Recent content by Lanefan

Given that the opposite of "leader" is "follower", I don't see it as anything but the obvious interpretation: leaders lead and followers follow. Problem is, not that many players want to play a follower.

In that case almost everyone's vote should be 5, then, as in pretty much every campaign there's sooner or later going to come a time or situation where long-resting is, for a time, impossible.

As will that of all editions. Each edition and variant has something worthwhile to contribute to the whole; and over time the wheat tends to get sorted from the chaff. An example is 4e's bloodied-condition idea. Pure wheat all the way. I've no doubt we'll see that again in D&D at some point...

That's because you're trying to do the DM's work for her. You roll the die, add your bonuses, and stop there. Leave it to the DM to do the rest, which includes factoring in the target's AC and any other mitigating elements, and tell you whether you hit or not.

DMing herds of cats: the story of my life since 1984. :) That said, I'm a herd-of-cats player at heart, mostly because I find just being a cog in a machine to be boring AF; even more so if we're just following orders laid down by some (in- or out-of-character) party leader type. No thanks...

Sure, but one resolved with percentile dice, another with a d20, and another with 2d8 is fine. I mean, you've already got all the dice in your bag anyway, why not let the system put 'em to use? :)

Figuring (correctly, it seems) that others would cover Human, it's Elf-Dwarf-Hobbit (a.k.a. Halfling) for me. Had I two more votes they'd have gone to Half-Elf and Human, two more after that would cover Half-Orc and (reluctantly) Gnome, and the rest can all go do what they're best at: be...

Impossible to vote for me, as there's no "whatever makes in-game sense at the time" option. Long-resting on a cross-country trek will be easier than in the depths of a dungeon but harder than when travelling from village inn to village inn. Even within a dungeon, long-resting is highly likely...

This greatly depends on the overall approach of the players. If they're by nature already too cautious then turning up the benefits of taking risks and-or being lucky is IMO essential. If they're already a gonzo lot who throw caution to the wind at every opportunity, however, turning up the...

Hobbits are just little self-propelled eating machines, aren't they?

Just about all of which were quite good, if maybe not always intentional, balancers that really did keep casters reined in a bit. And the loudest voices over the years have belonged to those who want to play unfettered wizard types. So, the more recent designers went the other route: let them...

Tap tap tap on your shoulder: "Hi; I'm the Teleport spell, and I'd like a word...." :)

Most of the time, however, the story (or elements thereof) doesn't become clear until viewed in hindsight.

A piece of woven fabric is in nearly every possible case more useful than a pile of disconnected threads. Threads are potential. Fabric is potential realized, with the question then becoming to what use will that fabric be put. This analogy is far from perfect when talking about adventuring...

Only if you're concerned about the story arcs of the individual characters rather than that of the party or adventuring company as a whole. If the (hypothetical) party accomplishes events A, B, C, D, and E and in so doing develops and plays out a great story, does it really matter that while...