Recent content by Marc17

Well, as artwork goes, I find it pretty unremarkable, however, in the context of this case, it does bring up some worry for the product. I own a copy of CSotIO as I purchased it before I found out about all the issues with who was getting the money. When this issue started, I went back and...

My personal fantasy heartbreaker would be a return to 3E, but with math that more resembled 2E where saves, skills, and other rolls tend to just get better. Reduce the ability bonuses back to +3 for 18 so the dominate the game less. Balance the classes. Put some thought into the skills and how...

Tangentially, I tend to run a slightly different stratagem, especially for a world where adventures are such exceptional people capable of threatening the most dangerous threats (and the local nobility). There are lots of small little rules to follow. Have the adventurers paid for their...

Last time I played a small PC, it was a Savage Species campaign and I was a pixie fighter named Nice Sunnyday. I usually DM and have players that play halflings. Despite that, they usually figure into my settings, being a cousin of mankind, they typically reside in villages or ethic shires...

Yep, been there. Thing is the their character live in the world 24/7, but they don't. The friction involved in even coming up with a plan i smassive. Sure they could just say "we attack the tax collectors after they get the taxes and are their way back to the capital and steal all the taxes and...

Oh wow. OP from 2002. No wonder I can get their site to see the rules. The one time I had drinking rules was in my Magical School game where the Dwarves Bard professor took the kids ( 1st level older teenagers) on the school trip on a bar crawl while in the capital city. Most of the students on...

Personally, it has always been used mostly for the people you'd meet at cons in the 80's & 90's who were sure that they had god's gift to gaming in a new game that was often, but not always just a D&D clone with something added, and usually something that nobody else cared about. They were just...

The entire tortle question is a wide spread for me. It reminds me of a friend who works in theater and discussion about work led to talking about both prima donnas and divas, so I had to ask "what is the difference". His answer was that "divas are worth all the extra effort they demand." I have...

Depends on who wants to play more, although players are sort of a single unit. If the DM wants to play, but his selected players only want to play tortle monks and not willing to play otherwise, the DM has decisions to make.* * I haven't ever stonewalled on a character before, however I did in...

The one time I played a game running them, it was the only way I could hurt the fighter with their AC. Surrounded him and the party and once one dies the rest also took damage and start going off like fireworks.

Best setting is the one best suited to tell the story you are trying to tell in your game.

Mostly role played it all, although there were sometimes rolls to make. The chance for a relationship was an option for random occurances in the magical school game I ran (which was much more of the fantasy high school simulator than I was expecting). In some other games PCs made the decision...

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...