Recent content by JohnSnow

Cool concept for a thread, and while I'm going to try to obey the rules of "One innovation per edition," I'm going to try to sketch out what my idealized version of "D&D" would look like by pulling at most my two or three favorite things from each edition. Starting at the present and working my...

I absolutely despise Darkvision and think the game would be better off without it, except as a short-duration spell that a character can cast. Low-light vision? Maybe. It's one of the things I like about Shadowdark. And before anyone comes at me with "But what about Dwarves, they live...

I've frequently counted it thusly, which makes "3rd Edition" an interesting label...bear with me: 0e: OD&D | Holmes 1e: 1e AD&D (MM/PHB/DMG) | D&D (Moldvay/Cook) 1.5e: AD&D + Unearthed Arcana/Survival Guides | D&D Mentzer BECMI 2e: AD&D (PHB/DMG/MM) | D&D Rules Cyclopedia 2.5e: AD&D reprint...

I actually like Mighty Deeds of Arms so much that I'm considering a house rule to use a similar concept with proficiency dice on ALL characters. It theoretically does so much heavy lifting that you could almost merge the idea with Knave, go full classless, and just build characters using...

I really loved Wild Magic when it was introduced in FR Adventures, and so I share your frustration that it is now mostly a "Sorcerer thing." I personally am drawn to the characterization of magic as "(barely) harnessed Chaos" as it is presented in The Witcher, Warhammer Fantasy, and Dragon...

Water, wind, or animal power, either directly, or pulling some kind of cable to chain that the cars can latch on to. As those who know anything about San Francisco's cable cars can tell you, the gearing can get very complicated, so you can definitely hand-wave that.

That's more or less it. Nonhuman PCs are not necessarily going to be as readily motivated by "save the (human) village" scenarios. Effectively it comes down to: "motivating a group of outsiders is different from motivating a group with stronger ties to a particular community." "Save the swamp"...

Aarakocra: Legacy of Dragons. ;)

Well my initial plan for this game was to do a Shadowdark: In the Gloaming campaign because it actually offers a Witch class - before I realized excited newbie would LOVE the complexity of 5.24e, so I may pilfer some of Kelsey's ideas. Hey, steal from the best, right? So, yeah, undead, fey, and...

Thanks for the plot tips! Those are super-helpful! As for the Harpy, I started planning to just use a Fairy and change the spells, then I glanced at a few home-brew Harpies, and then I was like: "Well, the Aarakocra already has flight, and talons, so it's soooo close, but Gust of Wind (a...

I need to remember when I'm prepping that we're allowed to screw around with monster statistics (and names even more so).:devilish:

I have occasionally thought about taking the Shadowrun setting and putting together a campaign that I'd run using the SWADE rules (plus Fantasy and Sci-Fi companions). It's certainly flexible enough to run it, and one could tune up the lethality/maiming rules with relative ease. I haven't...

Honestly, that's probably a much better way to play it. makes note Not to mention that there would be something amazing to having experienced players encounter a troll, and try to make short work of it, only to discover it is impervious to fire, and they have to work out that it's vulnerable to...

My first instinct was that. I'm just worried it very quickly feels a little too "Shrek." But maybe that's okay. :ROFLMAO: I was kinda torn between there being some valuable resource in the swamp, or some kind of magical corruption taking it over that has to be stopped. In the end, I may use both.

FWIW, Gary was so convinced that player skill could not be fully separated that he didn't think experienced players should ever share the table with complete newbies going on their first adventure, because the newbies would be robbed of the "voyage of discovery" that is the challenge of learning...