Recent content by stuart

An interesting historical quote on minis + early D&D... From a column by Gary Gygax in The Dragon #15 (June 1978): For about two years D&D was played without benefit of any visual aids by the majority of enthusiasts. They held literally that it was a paper and pencil game, and if some...

That's interesting. I'm certainly not an expert on OD&D... :) In Basic D&D (Moldvay or Mentzer) you still get those xp bonuses... but you ALSO get bonuses for the high stats. I think it makes more sense in the original rules then like you're describing. There's no reason to give someone a...

People who started from a wargaming background or were introduced to the game by those players probably used minis more often. People who started in the 80s from a Choose Your Own Adventure / Lord of the Rings background with the Basic D&D rules probably didn't use minis as often. I say this...

I've always thought this was a very poor game rule. The player is already being rewarded by having the higher attribute. If anything if you can get your character to survive an adventure with LOW attributes you should be getting the bonus.

I've been adding a bunch of old Marvel Superheroes and Palladium: Robotech modules + supplements to BGG's list. The Acaeum is great, and will likely remain more detailed that BGG... but BGG has other features that compliment that site as well. It's nice seeing the "weight" and rating that...

I recently ran a B/X D&D game and I added "at will" Zap, Glow, Spark and similar minor magic spells. Zap was much like you describe it. :)

Disarm traps at 15% was such bad odds you'd be crazy to try using it. :) Moving about quietly, climbing stuff and shooting at monsters with a bow were much better ways for a Thief to make it to 2nd level. I think there's A LOT worth changing and house-ruling in older editions, and a lot of...

I agree that 5% XP bonuses, heck ANY XP bonuses based on stats is clunky. High attack roll to hit a Low armor class is a personal taste thing, although I don't think it's wonderful it's not THAT horrible either. :) Negative armour class numbers is pretty bad. Most people have a hard time...

Mearls isn't ignorant of older editions. Pretty sure that applies to the rest of the 4e team. :) A lot of people (like me) started in the early 80s with Moldvay/Mentzer Basic and then moved onto AD&D. I don't think it'd be uncommon for people to have played every version of D&D *except* OD&D...

GURPS is still around and doing well isn't it? (I've never played it myself, but I see a lot of people talking about it online)

I would have thought anyone designing a new edition of D&D would be VERY familiar with all the previous editions. I remember seeing Mike Mearls post about how the 4e team sat down and played OD&D.

An interesting post from Jonathan Tweet (designer for D&D 3e) on his recent experiences playing Swords & Wizardry -- which is a clone of Original D&D with tidied up rules. Miniatures are fun, but I found the idea that *not* using them was "a bald refusal to be realistic and or attempt...

If it's anything like the University I'm at the school doesn't get a kickback on the books. I get to select the course textbook for my classes and the department secretary lets the bookstore know what they should order for the students to buy. The students don't *need* to buy the textbooks there...

That's very cool! A good choice for such a big book. I thought the promo video was a great idea.

I didn't realize this until just now, but James is "former Editor of Comics & Games Retailer and GamingReport.com, and a former Associate Editor of Scrye and Comics Buyer's Guide. " (from his website) Not sure what to make of his article / opinion, but I'm considering it more than I would the...