Recent content by PhantomNarrator

Farewell, Gary Old gamers never die, they just roll up new lives. May your next set of stats be all 18's, Colonel. Godspeed.

Soooooo QFT.

LOL!!! My sentiments exactly.

More like an MMO? Shocker. Why is anyone surprised they're trying to ride the success of WoW? Hasbro doesn't care about people who have been around as long as you have, let alone the grognards who cut their teeth on OD&D like me. They want to market to 14 year olds, or people with the minds of...

Funny enough, but the rogue cannot take 20 on a roll that involves danger of any kind.

This has indeed been a terrible year for authors. First Robert Anton Wilson, then Kurt Vonnegut, now this terrible news about Terry Pratchett. As if this wasn't enough, it seems a recurrent and hard-to-treat infection got into the bone behind one of Steven Brust's eyes. He doesn't have health...

Very sad This has indeed been a terrible year for authors. First Robert Anton Wilson, then Kurt Vonnegut, now this terrible news about Terry Pratchett. As if this wasn't enough, it seems a recurrent and hard-to-treat infection got into the bone behind one of Steven Brust's eyes. He doesn't...

Started out annoyed that Hasbro pulled the trigger, then I learned about the ditching of Vancian magic and became incensed. After I calmed down and learned more I find myself completely underwhelmed - and apparently most of my group feels the same way. All eight of us have hundreds invested in...

Actually, both treasure and defeating monsters gave experience in 1E/2E. You didn't have to kill them - tricking or outwitting them gave xp too, although the DM was expected to come up with his/her own subjective value rather than the standard monster xp formula. 3E/3.5 also awards experience...

I want to know what Hasbro will do when 4ed. turns out to be a catastrophic sales failure?

Very, very hard choices, but here goes . . . I value content over production value or mechanics. Your mileage may vary. #5: "D & D Rules Cyclopedia" by Aaron Aalston (Arguably still the best version of D&D) #4: "Over the Edge" by Jonathan Tweet and Robin D. Laws. Nice to see someone already...

Depends, doesn't it? CR, my friend, it's all about CR. You can bet a group of low level tomb robbers would consider answering a riddle over being eaten.

Mostly yes When it comes to third party stuff, I notice what tends to get used the most are the monster books. Among players, 3rd party stuff has dropped off significantly since the revision to 3.5. Edit: Besides the monster books, I also see a fair amount of 3rd party adventures.

Sure do! I personally love music at the gaming table, so long as it doesn't get too loud. Which is too bad, because aside from the usual soundtracks, I like to make compilations for each session that include a lot of Heavy Metal. I usually favor the Power, Progressive and N.W.B.H.M. bands over...

Deconstructing D&D? For most people, D&D is a game and just that. They don't think about the reasons they play at all, or what they get out of it. But I think this discussion is interesting and healthy, so I'll throw in my two cents. I believe the violence at the core of D&D (and most RPG's)...