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Congrats, Darklone. The PhD is quite an accomplishment. Savor the moment. Dare we ask what comes next?

Intense, freaky stuff! I found myself mumuring (in my DM voice), "make a sanity roll"... What fun!

The board tells me I last visited on 13 December--has it really been that long? My gaming group fell apart over a year ago, and the only reason I check into ENWorld is to see this story hour. I'm a teacher in my tenure year, so life has been very busy. But enough about me. What a great kid...

You and your wife have my prayers that all will go well this week, Old One. I've been busy with work most of the fall, but I've tried to keep up with this story hour. It sounds like you will have plenty to keep you busy. I certainly don't miss those days of intense sleep deprivation. . .

Just catching up with Faded Glory. I really appreciated your earlier discussion of multiple plot lines, their glories and their challenges. I tried to run just such a campaign (inspired by your exampler), but real life has interefered too much--the campaign is for all intents and purposes dead...

Congratulations on Little Old One II. Your frustrations and your joys will now be squared. Count me as a still somewhat loyal reader--the dreaded last-of-the-semester-final-exams-graduation stretch had me not checking in recently, but I still make Faded Glory the one essential stop when I...

If your operate from Gaian assumptions, you could be much more flexible: the flora and fauna have developed into a self-regulating system. The earlier idea of organisms that process the salt buildup is one example of this kind of thinking. The coloration of the plants could make the planet have...

By RangerWickett's system, I'm (high school-college-masters-PhD-35 years old) 5th level. Unfortunately, I'n an English teacher, so it's all in Bard (D&D) or smart (Modern). Definitely the NPC who imparts some useful knowledge but never goes on adventures. Adventures! I don't see what anyone...

I'd second the usefulness of VP/WP. It's not that hard to convert, really--HP become VP, and you can do a quick WP calculation based on size and CON. I use it as the "fuel" for my own homebrew magic system. One aspect of the core rules that needs attention in low/rare magic settings: the...

Sorry for your loss. God have mercy.

I've employed many of these ideas in my campaign of the last two years or so, and I think they work very well. It's especially useful to keep magic users rare demographically, so you can maintain some consistency between the world and the system. One further wrinkle in my world: magic items...

This article from the New York Times is somewhat interesting:

What a welcome home! Rat bastard, indeed! As I take abreak from grading first-year composition papers, I reflect that Old One is playing with PKitty even as I type. Have fun, y'all.

I've set up my current campaign to have one focus character--the cleric/aristocrat, who is the linchpin for the current group. He's the one with the calling and the political stake that the larger plots revolve around, and all the other characters have jobs defined in relation to his position...

I made a wizard's dungeon that had a library in the center. To get to the library, you had to walk through a rather rudimentary labyrinth. The twist was that the wizard had convinced some earth elementals to shift the labyrinth whenever someone was inside. Every minute, the 8 50' squares that...

I've gone whole hog and designed my own magic system, but there are a few easily portable changes (inspired by the Middle Earth d20 project): "Magical Radar"--every spell creates a signature that can be sensed by other magical beings--say, one mile per spell level or even more. This means that...

Most excellent cliffhanger. In answer to the "How I'm doin'" question: I'm teaching, it's early in the semester, and this will be a hard slog, but I love it. Kids and wife are healthy and well. I'm actually trying to write up my own group's adventures as a story hour (we play rather...

How nice. I'm the first one to post on this. It's good to see that the group hasn't lost their tactical skills--now we'll see if the DM hasn't either. I trust your travel was pleasant, Old One?

Re XP issue: you could open it up so that anyone can contribute XP to finish a magic item. Perhaps at least one XP per level must come from the artificer, but after that anyone can participate and contribute XP. If you really want to get devious, you could allow involuntary contributions, giving...

Two real life examples: the spice trade, which spanned Eurasia. Send stuff from warm climates all over. Long distances, exotic locations, lots of profit. Second example: a "gift network" works well in areas with relatively nomadic inhabitants--most of these people keep their wealth in jewelry...