Recent content by mearls

I think the way I wrote it needs some work. Here's how it should work: Are there enemies in the area you are moving into? Pick front or back rank. If you are by yourself, you are always in the front. No enemies? No need to track it. If enemies are in your area it can get tricky. When you...

Glad to see folks excited about Moldvay! If anyone has any questions about it feel free to hit me up here.

It's a bit hacky, but I use three things: * I'm testing the DM material, so the players are using 5e characters. That makes it far easier. Trying to get the new classes to work would be impossible. However, I think this is an overall better testing approach since it keeps on side of the...

FWIW, the original D&D Beyond site was cobbled together as a demo. When WotC greenlit it, the team never had time to go back and build out a code base that was better for supporting a living game. I believe a lot of functionality is hard coded, so adding stuff is a nightmare. The new approach...

I've been so happy using Maps as my VTT. The existing scripting for homebrew is great, and excited to see things getting better.

Public playtesting has transformed into a brute force tool. Here's the game. Tell us what you think! It's a lot more subtle than that. It works best when you can present people multiple versions of something over time, or a stack of options from which they pick the ones they like best. I don't...

FWIW, my impression is that this is no longer the case. I've heard nothing but good things about the new leadership that came in last summer.

I really like how the DM screen is integrated into the table. Having the DM space laid out a bit differently is cool. The wood tone and gold decorations on the DM screen look sharp.

Oh man I love this plan. I love not labeling it a starter game. This isn't a trading card game! It's just a game. Your post rearranged my brain a bit in a good way. One thing I realized is that up until I graduated from college, I never bought an RPG that was just a book (vs a box) unless I had...

To be fair, that’s how all companies do it.

AFAIK, category expansion means taking an existing brand and using it to move into a new space. So for instance, a D&D TCG or something similar.

Having read the article, I see that Chris mentions the concept work done on Netherese dungeons. That was really cool stuff! Sad to hear it never got used.

Maybe I am a simple man with a simple mind, but we're missing the actual question: Who thought it was a good idea to pull Perkins away from game design?

I don't want to oversell this, but folks need to remember that Chris was the go to guy for the directors of the D&D movie. When I worked on D&D, we saw a number of movie pitches. The terrible ones all shared something in common - they had no interest in hearing feedback. The guys working on the...

"On tilt" is a poker term I first encountered in FPSes. It means to be emotionally upset.