Distracted DM's latest activity

The 8th adventure is Shivering Death, for level 11 characters. Adventurers must brave the lair of a white dragon to recover a ritual...

Yeah there's no new information but it's nice to hear an overview of the history from Luke Gygax's perspective. The anecdote about his...

Is there a transcript floating about?

Yup. My big two issues are 1. challenging said mixed party, where some are "standard effectiveness" and others are Very Optimized.. and...

How is discrepancy in optimization a problem, outside of jerk behavior? There's the en passant steamrollering of someone else's...

The typical way over-optimization is a problem is when a given character outshines other characters, and makes the players of those...

2e had race abilities, class abilities.. it even had backgrounds, kits, and there was even movement and action possibilities. ASIs...

And yet if you toss out the optional rules like feats and multiclassing, 5e was very much like 2e (albeit with more built-in features)...

My take--and this is just my take, I'm not speaking for anyone else, here--is that having people who are optimized to different extents...

I think the last sentence is the important thing, though there is a large middle space between your two options, and there's nothing...

If optimizing wasn't encouraged behavior by default the game shouldn't make optimizing good. Case in point: Swords & Wizardry Complete...

The seventh adventure is Before The Storm, a very straightforward adventure for level 10 characters about a black dragon who has taken...

I always point to, and try to use, 13th Age's Flee/Retreat rule. From their (new) second edition draft: From 13A 1e: