Recent content by pemerton

In Classic Traveller, the closest service to a "fighter" is Army or Marine. The closest to a "thief" is Other. On the Service Skills table, there are 24 possible results. On the Army table (1977 version), those are: 4 results of +1 stat increase (STR, DEX, END or EDU) 1 Brawling, 2 Blade...

Equally it's a modified version of 4e. Bounded accuracy; the lack of scaling spells; classes with "sub-classes"; its action economy; much of its approach to weapons and armour; etc, etc, etc.

As best I can infer from the OP's various posts about the RPG they are writing (or have written), it seems to use magic-wielding classes to achieve genre-appropriate fiction without relying on metagame mechanics or other action-resolution and framing devices that don't directly correspond to...

I would expect that being stabbed in the back by a knight, or really anyone who is handy with a blade, to be a pretty unhappy experience. The D&D tradition of backstab/sneak attack is a mechanical device, bound up with the class build rules and the to hit/hit point rules. As far as mundane...

I don't think this is especially true. And I don't think the rules for swimming do anything to support balance. They're just clunky and incomplete, and disconnected from other relevant elements of the game like STR and CON as ability scores.

The AD&D DMG (p 55, in the section on "Waterborne Adventures") has rules for this; I don't think they're especially good: Swimming will be impossible in any type of metal armor with the exception of magic armor. Any character wearing magic armor will be encumbered and the only stroke possible...

A fighter is a specialist too, aren't they? The notion of combat abilities vs non-combat skills is a feature of D&D's PC build rules. It's a game convention, not a matter of fiction or even really genre.

The idea that there is some fundamental in-fiction difference between a thief and a warrior doesn't seem very plausible to me. It's a conceit of PC building in the context of fantasy (or even semi-historical) RPGing: compared to the warrior build, the thief build trades away robustness of...

I don't find the comparison of RPG design to the design of safe vehicles very compelling. I think it tends to distort rather than clarify the issues being discussed. I don't think this is an accurate description of 4e - 4e has powerful control effects (including on fighters, as well as wizards...

Reflecting on my little dungeon, I decided to add a little bit of intellectualism to it: Entry floor: There are frescoes – of planets, stars, serpents, boats (signs of the passage through the void) on the walls, and also writing (Scholar Ob 2 or Theologian Ob 3 to recognise it as inscriptions...

For the basilisk, I have drawn heavily on this version of a cockatrice posted on BWHQ.

Recently, a NPC in my TB2e game - Lareth the Beautiful - had an enchanted mask placed over half his face, to conceal the scar caused by a Bugbear's fangs: Iron Mask of the Beautiful Half-Elf This mask of polished iron covers the right side of Lareth’s face, concealing a scar caused by a...

From page 3: The Monster X.P. entry is computed from the Dungeon Master's Guide listings and a subjective additions has been made for the tricks and traps of any given encounter. Three listing are provided under the monster experience points. These listing are used by the DM as the situation...

I'd always thought that Hobbits were expunged from D&D by the end of the 1970s. But learned yesterday that this is not the case! REF4 The Book of Lairs II was published in 1987. On p 42 it has a medusa-based scenario. And it begins: Local shepherds tell of a strange, ancient structure nestled...