Recent content by Jorren

It used to be 50/50 for me back when I had a lot more spare time. Nowadays, being older and slower, time and energy are an issue so I definitely lean towards the player side. I will say that in every instance where I ran a game or played a game with someone who was primarily a GM, my thought...

Oh yeah, Daniel Craig is the best Bond. By far. No, it's not even close. And yes, I have seen every Bond movie.

The easiest way to account for a pre-established background is to just allow the player to choose results from the skills, life events, and other related rolls to match the background. While this isn't necessarily intended from the generation system, I've found it works fine even though it...

Tactical combat in RPGs is a pale shadow of its far superior counterparts in board games/war games/video games.

Everyone here is talking about Chris Pine but has anyone looked John Francis Daley's filmography? That list doesn't exactly inspire confidence and he is more likely to make or break the movie.

I will be there for the whole weekend, although I figure that I will end up playing more board games than rpgs.

You might try taking a look at Tribe 8. It has its own setting and a different feel from most other PA rpgs, buts it's my favorite hands down.

I can think of several reasons, most of which have already been touched upon. 1. Combat is too luck dependent. I prefer more tactical options that the slightly higher levels bring. 2. Been there, done that: I’ve played those levels more than any other. Too many campaigns die early anyway. 3...

What I'm seeing is that in terms of DMs and a computer games, people are talking theoretically. I'm not sure if the argument of whether an ideal DM can be compared to a real or yet to be designed game program in allowing choices to a player gets us anywhere. Now if we wanted to compare Joe the...

I think the themes associated with a Lovecraftian universe involving alien beings antithetical to rationality just don't mesh well with the objective morality of a D&D universe that involve clear personifications of good and evil. As far as I am concerned I have both D&D and Call of Cthulhu on...

I would be interested as well. I live right downtown and have experience playing in both Eberron and Forgotten Realms Campaigns.

By style of play, I’m talking primarily about how the players play their characters. I’m referring to your primary D&D campaign (any edition, houseruled or not), not one-shots or the occasional short campaign that differs from your normal GM’ing style. I’m also not referring to settings that...

A some people have already pointed out, there are many things you can do to reduce the workload of the DM. Of course the DM has to let the players do it. In a previous campaign, I would do things like prep maps of local areas (the PCs local hangout pub, my own characters's home, etc.), bringing...

The only time I would ever consider starting at level 1 would be if I was running a published module to start the campaign. Even then I would see if there was a way to modify the campaign to start at around level 4. I actually prefer that character backgrounds include some history of extensive...

I think that's being a bit too generous. Most homebrew 'fluff' that I've seen is abysmal, and I'm talking about playing with good GMs that put time and effort into it. The situation is even worse when you consider homebrew campaign settings. For the most part, it's the same thing you see from...