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Traditionally, it's been the GM's responsibility to both describe the fictional world and the various challenges and characters the player characters encounter as well as to adjudicate the rules and have final say in system matters. Might I suggest separating these two participant roles so you...

Summary: Roll 3d6 Add the highest two together = your attack roll Add the lowest two together = your damage roll Add modifiers to the first for skill & situation Add modifiers to the 2nd for weapon & strength If 2 dice are 6s, that's a critical. Critical does double damage after all modifiers...

So I've been talking with a friend of mine about playing a fantasy RPG/miniature game about fantasy exploration of dangerous locations without the pretense of story participation or characterization or backstory or character concept or anything like that. Basically a D&D game that never leaves...

One of the unanswered questions of the Golarion campaign setting for Pathfinder is the details surrounding the origins of the world/universe/multiverse. None of the gods seem to take credit for it. Talk of origins on Golarion seems to be pretty much non-existent. I think it more plausible...

A bit of history: I've played a lot of RPGs, but got super frustrated with 3.x. The sheer amount of work to GM it, combined with play falling apart from spells, gigantic monster stat blocks, etc., really made me hate it. A lot. I enjoy running the Pathfinder Beginner Box. I've had lots of...

A while back, a miniature gaming buddy described an RPG campaign he played in where 100% of the system resolution was handled by the GM with no player-GM interaction in rules terms. Everything was in fictional descriptive terms with the GM spitting out results using whatever system he happened...

Monte Cook commented about playtesting (see the D&D 5E Info red link above): "Playtesting in the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. My dwarf just slew a lurker with a well-timed crit to save the swallowed paladin." - Monte Cook. Ugh. I'm not happy to see "lurker" unless it's actually a monster called...

So I had a session today where I explicitly challenged the players rather than their characters. Usually in 4E, it's the DM's job to challenge the players through challenging the characters. I've been reading/running a more hardcore/challenging take on 4E (see saveversusdeath.com for info on...

The Wight used to be a ridiculously powerful monster with it's immunity to normal weapons and the energy drain attack. It was horrendous to come across a Wight in a dungeon at lower levels. Wights can still be pretty impressive if you use them against PCs two levels lower than them. And in...

So I've been pretty inspired by what's going on at the Save Versus Death blog and I've been thinking of integrating various house rules I've tried into a cohesive attempt to make 4E work better for a campaign dungeon exploration type game (a campaign dungeon being distinct from a monster lair in...

A character proficient in blood rituals can power rituals by shedding blood in place of paying the component cost of a ritual. Items cannot be crafted through blood rituals. No variable component cost rituals can be powered through blood rituals. The character takes 1d10 damage per level of...

In a few days I'll be starting a new campaign with the redbox and going on from there to Heroes of the Fallen Lands. The campaign is going to start with Essentials only. My main concern is the transition between Redbox and Heroes of the Fallen Lands. What do I do when they hit level 3? The...

With changes coming to magic item distribution, I thought it would be a good time to look at the underpinnings of magic item prices and the 4E economy. How the costs progress Every 5 additional levels (the levels the enhancement bonus increases) an item costs 5 times the amount. This is not...