Recent content by J.M

For me, the brilliance of Mythic Bastionland is how the Myths and Omens work. It solves the issue of random encounters being...well, "random," disconnected, and distracting from the "main" story. I'd seen some blog discussions of the concept of "encounter tables with memory" before, but I've...

For me personally, two pages per adventure would hit a better sweet spot, still short but would allow for a bit more depth. Still only one sheet of paper, front and back, or a two-page spread in a book. Hey, you could call them “one sheet adventures”! Oh no, wait…

Hey this is great data. The price per page one is interesting to me. 3e, 4e and 5e all jacked up their price per page compared to the previous edition, which isn't surprising (not sure how these increases compare with general inflation, though). What's really interesting to me is that 2e is...

As an aside, I recently asked in the Shadowdark reddit whether people actually use the "always on" initiative rule, and the overwhelming answer was no.

Yes, I admit it was a shock not to see the ability scores, only the modifiers. 3-18 scores are of course unnecessary, but I suspect it's a sacred cow that couldn't be eliminated without people saying it's not D&D anymore. EDIT: ninja'ed by @Mark Craddock

This might be a good resource for bringing a more Howardian/S&S tone to the game. I also think it would be interesting to present the Dreamlands as a setting for fantasy adventures.

I'd say the simpler versions of BRP (e.g. Openquest) meet this criteria somewhat: options granularity via skills, combined with an interesting and granular advancement system, yet the percentile system is intuitive. But honestly, the dearth of such games is one reason I think Elemental (which I...

I also think we need more nuance in the conversation when we describe a game as "crunchy" or "light". When people say "crunch" they often conflate two very different things: rules complexity, and options. If the core book has 300+ pages, people are quick to say the game is "crunchy", but is it...

Hey all, just a quick heads up to say that ELEMENTAL is today's Deal of the Day on Drivethru. For more info about the game, see @Charles Dunwoody 's great review above!

That's hilarious. I pity the orange and purple games on the right, you somehow have to make it all across the page to get to them :LOL:

To push on @mearls 's idea of "adventure-forward design", I'd like to see adventures that have all the rules required to run them inside the adventure. We've grown to accept this idea that in order to run an adventure, you also need to learn and reference a complicated rule book, one which for...

I like 1shotadventures, it has reviews of modules for various systems, JC gives thoughtful advice for running them, and talks about his own adventures, some of which I've run and enjoyed. Good channel if you're a fan of well-crafted adventures, as I am.

Love that quote from St-Exupery, I think I might have used it in the intro to Elemental. Along the same lines is this one by Mark Twain: "I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead."

Seriously considering the Easley book. His AD&D covers are my favorite D&D art!

My experience is similar to yours and I agree with you, as long as we recognize that players also have a responsibility for the game's success beyond just showing up. Sounds like you have great players!