Recent content by Alas

I really, really liked the 3.5e "psionic focus" mechanic. The psionic character establishes their focus to acquire a persistent benefit, like a speed bonus or short range telepathy. They can then expend their focus for a special effect: the speed bonus becomes a mighty jump, the telepathy...

Guaranteed 60+ sessions with the same players and characters? Honestly, I think I'd like to do it with D&D 4e. I'd love to see a party run the full 3-tier arc, from 1st to 30th level. I'd level them up every couple sessions, maybe dawdle a bit in the early paragon tier. I'd start out in Eberron...

White Wolf's Aberrant and Adventure! were prequels for their Aeon/Trinity game-- different points on the same universe's timeline, with rule sets altered to varying degrees.

My college crew's longest 1e campaign ran from Fall 1993 to Spring 1995. This was after 2nd edition was well under way, but our DM wanted to use 1st edition, so that's what we used, happily. We had weekly 6-8 hour sessions, mostly pretty classic dungeon crawling (smash doors, get loot, retreat...

I've toyed with the idea of something tangentially similar: pooling low level characters' hit points into a "party HP" total. Like, instead of the 1st-level party of five having 8, 15, 9, 11, and 12 hp, they have a group pool of 55 hp. Whoever takes the hit that drops the pool down to 0 falls...

Arthurian-style plots? My mind goes to Gawain and the Green Knight or Pellinore and the Questing Beast. A session/episode focuses on one puzzling adversary at a time (though they may have minions/mini-bosses), and resolving the issue requires cleverness (figuring out loopholes and weaknesses)...

Do you mean, how did we set up the character? We kind of hand waved the phantom steed part of the Knight Phantom, saying that the warlock's "ring you cannot take off" was their focus for summoning their steed. Since it didn't have a direct combat application yet, and was mainly for riding from...

Synopsis: While waiting for the rest of the party’s schedules to synch up, a player and I decided to try a Daggerheart pick-up solo adventure. We played a largely improvised session that involved some social interaction, exploring, and combat. The final encounter against a solo monster went down...

Pretty reminiscent of the Cistercian numeral system...

Perhaps germane to the topic? The historical perspective from Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, Scene III: Faust. Did not [Lucifer] charge thee to appear to me? Mephistophilis. No, I came hither of mine own accord. [and later] Faust. Where are you damn’d? Mephistophilis. In hell. Faust. How comes...

As a DM, I try to tailor adventures to my PCs' traits and specialties. However, there's six of them and one of me, so there comes a point when irregularly used abilities fall off my encounter-design radar. If you decide to keep the Use Rope skill (and I'm not saying you're obliged to), be...

It certainly raises my expectations for the next Draconomicon. :)

That's pretty much how changelings (doppelgangers) work, as presented in the Eberron Player's Guide. Their Charisma bonus is fixed, and they get to choose an Intelligence bonus or a Dexterity bonus.

I was so-so on the article until I saw the Monster Manual shout-out in the epic destiny. The seven canaries? Awesome.

The changeling killed it and took its schtick (so to speak). :) I'll see the Giff and raise the Xixchil-- scalpel-fingered body-modding space kreen!