Recent content by mearls

It depends on how this goes sales-wise and what Chaosium wants to do with CoC, but I'm definitely open to expanding on this.

Thanks! I was planning on using a mechanic like this in Odyssey, so that project gave me a chance to surface some concepts and get feedback before finishing up work on Torchlight.

It's a polymorph effect that you gain at 3rd level. You can still cast warlock pact spells while in the form. At higher levels, you can do classic cat stuff like distract people by being adorable or vex them by... just being a cat, really. I write that as someone who lives with four of them...

I intentionally avoided looking at it. My understanding is that Sandy has the copyright to it, so I wanted to make sure we didn't inadvertently cross streams.

Skill challenges have two main pieces: There's the basics of a list of possible skills and DCs, with room for player improv. Each player gets the chance to make one check or assist another check. After everyone takes a turn, the skill challenge includes a twist. The situation changes, either...

In terms of digital only, when I joined Chaosium I had pitched a CoC/D&D crossover book. The biggest risk was that it would be confusing to BRP players, since they might think it was a fantasy supplement to CoC. From my understanding, when CoC d20 released all those years ago retailers and...

I hope so! Otherwise, someone went to a LOT of effort to prank me...

2024 formatting, but the mechanics are all found in 2014. Monsters work in either version.

The book is designed with the idea that you want to add the mythos to an existing or new campaign. It assumes that the PCs are 5e-level powerful, so the mythos isn't necessarily something you run from. In terms of mechanics, the CoC feel is driven by its adaptation of Pendragon's rules for...

I like this quote from the DDB product page: "With pre-filled character sheets, maps pre-loaded with monster tokens*, and a digital compendium with all rules and quests, spend less time prepping—and more time bringing legends to life." Maps has transformed my DMing life. It's so easy to load up...

I'm not sure it isn't in the context of an FLGS these days. Board games are around that price. My wife is the board gamer in our household, and she'll go into our FLGS and pick up a game that looks fun and interesting. So while it might not be an impulse buy at Walmart or Target, I think it...

This looks great. I really like the components and how deluxe it all feels. It matches the price for the HeroQuest First Light game, which I think makes sense. Can't wait to get my hands on this one.

That's true. We started work in early 2011 on what 5e could be. At the same time, I had to make the case that: Having an active, healthy TTRPG was good for the D&D brand. We could produce a game that would make customers happy within a very limited budget. I think we had maybe 20% of the...

Franchise model is how things worked from 2014 to 2020 or so. One group steered D&D and worked with licensees to set up their content. If you've played Baldur's Gate 3, you might notice that they lean heavily into lore from Volo's Guide to Monsters, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, and the Baldur's...

As another example - the annual events like Tomb of Annihilation are 100% a byproduct of a franchise model. If you liked that era, this might be a signal that they want to go back to something like that.