Recent content by mlund

The literary tradition around wishes generally revolve around the moral of a story. Wishes end badly when they are expressions of vices or foolishness. In a darker genre you'll see the genuine Cursed Wish like that granted by a fiend or the Monkey's Paw. Even in those situations, though, the...

Someone in the game industry finally got being enough for Labor Laws to stop turning a blind eye to them. Hasbro is not a non-profit or a family / small business, so they don't get the same kind of exemptions for unpaid volunteer labor that those operations do. Judges at the independent FLGS...

I hear a chocolate coating helps it go down easier.O On a more serious note, D&D originally didn't have a functional definition of "Down" distinct from "Dead" because of its war gaming roots. Casualties were casualties - there was no functional difference in most cases between being dead and...

There was a Necromancy spell that kept you from auto-dying for going to -10 HP too. As long as they could heal the physical damage before the spell duration expired the soul wouldn't be separated from the body and the character wouldn't "die." I figure Revivify is something to that effect. The...

I've played in both modes a fair share. I really enjoy the D&D/AD&D tradition of role-playing searches and social interactions for effect - but a lot of aspects of that style of game rewarded you for failing to separate in-character and out-of-character knowledge. After a player learned about...

When I ran the Lost Mines I actually had one of the PC's encounter an abused Mastiff Hound. He turned out to have originally belonged to the farmer that the Redbrands had captured and fed to one of the monsters lurking in the basements. That's kind of dark for a kid, so I'd just have the farmer...

It's really nice work, but those Ring Mail and Brigandine designs hurt my head. >_<

I wonder, the enemy gets hit when they enter your reach at the point of going from 10' away to 5' away. Does moving from 5' away to adjacent trigger the tunnel fighter's opportunity attack? I'd say "no" as you aren't "within reach" until you enter the 5' away range anyway. Getting hit twice on...

I think the price is solid, except for the port-forwarding thing. If you are on some sort of shared environment (like dorms, apartments, condos, etc.) where an intervening network element hoses your ability to assign port forwarding you can't host a game at all. :(

Both of the combat styles are excellent additions. I especially appreciate that the Shooter style covers the pet peeves for Ranged Weapon Characters when you don't have access to Feats. Ranged Weapons are, in general, a raw deal in close-quarters settings since they have a poorer ratio of...

Hanging on to a rocky shoal instead of being carried off in the surge of a raging storm.

I'm always glad to see new technology heading FG's way, but my biggest grief with my subscription is that when I can't use it it teleconference people into a home game because our host's apartment's internet connection refuses to play nice with their port-forwarding.

You can make up your custom setting as you please. It's not how things have gone in Faerun or Oerth. Posed the question the arcane casters may answer in the affirmative on being able to produce lighting via arcane magic, but they will answer in the negative on the Cleric being able to use...

Denialist: "Gods don't exist and their clerics are phonies." Cleric: "Behold the power of Thor" - lightning comes down from a clear blue sky and smites a tree. Denialist: "Hah! Wizards can do that. It's just arcane magic and lies!" PRETTY MUCH EVERY WIZARD, BARD, AND SORCERER: "No, it's not."...

We've already been over the ignorant, isolated peasantry argument. Isolated peasants don't create national cultures - they assimilate what radiates out from the greater population centers and higher classes. Waterdeep is, by definition, inhabited by burghers, merchants, and nobility. They aren't...