Recent content by cranberry

Well, that's good news, but I don't think people should implicitly trust WoTC.

I've taught Pathfinder. It's not that difficult.

Someone above dismissed session zero, but imo, it's the most effective way to convey what kind of game you'll be running, and give the potential players an opportunity to bow out if it's not what they're looking for. I tend to let everyone in unless they are an obvious red flag. What constitutes...

I've started reading Children of Ruin by by Adrian Tchaikovsky. A couple of years ago I read the first book Children of Time.

That sounds like a fun idea!

I'm in a Draw Steel campaign that uses hero tokens and the bad guys get malice as meta currency. I personally don't care for it in this game because it feels imbalanced. It seems to give the GM too much power to "fuel" the monsters, while giving the players minimal "bonuses". IMO, it's an...

IMO, with newer players it's probably expectations (e.g. Critical Roll) vs. reality. With older players it life getting in the way. For DM's, it definitely burnout. I lost count of how many times the DM just didn't want to put in the effort anymore. due to losing creative steam, cost of...

A lot of TTRPGs are built around the assumption that the players are the good guys. Blades in the dark assumes the opposite, and I love it!

I would hope for a return to mechanics similar to 3.5, but realistically I think they'll move in the direction of simplifying the mechanics even more. Although, I could have sworn I heard that they were considering changing the focus to that of a lifestyle and/or licensing company.

To your first point, I think it's indisputable that pdfs are less expensive to produce than physical books. If you wish to believe otherwise, That's on you. To your second point, selling pdfs may not be their primary business, but that doesn't change the fact that the pdfs they sell cost less...

I'm simply talking about producing a book vs a PDF with all other factors held constant. If you want to discuss other cost and their impact on profitability, pull out a p&l and let's review.

Yes, I acknowledged that in my post. My argument is all about the cost of producing the physical product vs. the PDF. I explicitly excluded the art writing and editing and related.

Appeal to authority?... No, I'm not in publishing, but I know how financials work, I know how math works and I know that producing a non physical product is almost always less expensive than producing a physical product (direct labor, materials and overhead in producing the book itself vs...

Always start at 1st level. Why? Because, the tier 1 is actually challenging, death of PCs are a real possibility, and is the only part of 5E that feels somewhat like 1E.

Pdfs cost less to produce than physical books, allowing companies to increase their margin, that's why the do it. Just like PC gaming, digital distribution is cheaper than producing physical copies of their game. On a $20 item, $3 is 15 percent which is a decent margin differential between...