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  1. Betote

    Wizards aiming younger audience

    Do you want teenaged males, ages 13-19? Get some teenaged females, ages 13-19 ;)
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    Chaosium sale, weird and cool.

    With the core rulebook you'll have all that you need and much, much more. If there's a single rpg book I like more than the Rules Cyclopedia, it's this one. The ones included in the core rulebook are pretty good starter adventures, actually. Beyond that, I'm quite fond of Horror in the Orient...
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    Gabe at Penny Arcade: Does videogaming help?

    In fact, I generally enjoy DM'ing for people who play videogames. First of all, they understand the basics of tactics and strategy. And also, they're less prone to using the best single trick all the time: they play videogames for that, and when they abandon their WoW or their God of War, they...
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    Classic Adventures Modules -- wishes and failures

    Wishes: I've wanted for some time now to run the GDQ series, although there's always a new shiny to distract me from that. Failures: As for now, I've been unaware of the reported high level problems of 3.x, because all my campaigns seem to fall apart because of a TPK or real-world issues around...
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    Gabe at Penny Arcade: Does videogaming help?

    The feeling I get the most when I read about Gabe's games is envy, mixed with a non-trivial amount of nostalgia. He's discovering the game, exploring what he can do with it, and that's something really, really cool that I miss doing. These days, when I tinker with my homebrews or flip through...
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    Gabe at Penny Arcade: Does videogaming help?

    "Is"? Zelda was what drew me into roleplaying games, and it's been almost 20 years since then :D
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    Desert Island RPG

    I'll try not to be witty: * D&D Rules Cyclopedia. The best D&D one can find in just one book. * Call of Cthulhu v5.6. I was torn between this one and Trail of Cthulhu, but I went with the classic, as it has a broader scope. * Mongoose Traveller Core Book. Enough for any sci-fi setting. The...
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    Do more choices make us happier (in gaming)?

    In order to apply this idea to RPGs, we have to think about what's a choice. For example, Risus has no list of skills, Savage Worlds has a short list of broad skills and GURPS has a giganormous list of very specific skills. Which one of them gives us more possible choices? The same happens with...
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    Gabe of Penny Arcade Slams the OSR

    Wow, there are scientific studies about Mouseguard? And here I thought it was just a game about pretending to be small rodent soldiers :D Imagination and play-pretend are always very dangerous things, aren't they? I think I read something about that topic... It was called "Dark Dungeons".
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    Do more choices make us happier (in gaming)?

    The problem with choices is that you have to live not only with what you chose, but most importantly with what you didn't choose. That said, even if too many choices can make you less happy in the long run, one thing players love more than anything is uniqueness, so we could argue that a player...
  11. Betote

    What are you playing that is NOT D&D?

    Right now, we are alternating Pathfinder and a fantasy heartbreaker from a member of our group. Now and then there are one-shots of Trail of Cthulhu or Savage Worlds, and I'm planning a Shadowrun campaign. Apart from that, and following Fifth Element's example, I'll mention our Saturday...
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    Did Gygax owe a bit of thanks to WotC?

    3E was marketed as a "return to the dungeon". They wanted to be linked to 1e, not 2e, and that meant, among other things, having Gary saying "I'm Gay Gygax and I endorse this D&D". And that's, more or less, what they paid him for, and what he did in his Dungeon/Dragon (I don't remember which of...
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    System that is gritty AND heroic?

    I'm going to suggest HackMaster 4E here. It gives the PCs the possibility of achieving great things while offering some nasty surprises and details as the critical things and the Honor rules. Of course, I'd never run HM as-is, but it comes pretty close.
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    Pathfinder 1E You're the CEO of PAIZO. Now What?

    Yes, you can. It depends on how you choose to phrase them. Words, they can be tricky ;)
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    OD&D Is the OD&D Rules Cyclopedia worth it?

    Any price you pay for a Rules Cyclopedia will be money well spent: the RC is the single best D&D book ever published. In the meantime, I'd get a copy of Labyrinth Lord, which lacks some of the RC more complex rules (weapon specialization, skills, domains and mass combat), but is written in a...
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    Pathfinder 1E You're the CEO of PAIZO. Now What?

    Same for me: when the first Pathfinder AP came out, to me it was something made by the guys who made Age of Worms. Right now I'm happy that they write for a game I really like, but if they published their adventures for Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock RPG, I'd buy them anyway.
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    Facing: Cool or Lame?

    Oddly enough, I find facing easier to track down when not using miniatures or a battle grid. Facing counts during the surprise rounds of combat and when a character is "engaged" in combat and therefore can't turn around so easily, and my system of choice already covers those two situations...
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    Pathfinder 1E You're the CEO of PAIZO. Now What?

    I'm curious: why? What can you, as a customer, lose from a OGL model for 4e? Taking into account that it's entirely possible to have it while at the same time there's a more restrictive "D&D Logo License" which gave 3pp's the option to also use the fluff and trademarks of D&D? If the question...
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    Mythbusters: Reality Or Dramatic? What Do You Allow In Your RPGS?

    I try to keep things in the "plausible" end of the spectrum (well, as much as one's able to do that while playing D&D, at least). The Rule of Cool appears once in a while, although I don't like it very much, as it tends to mean just "Rule of Please the DM".
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    Pathfinder 1E You're the CEO of PAIZO. Now What?

    Thanks for the clarification, and sorry for the misunderstanding. I remembered than something happened with WotC not wanting you to continue publishing Dungeon and Dragon, but not the details, and I was too lazy to look it up ;) That's exactly what I meant. You're in control of your own...
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