Lanefan's latest activity

The slide started with 3e, not 3.5, with two huge developments 1 - spells lost their casting times and instead started and resolved...

Difference between online play and in-person, I guess. The maps I use as DM are in theory meant for only me to see; if the players want...

That too. By 3e, a wizard fan has received most of what they could want. In fact what I would say is for the most part, wizards has...

There's a difference between map design (how to make good maps) and dungeon design (how to make interesting dungeons to be mapped)...

Or discovering the back of a secret door. Not all secret doors are secret from both sides.

Ah, no. You couldn't automatically detect traps or secret doors in TSR versions of D&D. You've misremembered the rules and are...

Map design should facilitate looking for secrets -- secret doors, hidden alcoves, traps, etc... -- by enticing the players to wonder why...

Old adventures often assumed you were always consciously looking for traps and secret doors. I seem to recall the baseline was it took...

Secret areas, and secret doors (possibly between known areas, but enhancing manueverability). Jennell Jaquays' Borshak's Lair, I'm...

Ah, verisimilitude in setting vs game play - the conflict of the ages within D&D. Do the monsters (or lord of the castle) live in a...

I'm the other way around: I despise 5-square maps (except when the area being mapped is very small) because I hate having to count all...

Alot of problems in modern D&D date from various add ons over the years. Some then become the new sacred cows.

All of this is a rather sad commentary on later-edition D&D, IMO. All very well until those minor spells etc. fail or are dispelled. I...

In a game where xp are given individually for what a character does (as opposed to what ideas it comes up with that others then carry...

Are you talking about adding say a "mechanical system" to social interactions (beyond just standard skill checks?) So RPGs should...