Recent content by timbannock

I can't think of anything obvious, but if you squint real hard there are some Skill Challenge-like elements here and there, and the monsters do have a few abilities that err on the side of probably being inspired by more grid-based combat stuff. But only very loosely, if at all.

Orcus, the 4E retroclone

After a billion years of doing this, I've found the best setup for me is: #. Plain-English Room Title. Keywords. One-sentence overview, if such is deemed necessary in addition to the keywords. Keyword that needs description upon closer inspect, preferably no more than 1-2 sentences. Minimal...

I was planning to do the exact same thing, actually. I really can't justify any more benefit of the doubt for Goodman. They are showing us exactly who they are.

Favorite for years: Cortex. Even though, or maybe because, I'm a child of the early 80s and my first real frames of reference are GI Joe, Transformers, Robotech, He-Man, Knight Rider, A-Team, various Marvel comics-turned-TV shows, and wrestling. Even though I don't much care for several of...

Agreed. Whiterock made a megadungeon work in the milieu of 3E "physics" but was pretty easily backwards compatible with some simple statblock swaps. It's really, really good, and frankly didn't get it's due upon release because it came out just as 4E was about to lift off. I would have almost...

Be interesting to see how Castle Whiterock and subsequent campaigns compare. Whiterock surely isn't going to get the same sorts of folk excited as CSIO did.

Yeah, any doubts he had about this whole situation have probably mostly or completely evaporated in the face of "well I wasn't the only one who cared about seeing this project through."

It's not that clear cut, or maybe better said, it's not like we would know whether or not Goodman is/would pursue such an "out". The wheels of justice turn slow, and there's always the chance that Goodman is already pursuing legal recourse on some level over this contract, but because such is...

Vague-posting doesn't help a conversation. It becomes more a monologue, or a series of people peppering you with questions that's at least somewhat frustrating to watch in a thread that is otherwise really interesting and filled with (mostly) good back and forth. IMHO YMMV and all that.

I think the reality is that Goodman has saved at least a few sales by (IMHO) playing both sides, and garnered enough eyes through all this drama that I don't think it's greatly hurting this particular campaign. In fact, probably the drama is helping this campaign. The long-tail is where you're...

Absolutely. I don't even pay attention to the D&D/d20 side of the forums much at all anymore and yet I'm still involved in tons of discussions here on the site, so there's clearly eyeballs on non-D&D stuff, even if it's not just any one particular game/system/whatever. Really love the work...

Maybe they are printing all the monster stat blocks...? That would be incredibly dumb but maybe explains the bloated page count (double the original across 4 books). That...can't be right. Can it?!

Good points, and my experiences generally follow yours. For 1. you can (a) lean hard on "the outcome of a roll should (drastically) change the situation" which narratively suggests that doing the same thing over again isn't really logical, and (b) traits that suggest -- or even mechanically...

I think I gotcha. I guess part of my response that I forgot to actually type out (b/c I'm a dummy) was that I don't find the conversion work that difficult or time consuming: just go by vibes. I suspect that's a lot easier said than done with more internally self-consistent mid-crunch systems...