Recent content by Shiroiken

Since I play exclusively online, I use Google Drive to create a document or spreadsheet that I can share with the group. That way, they can use it when I'm not available. We also make documents to track loot and various notes.

I love the idea of using Dex saves instead of attack rolls for firearms, because it differentiates them from crossbows. However, I'd keep them like cantrips, taking an action to load and fire, and a successful save dealing no damage. Pistols dealing 1d8 damage at a range of 60 ft and muskets...

I haven't played in a while, but the last one I played was rolled. As a DM, in my current campaign I rolled up an array of options for the players to pick from. I made sure all the array options were pretty balanced against each other, and I may keep the same arrays for my next campaign.

I could have sworn they were only 1 turn, but I can't verify that. If they're good for an hour, then they would have been better. It's been so long, I guess I've forgotten.

A lantern is 60gp weight, with 20gp per oil flask, while torches are 25gp weight each. For 1 hour of illumination, you'd need a lantern and 1 flasks of oil (80 gp weight) vs. 6 torches (150 gp weight). The longer you go, the more and more weight efficient lanterns are.

Having a singularly low ability score is fine, so long as you have some high ones to make up for it. This was why 3E had a "minimum value" for characters (which I've rolled and played before). It's not a lot of fun to just be weaker than everyone else. Back in 1E I played a magic user with a 3...

Maybe. I haven't played B/X, only AD&D and BECMI. I don't recall with BECMI, but from what I remember most 1E characters could easily afford a lantern and a couple flasks of oil (lasting 1 hour each). It wasn't necessarily as cost efficient as torches, but weighed less, which was crucial in...

Never got the obsession with torches. Lanterns were always a better choice IMO...

The players can swap stuff out every level if they want, although I don't expect that to be very common. I was more referencing time of construction. A bastion starts with only 2 basic facilities, one of which is likely to be a bedroom. Most players are going to want to expand this, but lets...

I'm planning on using a single bastion the party will share in my current campaign, but I'm hesitant to actually map it because they're designed to be constantly under construction.

It doesn't come up very often, outside of the 2E spell that deliberately caused a Wild Surge. Overall I have little issue with it, but I don't see the appeal. It can be rather annoying, however, when you accidentally kill half the party with a fireball (as happened to me at 1st level in a 5E14...

The problem is that your rant comes off against DMs, rather than your actual target, which is advertising. Marketing is a scummy business, designed to get people interesting in buying things they don't actually need. If you think D&D grifters are bad, you should look at relationship grifters...

DMing is easy. As you point out, even 10 year olds can do it. Being a good DM, however, is actually hard. It takes a lot of work to become good. It's a skill that one refines over time, and one that can degrade without practice. If you disagree with this notion, then you either have a low...

Since we use Roll20, I map out pretty much everything. Back when I ran IRL, I preferred using Theater of the Mind and a whiteboard map for details when helpful. In 4E, where combat almost necessitated a grid, we used map exclusively for combat encounters.

Overall, my primary 1E character was my highest, but I technically didn't start with the character (it was one of the DMs, who gifted it to me so I could play in the current adventure). He had run it from level 1/1 Druid/Thief to about level 5/7 when I took it over, then played it for about 5...