Recent content by Xenolith234

While I’ve only played a couple games of 3e, I have a lot of the books, and in reading the books several times over, the flavor seems so much closer to AD&D than anything after. I know there was lots of theorycrafting and power gaming, but I want to believe that’s not how everyone played - just...

Whatever happened with Sargeras? Is Xalatath a bigger deal?

I think it's several things - the trailer looks very generic, and for me I didn't see any particularly recognizable characters like I'm used to in the trailers (except maybe the blood elf guy, but he looks different than I remember). With Microsoft's rampant push for AI, I can't help but wonder...

I haven't played WoW in quite some time...but is it just me that doesn't find that trailer very visually inspiring? I remember the older ones looking really amazing.

I liked the Complete Thief book with its specialized thieving equipment that I was unfamiliar with; I’d love to see things like that.

Totally agree. One 10ft area at a time… bland, in my opinion. A region of a room seems likely a better method of searching. However, I do think that 5e is missing the overall dungeon procedure from OSR and 3e. It’s there if you squint hard, but it’s not clear to DMs that are new to the game (it...

I think what I’d really want from something like recovery time is the ability for PCs to act multiple times in a round (like if they’re using a fast weapon like a dagger), but that’s likely extremely broken.

Absolutely true on the Insight 😂 My party was asking random people about a missing kid in a large-ish town and most didn’t know anything about it and they found it very suspicious. I flat out told them that nothing on their face or about their behavior indicated anything suspicious and they...

I think I saw something in the Knock zine - Time, skills, tools, potentially environment. If you have all of them, no roll needed. Missing one? Roll. Missing two? Roll with disadvantage. Missing three? Impossible.

Aha, that actually sounds a little like Angry GM’s recovery time system he came up with a little bit ago: Fixing Initiative Because I Want To (Part II): Angry’s Recovery Time Initiative System | The Angry GM

Makes sense, though I’d say the same thing sorta happens in normal 5e initiative. Players may decide on an action while waiting for their turn, then the situation changes by the time their turn arrives and they hem and haw about what to do since what they were going to do is no longer valid.

Has anyone tried action declaration before initiative is rolled, ala older editions? I know there’s speed factor in the 2014 DMG that I’ve thought hard about using.

That’s a good way of thinking about it. Although I can’t explain how to craft some items…but still think it should be a skill. It’s stuff that you reasonably, as a person, should be able to explain how you go about doing something that should absolutely not be an active skill. Of course, if I...

I really don’t know how to work around the Perception issue. If you accept that skills existed in OSR just in an X-in-6 or percentile manner, then something akin to Perception has always existed, but with a really low chance of success. Is it that Perception (and really all skills) are just too...

That's the only thing I idealize about 3e - not the class builds and theorycrafting, but the breadth of the simulationist toolbox that it provided DMs (and simpler mechanics). AD&D was similar in many regards, but the rules are not as smooth for those who are only used to 5e. Maybe a5e is my...