Recent content by Marc17

Makes sense if you are trying for the feeling of say firearms in samurai movies like The Seven Samurai. They are not without their flaws, but feared as even a commoner could take out a highly skilled warrior with one. Since Hit Points are not Meat Points (except when they are), then even a...

Well, I came into gaming in 1980, and I can't remember a killer DM, but it certainly made sense at the time. I feel that any killer DM you ran into, either you didn't play with them again, or you told them you weren't having fun and they changed their way. The game was considered different back...

I'm not sure what the fluff text says*, but it never really bothered me because D&D has always like this. Clerics have always got their 1 & 2 level spells from their own faith and belief. It wasn't till after that until they had to actually associate with messengers and then directly with...

Well, gaming is a social contract between all players, but sounds like an excellent excuse to go buy a copy of Axis & Allies (or Pendragon) and then get everybody else to play that instead.

Well, that's why you just convert to the D&D system, spell slots or other Abilities/Spells at will, by day, or per other condition is a good enough first order conversion of any other spell system for most. Just like if you were making some fictional monster from literature into a D&D monster.

Really, I've found D&D has always been a fairly good generic fantasy system meant to be modified (or was anyway). Especially when you consider that the rules are only there to fall back on for when the Braunstein game of "What does your character do?" fail. But still, I've always ascribed to...

I do after. So if someone rolled a 1,1,2,3. They'd drop one 1, and then re-roll the other till they got something other than a 1. Main point is just to prevent below 6 ability score than shoot for all good scores.

Here is the crux. It's the setting, what players can play, what the conflicts and situations they are expecting to be presented with that will draw them away from D&D to any competitor. The decisions if you are doing Redwall style woodland game, Ryutamma-like game with Richard Scary characters...

Hrrm... 1) You pick your culture, country, guild, or whatever. Let's go with the four elements just for an example. Each one has their own specializations and flavor that determines powers. At 3rd level, you choose your focus in the typical combat, sneaky, social, or magic categories. 2)...

Well, you put it in Con and make the character a wizard so they die ASAP and you can roll up a new character. Funny thing, in 5E I can see trying that and making enough Death saves along with getting stablized that the character never actually dies. Which is why I've never really seen a game...

Things I have used in the past: Lives: We got 1d4 lives per character for one campaign I was in. Rolled at character creation. This was named "Luck" and I think it was used once or twice for changing things besides death. Reputation: Got points according to the adventure reward and how well it...

I have a heroic 4d6 system. Roll 4d6, drop lowest, then re-roll all ones until you have no more ones. This makes for a lowest level of 6. Then arrange how you want.

I don't think that is true. Monsters in 1E AD&D were divided up into ten levels ranging from trivial to boss monsters, roughly based on dungeon level for the platonic ideal dungeon. Considering how well CR works, or the amount of complaining about it anyway, a more general categorization like...

I chose "gift" as it is not quite "hilarious" but it will certainly make things interesting and come to matter greatly in how the character ends up acting, no matter if the modifiers end up affecting things much or not.

Ya, I haven't actually looked at the entry in the MM yet. I typically don't use those sorts of monster entries such as I'll just generate my own. 10 is probably a bit high for what I'd make such an NPC unless they were supposed to be a named NPC involved in plot or Captain of the Guard over a...