derive their feel of what their ...

Are chickens statted up in 3.5? According to the SRD we don't have rules for them, so I guess we have the same problem in 3.5. Easy, Fine Animal, Str 1, Dex 12, Con 4, etc, AC 15, ~1 hp, -5 to hit, 1d1-5 damage. Mv 15, Fly 30(Clumsy). Didn't 3.5 have it set up so that a 20 lb dog could take out sev...

We may not have a specific sample and that makes many criticisms hard, but a lot of the basic mechanism is fairly clear and we can already start putting together a list of potential player choices we know are effected by WoF. Here are a few. I definitely want to use a specific power that my charact...

actually, ... clerics can't "fall" in any edition so throughout time they could burn down their own temples, the paladin "fall" mechanic was never good for anything but antagonistic DMs abusing it to make paladins play the way they thought they should be played, and non-combat a...

Yes, target numbers for everything. Once you attack, I tell you the AC (in part to cut short the "do I hit" conversations, which I dislike in my games). I don't tell you why it's that AC in every detail, just what's visible. There's still plenty of mystery to be had there, even when it's ...

Ah, see, I don't use secret anything after the dice come out (IMO, the game is abstract enough to the players without adding a disguise), so I don't suffer that flaw. So you want to tell the player exactly how tough the armor is on every opponent that the player attacks before they roll their dice ...

It's probably worth noting that 4e doesn't try to mean anything when it uses words. Not just for keywords, but the power names, monster names, roles, mechanics, ... they're not trying to represent anything. Dissociated mechanics and all that. Dex vs Will melee standard 1[W]+Cha radiant damage and sl...

I use fixed durations, makes life easier. Minute (AKA this combat, cast in combat or perhaps for an immediate ambush). Turn (AKA any long action and the next fight, a running series if you're quick). Hours (AKA until the connected sequence of events is finished, until you travel). 'till Dawn (AKA fo...

4E is probably the best I've seen in terms of running a system out of the box. If you only do the things 4e allows you to do, all the other editions are just as stable and easy to use, only the characters still have more agency. Really, port to the "encounter" (no, you can't do anything e...

And Vancian magic? Seriously? Is that what you're going with? I wonder how much you've been paying attention to 3E D&D. Here are the myriad ways in which Vancian magic fails: I'll just plug in here, as I'm a recent convert to the benefits to be had from the better Vancian systems. 3e isn't real...

Regarding the logic of D&D's hit point model, one just needs to note that all attacks are of a type that is lethal. Taking just 1 or 2 damage can kill /anyone/, if they've run out of the ability to not be killed that. "What's that ability represent" you ask? Why, it's your luck, skill,...

DCs are a poor dice mechanic anyway. Have a skill of 1+, a target modifier of 10 or less, and roll less than or equal to the total. Ftr6 vs Troll = 7+5 = roll 12 or less. Cap the numbers at total skill 20 and modifier -10. That is fucking terrible. Roll under systems are awful and should not be bro...

Every option you introduce into the game is an option that will make someone happy that they can more accurately represent their concept. If your new option is the Warblade then the guy who likes Fighters, the other guy who likes Rangers, someone who likes Paladins, and all the ones who like the Gi...

Just to clarify some history and shit: Ryan Dancy was pretty damned clear about why 2nd edition failed, in that TSR did not so much as know how many books they were selling, lot alone who was buying them or how they were used. Like, they made books, they printed books, they warehoused books, and the...