Recent content by Scars Unseen

Novels aren't really a great source of data for a mechanics-focused argument one way or the other due to novel characters not needing to adhere to game mechanics in the first place. Personally, I don't see this as an argument that can be resolved. Some see the mechanical representation of...

It's not unprecedented in D&D. Setting aside the obvious race-as-class from Basic D&D, 3.5E had the Savage Species book, which allowed you to play monstrous characters and level them up as their race. There was also the Unearthed Arcana book, which gave little 3 level racial paragon classes...

If I ever switched to the 2024 rules (unlikely) and a player wanted to play a half-elf, a half-orc or, honestly, any other race that fit in with my campaign but wasn't represented in an official source, I'd make something up most likely. Just using the rules from two not-editions directly is...

Frankly, I have dozens RPGs I want to run, at least 9 of which are adjacent to or reminiscent of Dungeons & Dragons. I'll see how this one and its community develop, but even if I bought it today, it would likely be years before I even considered running something for it.

Most recently, I got: The Dragonbane starter set Age of Rebellion and Force and Destiny Mekton Zeta and Mekton Zeta Plus Dungeon Crawl Classics First Time Fan Kit and Lankhmar box set

I got started with some version of Basic and then got gifted a copy of the 2E PHB, DMG and MC, but the first thing I purchased was the 2E Ravenloft box set. This was, unfortunately, after I had moved away from the friends I got started with, so it would be another 3 years after that purchase...

Nearly a decade. Started with some form of Basic (don't remember the version since I didn't own it) when I was 10, moved on to AD&D 2E maybe a year later, then joined a group in high school that mixed in some World of Darkness stuff, most notably Changeling. Moved and joined another group that...

Well, that was the push I needed to go ahead and add DCC to my collection. Just ordered the First Time Fan Kit as well as the Lankhmar box set and Dungeon Denizens book.

I wonder if 5E is really the best chassis for this archetype. I'm planning a mini-campaign that starts off with the players playing villagers that survive a massacre (the massacre will be played out in the first session; I'm planning out a full deck of characters for them to burn through before...

Let me go against the grain here by saying that there's absolutely nothing wrong with adding sci-fi flavored elements into D&D. D&D isn't medieval fantasy. It references medievalesque trappings frequently, yes, but both in terms of technology and culture, D&D is all over the place. Medieval...

It's up to WotC to decide whether or not I matter to them. For the most part, it feels like I don't. But that's okay. It means that over time I shift my spending from buying the newest D&D stuff to buying other systems, hitting up Kickstarters and hunting down old D&D stuff. If anything, I...

To me, the absolute core of D&D is a d20 and a social contract. Want to play DM Fiat: The Game? The players describe what they want to do, and the DM decides if a roll is needed, and what the threshold of success is. Anything you add to that just makes it more or less like one version of D&D...

1. Astroprisma I don't actually remember how I found this one (maybe a Kickstarter suggestion when I was backing something else), but I really like the aesthetic, and I can't wait to see how it turns out. 2. Ars Magica Definitive Edition Another game I backed. This game has been on my radar...

My personal solve to this is to make alignment less personality and more cosmic association. Whether by choice or by circumstance, those who are aligned have a relationship with the force they're aligned with. Being evil aligned might not mean that you do bad things. In fact it might be the...