Recent content by Maxperson

Right, but if you have a group that likes it, it can be a real improvement to the game. If not, it's a detriment. Just learning these techniques doesn't automatically make you a better DM, but it does give you more tools to potentially draw upon. They WILL change the feel of a D&D game...

Ambitious You crave power. Money is nice, but being in charge of other people is your favorite thing. You are likely to be brought down by attempting a risky grab for power and failing. Effect: The GM can activate your Hubris in order to get you to chase after power, even if the deal you're...

I still disagree. Choices don't equate to player facing rules. A lot of people loved 3e for those choices and still do. You can't make the statement that it's too much in general, because that hasn't been proven in any way.

YOU would get sick of it. I played 3e from day 1 of its release, through the end of 2019. My group played through 3rd edition, the entirety of 4th edition, and though the first 5 years of 5e. We only switched when 5e actually had a decent number of options to pick from. Even now, though...

Yeah. Periodically I need a break and one of my players DMs for a while. When play starts and I'm just thinking about and worrying about a single character and not an entire world, game of rules, NPCs, monsters, the adventure, and more, I realize just how much easier it is. The only part that...

Oh, for sure. I'm not suggesting that you would bring in all of the techniques from the other systems into D&D. You'd bring in the ones you think work best, and that would be hit or miss depending on the players. If you really need D&D to be more and include the techniques you like, you might...

Okay. That's still all within that single art, though. Think of it like this. Each edition of D&D is different, even though they have similarities that mark them D&D. 1e might be basic calligraphy. 4e might be performative calligraphy adding in dance since it's the most different. It's...

I get your usage. What I'm saying is that 9 times out of 10 people don't use it that way. At least in my experience. I see... I'm beat. Been bailing hay all day. Boy am I exhausted from digging all of those ditches. I tried running a marathon, but by a quarter of the way through, I was so...

They're rules like Plot Points from page 269 of the 5e DMG. The player can use these points to alter the game in some fairly minor, but helpful way. I tried Option 1, but my players just didn't want to do things like that, so they didn't get used.

Sure. I think it might have been 7th Sea, but I got the idea to allow feats for flaws with mechanical detriment to them. Those flaws could be triggered once per game at an appropriate time by anyone at the table. So if someone was say paranoid and had to treat someone new as being after them...

I would think you had difficulties. A problem employee. A problem customer. Your computers went down. Your boss gave you multiple deadlines and there was not enough time to do them. And so on. I wouldn't think you were just tired.

Your student is still focused on techniques of her specialty, though. She isn't a sprinter learning rugby and basketball in order to be a better sprinter. She's a sprinter learning new sprinting techniques. Being a general DM isn't the same as being a D&D DM. The new techniques you learn...

3e is way better for not being bored than 2e ever could be. You could play a different class/prestige class combo every year and you'd die of old age before getting close to playing them all. Same with feats, spells, monsters, and more. And, you can play 5 years Dark Sun, 5 years Ravenloft...

You can learn all things about running that one system and master those things better than someone who spreads out his learning over multiple systems. There will be techniques used in other systems that can be brought over to D&D and used, even if they weren't intended for use with D&D. For...

Spreading out your knowledge helps you become a better generalist. You'll have skills that fall outside of the specialty to use, and that can be good. However, your skill at any one specific thing isn't going to be nearly as good as a specialist. If you are just going in for a check-up, you...