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Hey everyone! Like a lot of DMs, I've struggled to get CR to work reliably in my games. Unlike a lot of DMs, I can honestly claim that it's my fault. 5e drafts heavily off of 3e's core mechanics, so it made sense to recruit its encounter building tool. Rodney Thompson and Peter Lee both pushed...

I've noticed a lot of polls here on EN World, along with a lot of interest in said polls. As part of WotC R&D's research into games, I'd like to get a feel for whether this is simply a blip on the radar or true trend in gamer interest. Thanks!

Well, I had my first TPK in a long time on Monday night. We were playing Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. There's mild spoilers for it below. You've been warned! For the past few sessions of RTTOEE, the players have been a bit too arrogant for their own good. They charged ahead, brought...

When 3.5 came out, I bitched about a lot of the rules. But the more I use it, the more I appreciate almost all the changes. Here's one that hit me during the last game session. When cover went from having a few different possible values to a flat +4, all the time, no matter what, I wasn't...

Just out of random curiosity - why do you play (or DM) D&D? A lot of people here have played for years. I've been at it for over 20 years. What keeps you coming back for more? I have my own thoughts and answer, but I'm curious to hear what others say before I start blabbing about myself.

I'm curious to see what EN Worlders think of published adventures. I've tried to make this poll as comprehensive as possible. If you use published adventures, why? Are there any titles in particular that you enjoyed running? If you don't, why do you find yourself creating your own adventures...

Looking over the list of WotC's releases for this year, and going over the new d20 stuff that's come out in the last 12 months, I've come to an interesting conclusion: I spend way less on RPG books now than I did a few years ago. There was once a time when my weekly trip to the game store...

Hey all, I was browsing the Kenzer site the other day and saw that they offer a line of minis. I liked a few of the sculpts, but I seem to recall that their figures are 35 mm or maybe even 40 mm. Does anyone know? Are they significantly larger than the average Reaper sculpt? Thanks!

I just realized a terrible, terrible truth about third edition. Where's the green slime? Sure, it has stats in the DMG, but I have yet to see it used in a published adventure. Green slime occupied a storied place in the monster hall of fame. I played a starring role in one of the comic book ads...

Hey all, I'm doing a book signing at the Goodman Games booth at GenCon on Saturday from 1:30 to 2:30. Saturday is also my roommate's birthday. Since his b-day and GenCon coincide, we're saving the festivities for him to next week. However, I've managed to get him to promise to stop by the...

(This was originally posted over in the d20 publishers forum, but I figured it'd be worth it to put it into both forums.) ENnies Peer Award Finalists Announced The d20 industry's leading designers and publishers have cast their ballots for the prestigious ENnies Peer Award. The award committee...

ENnies Peer Award Finalists Announced The d20 industry's leading designers and publishers have cast their ballots for the prestigious ENnies Peer Award. The award committee is proud to present the top d20 products as selected by the industry's designers and publishers. One of these deserving...

I just sent my players an email this evening confirming that our weekly game is set for Wednesday night. At the bottom of my email, I included the following passage: "BTW, my policy for character death is that you come in one level behind the survivors' average. If everyone dies, I take the...

ENnies Peer Awards to be Presented at GenCon 2003 For the first time ever, d20 writers, designers, and publishers will have the chance to recognize the best products the industry has to offer. The prestigious ENnie awards have added a new category for industry-only voting, the ENnies Peer...

The recent spate of threads on the Dungeon/Polyhedron issue has got me thinking about what gamers can do to affect the process of game design. I'm currently a full-time designer and writer in the gaming industry. I've written stuff for Dragon, Dungeon, Polyhedron, Fiery Dragon, Mongoose...

Hello all, Ever wonder what spells are best suited to take out beholders? Having problems designing that kick-ass fighter/rogue? Want to learn how to turn the monsters you send against the players into a well-oiled, unstoppable fighting machine? Need help figuring out the rules effects of a...

Hello all, I've started a new section on my web site that might be of interest to current and would-be d20 designers. My So You Wanna... series covers a few basic formatting and practical concerns in putting together d20 material. The first entry is on spells. Basically, I draw on almost 3...

All this talk about the 3.5 update got me thinking: what house rules do you use? Are there any spells or magic items you disallow? Can PCs buy magic items? What bits of 3E did you change or drop in your campaigns? Why? My list is relatively short, since as a designer I need to follow the...

Hey all, I've posted another free article at my web site, a critical threat I submitted to Dungeon early in 2002: Xylex the mind flayer druid. Check him out in all his villainous glory at: http://www.mearls.com/cuttingroom/

Hello all, I've started a mailing list for discussion of my book The Monsters Handbook, a guide to designing and altering d20 system monsters. The list is only a day old, but we've already had a couple new monsters posted to it. You can subscribe at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/monster_makers/