Recent content by mearls

Savage!

Yes! I was able to edit my 'mechs in the game to model a Warhammer, Marauder, and Rifleman as my lance. Given that the heaviest 'mech in the actual game was an UrbanMech, it made my playthrough a lot easier. I still remember the armor health bars extending off the screen for the heavies...

What I find interesting about breaking games up into -isms or factions is that his break down of narrativism points to a lot of good practice for dungeon crawls and D&D-style play. You could argue that a good D&D game hits those four notes and also has tactical combat layered, particularly...

It was my first introduction to hacking! I can't remember if I used Locksmith or Copy 2+ on my Apple 2 to read and edit the saved game file. I did the same with the BattleTech game and eventually worked up to cracking copy protection and modifying other games. Not much else to do in the middle...

FWIW, the Barnes & Noble I visited over the break was sold out. I think it's doing really well. It's a great product!

This is really great news. James has done excellent work. Glad to see folks from third party publishers bringing their experience to the D&D team.

I have one huge gripe with the finale - Mike undermined his players' agency by having an NPC finish off Strahd! Yes, they had to remember a poem to summon her, so it's not a terrible move, but it still left his players watching someone else win the fight! The anachronisms around D&D don't...

That's terribly sad to hear. I think we're fortunate that the rise of gaming histories ensured that Mr. Kask's story, along with the stories of the other founding members of our hobby, has been captured and preserved.

Awesome! I'm glad to hear that.

There was a fair amount of market research as part of 5e, mainly because the gap between forums and the reality of sales was so large that we needed a better way to get feedback. Starting with the 5e playtest and going forward, we did regular surveys and studies to understand what people were...

I can see how Vecna could make the mistake locating Max, but it’s still weird to me that he needs to read Will’s mind instead of just asking the kids he was manipulating. I’m also not crazy about the entire Max storyline. One thing about Vecna - I really wish that the story from the stage play...

I think the last few episodes suffer from needing to set up the final batch. It created some weird structural issues with the story. Will’s coming out was a good example of this. It would have been so much more awesome to have that scene, then have him go full sorcerer on Vecna. It was wildly...

There’s a long history of crossover between gaming and sports. Back in the 1990s, they San Antonio Spurs had a LAN on their team plane to play Starcraft. With social media being a thing, a lot more players turn to things like gaming (digital and tabletop) to socialize and blow off steam. You...

Pool of Radiance is an all-time classic. Looking back at the original computer game, it's an incredible design. Ruins of Adventure, the tabletop version that TSR published, is a little too faithful to the game but is worth owning. Shameless plug time: If you like the concept of a city perched...

The new Starter Set.