Recent content by Retreater

It was interesting that in a recent episode of Questing Beast that Ben mentioned that he doesn't like rolling to cast because he wants a guarantee that the tools his character prepares can be used. He likens it to have to roll to see if your crowbar works. This is my exact issue with...

I may be an outlier, I've had more character deaths by an order of magnitude in the modern era of gaming (3rd edition and onwards) than I did in my TSR era. Part of that is I felt free as a DM. The rules weren't so codified as "have this many encounters in a day," "you can handle enemies of this...

We've tried two back-to-back campaigns of A5e (and they seem likely to want to start a 3rd this weekend). They can't run their characters without the Level Up Gateway character software - so the table is clogged with tablets and laptops. Some of the math isn't correct on the software, which...

I have two players who started (like me) in the TSR AD&D era. I have another (quite vocal player who also happens to be my wife) who is adamant that OSR games aren't fun. She argues that characters tend to start much weaker than they are in modern systems & you are discouraged from fighting...

I've essentially got 4+ systems I would be happy to run for them. 1) Call of Cthulhu (with Pulp add-on as an option) 2) Daggerheart 3) Dragonbane 4) An OSR variation (OSE, Castles & Crusades, Shadowdark, etc.) I think that's enough to choose from, but we'll see.

I think it's 5e (or a variant) or nothing. Anything resembling OSR is too underpowered. And they don't want to learn anything not based on D&D.

Please tell me they are changing the name to "Newer School Essentials."

About 2 weeks ago, I made a serious push to get my group to consider Castles & Crusades for its next campaign. I would say this is the third time it's been shot down - this time in so definite terms that I don't think I will ever bring it up again.

I'm glad they finally admitted it and can cut off the expectations to focus on more achievable goals. To me, from the beginning, it seemed like something that was too ambitious while being out of step with how many players enjoyed the game.

I'm surprised. In my admittedly small bubble, it seems no stores are carrying new products. I'm one of two people across dozens of gamers I know who's purchased a 2024 book. But I'm happy to hear about the success.

I listened to many of @SlyFlourish episodes about mixing and matching the different 5Es. I also listened to this panel. I kinda long for a "one true version" instead of the mess we have now. I have a couple players who love A5e player options. I want to use the minions from Flee Mortals. Others...

My players don't seem to be interested in that level of challenge. And - honestly - I'm bad about predicting the outcomes.

We call TPK when no one's available to save the unconscious and they're all surrounded by enemies set on killing them. Sometimes we call TPK when 3/4ths of the party is dead and one character escaped, alone in hostile territory. Death saves don't matter when you don't have healing and you're...

Maybe the best solution, instead of forcing no-die mechanics into a game, is to encourage them to play a game that has them already? Maybe I should just tell them we're going to try something more narrative like Daggerheart?

Theoretically, we were the right level and right number of players. As I wrote upthread, the adventure was written for 5E and I converted it to A5E, so maybe that was part of the issue. However, this is just one example in a long, long series of TPKs. We're talking around a dozen occurrences...