The first two sequel miniseries (Siege at Blue Mountain and Kings of the Broken Wheel) maintained the same quality. In the early and mid 90s, they branched out into multiple monthly series (in color!) and brought on new artists and writers. The quality did vary a fair bit IMO, and the brand felt...
It would be helpful to have multiple character sheets designed for specific purposes, rather than a single one that needs to work for all characters.
Simple, streamlined sheets are best for newer players (or even experienced but more casual players). Anything that looks like a tax form is going...
I don't think there would be any real benefit to advancing the timeline and explaining where all of the "new" races came from. It would have no meaning to the majority of players today.
The only circumstance in which I can see it mattering at all is for players in a long-running Greyhawk...
Greyhawk has nothing on Kingdoms of Kalamar. I remember looking through the book back in the early 3e days and thinking that it looked interesting and had a well-developed history. But I just couldn't get over the names. Everything seemed to be either difficult to pronounce or just felt clumsy...
I'm quite certain that in all of the years that I played AD&D (1e & 2e), I never once called for a system shock roll as DM or witnessed one as a player. It was just one of those many AD&D fiddly details that everyone dutifully wrote down on their character sheets, but never actually used in...
Also check out Unleash the Archers. The band used to stream their D&D game on a semi-regular basis, and when they released Abyss in 2020, they had a contest for fans to play D&D with them. Their last three albums are all fantastic (Apex, Abyss, Phantoma).
On-topic: I like the DMG art. I'm in...
I started with the Mentzer sets in early 1987. When I first got an AD&D PH later that year, we of course threw everything in it into our games because we were 13 and had no sense of game balance (as evidenced by allowing everything in Unearthed Arcana once I got that book).
Amazing how many...
For me it was a gradual exposure to the game over several years.
I think that I first became aware of D&D when he got the first AD&D game cartridge for our Intellivision. Either that or from seeing the Saturday morning cartoon.
When I was about 10, I got really into the Choose Your Own...
I totally agree with you. Absolutely love the art that these three created in the early years of Dragonlance.
However, this painting was also by Caldwell, not Elmore.
Great article! And now I feel the urge to headbang to a bit of Somewhere In Time
Near to the east
In a part of ancient Greece
In an ancient land called Macedonia
Was born a son
To Philip of Macedon
The legend, his name was Alexander
At the age of nineteen
He became the Macedon King
And he...