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I liked the 3e paragon classes and iterations around this idea, permitting a player to spend a level on improving their racial abilities. This was a good innovation but it didn't mesh well with 3e-style multiclassing. Something similar could work in 5e, if taking the racial level doesn't cripple...

I would calculate the XP of the party by reverse-engineering from the intended outcome, not from the flawed foundation of the rules and examples in the DMG. Let me explain: What is the intended reward for the PCs to defeat this formidable group? They are likely the lieutenants of the big...

I think Donaldson is a good writer, and the series under discussion was innovative in a lot of ways. But Thomas Covenant himself is a bitter pill that keeps me from wanting to re-read it. Excellent world-building though. The series was one of the inspirations behind Monte Cook's "Diamond Throne"...

One of the things I'm enjoying about this series is the reminder of certain vintage games and SF that I should be looking to add to my shelves. There was a lot of great stuff in the 80's from less prolific writers.

@Willie the Duck is correct!

I loved Piers Anthony in my teens and I've been picking up a few of his earlier works when I come across them in used bookstores. The quality is irregular but a few are worth rereading as creative pulp. I think even teenage me got sick of Xanth after book number 6 or 7. Fun fact, Anthony would...

All four are great. I especially love the monk's dynamism but I think the dragon rider is my favorite for the striking pose and deep background!

I would add to this, in a simulationist and "skilled play" orientation, the dungeon should react to the players. Inhabitants notice the party and redeploy. Traps can be reset or improvised. The big boss actively strategizes to slow the party down, or divert them. Personally, for me the fun...

If you want your D&D sessions to feel like dramatic storytelling -- smash 'em up video games, pro wrestling, or action movies -- then controlling and nullifying threats is detrimental to that atmosphere. If you want your D&D to sit more on the simulationist end of the spectrum, and keep the...

Color me intrigued by this system. I loved Earthdawn for many reasons, but on the rules front its baroque stepping system stands out. Rolling d20+d8 instead of d20+4 is pretty fun, especially if rolling high gives you something extra and it's not just for passing the success threshold.

I'd say that sums it up nicely. When you have the time and patience to do a deep dive into the books, the rationales for many rules become understandable and you can see how about 70% of the content holds together in a nicely balanced system, while 30% can be jettisoned or modified. But that...

Interesting essay. I can imagine a system where each player has a "react token" that they can spend on a menu of minor actions out of turn, including the opportunity attack but also bonus action, position adjustments, helping an ally, etc. Maybe the main rules change is that players don't have...

I think the effort needed to systemize the XP for monsters ub AD&D is disproportionate to the benefit, and a source of "false accuracy" because the value of most special abilities is context dependent. A swarm of giant centipedes is a deadly encounter even for mid-level party due to the risk of...

Robin Hobb's "Realm of the Elderlings" series that started with Assassin's Apprentice is pure gold (but I haven't read the last trilogy yet). It has 13 hefty novels.

This was one of the biggests shifts in the game experience between 1e/2e and later editions. When spellcasters no longer needed to fear getting disrupted, they had to nerf many iconic spells to keep some kind of parity. So from 3rd edition on, spells gradually weakened and became more like...

I don't think I ever played RAW. As a teenager, we didn't master the rules, ignored things we didn't understand fully or that were too fiddly (WvsAC, detailed initiative decision tree vs simple d6) made liberal use of suggestions in Dragon; I don't think we even used surprise correctly at that...

My interpretation of p.65 is that if a spellcaster begins a combat round adjacent to a melee combatant then they should not even attempt casting. "Spells cannot be cast while violently moving -- such as running, dodging a blow, or even walking normally." To get your normal AC during melee you...

See this is one of those cases where GG shot himself in the foot and then insisted it was fine. RAW initiative is MUCH easier to run with one simple change (my house rule): "The side with the lower result on the d6 goes first and their actions start on the segment indicated by the result. The...

Fun idea and nice write-up! I always had the impression that Snarf was about 5 feet tall (medium). Shorter than most humans he meets but significantly taller than the robot (Aveear?) and goblins/kobolds/etc. I have the softcover collection somewhere, and I think it has AD&D stats for the main...