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That depends on the relative value of character build stuff vs plot stuff. Someone who faces starvation due to insufficient food funds will use clothing funds to pay for the food needed to survive and work, even if forced to exchange clothing funds at an unfavorable rate and even when there are...

If you want have separate currencies that truly stay separate, you have to get harsh about imposing currency controls. This is an option, but it does have drawbacks. If you want rare magic items, you can impose an "Only the Chosen have magic items" system. A milder version, one that lets you...

The problem is coming up with helpful ways to spend gold beyond the obvious improvements to the survival and success of the character. If the temples, patents of nobility, expensive parties, fancy houses etc. are meaningless bling, then that's Not Helpful. So the GM has to run a game where...

My first thought is that the McShiny Macguffins have only recently become available, or re-available, for some reason, and the PCs are early prospectors in the crystal-rush but not the very first. Maybe the God of Trickery spilled the Divine Bag of McShiny Crystals when taking captive the God of...

Not really like the Japanese koku, but rather a matter of allowing that ordinary people in D&D land really are better off than people in real-world medieval history, in extremely poor modern fourth-world countries, or in the various Dung Ages stereotypes that seems popular in certain quarters...

No, I meant that the typical "normal person" lives on 1 gp per day instead of 1 gp per 10 days. ("a week or more") That's the shifting of the decimal point I was referring to, not to changing prices in addition to the change in "normal person" income. Sorry for being unclear about that.

The D&D economy is all screwed up, but you can make it less so by dumping the Dung Ages idea of "1 gold is probably enough money for a normal person to survive for a week or more" and shifting the decimal point over by one place. What I find works better is assuming a median upkeep/income of 1...

Thoughts: My preference is for magic items to be available by commission, rather than in-stock at a magic mart. I also prefer a range of special items, from the 'merely' masterwork, to common minor items, to the rare and incredibly valuable, rather than a sharp division between "Mundane, meh"...

The four classic classes cover Strength (fighter), Dexterity (rogue/thief), Intelligence (wizard), and Wisdom (cleric). Constitution and Charisma are the odd ones out when it comes to ability scores. Bard as a fifth class based on Charisma would work for me, given the requirement to have six...

Let me cheat... My preference is to avoid Single Ability-score Dependent (SAD) classes in favor of Multiple Ability-score Dependent (MAD) classes. So: Nine classes each based on two Ability scores, one physical (STR DEX CON) and one mental (INT WIS CHA) STR & INT: Fighter ('cunning' Barbarians...

Are you suggesting that spells with more powerful effects be harder to interrupt, or easier to interrupt?

My two cents: Interrupting a spell should have approximately the cost and difficulty of deflecting an arrow (that would otherwise hit), blocking a sword-stroke (ditto), disarming an opponent, or breaking an opponent's weapon. It should have a lesser cost & difficulty for a spell directed...

Sitting in front of my computer, I cannot tell you the exact number of inches to the screen. Yet I can reach out and touch the screen without my hand either falling short or trying to go through the screen "because I don't know the exact distance." Because I do know the exact distance, in a...

It helps create the sense that I am there; that it is my character dealing with the monsters rather than an NPC that I'm running as a favor for the GM. And if I take your point that this information doesn't give me-the-player useful knowledge, then that's also a point against the common...

No but in the opinion of some of us, giving the number makes for a better-informed decision and a better game. Also, in the Real World(TM) there are official numbers attached to give Official Meaning to terms equivalent to things like "easy to hit": If the GM isn't using fixed defined chances...

I'd quibble and say that often it's player knowledge that the characters don't have - acting as a substitute for character knowledge that the players don't (and can't) have. And that this is a good thing. The characters are there, in the game world. The players have only a description, with a...

I say 'totally visible.' I presume that that players are also GMs of their own games, and even when they're not they should be treated as if they were. Also for reasons involving the avoidance of assumption clash and/or the isolation of players from their characters.

What would a mini-game that goes beyond skill checks look like? An expanded skill check system that tries to avoid turning into a mini-game might give the PC a set of skills or sub-skills to "try to get the guard to..." - the PC might try to persuade, intimidate, bribe, distract... The guard...

I think it's a hard problem, and that any game, and any group of players at a table, are going to have to pick an imperfect compromise. On the one hand, there's the desire to play a character who can do things that you can't (or at least can't do anywhere nearly as well), including social...