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More important than magic or tech would be social attitudes. The basic assumption that most of these posts have is that people naturally seek to use their money to invest in improving tools to ensure long term returns (the capitalist mindset). In history, that attitude (and the accounting...

I'm not even in the same league as you people, but here goes: Over four years in high school, I was running two campaigns set in the same world: one was good (led by a wizard and a paladin), and the other focused on two evil half orc assassins (run by the same players). Although it was...

With this system, I see higher level casters essentially being able to cast low level spells all day (failing only on a 1, and taking minor damage even if they do). One clarification may be to adjust some of the spells that scale with caster level--casting a high-level magic missile or...

On the importance of making sure troops are properly trained and prepared before the battle: "It is not the fire's fault that you didn't test the ore." (For those rare occasions where the dwarven armies are forced to perform a retrograde maneuver).

In the Medieval world, a common definition of atheist was "someone whose actions reveal that he or she does not think there is a God." That is, the matter of the existence of God was not in question for most people, but some people acted as if Divine Judgment was not something they needed to be...

Thanks--the piece on siege warfare is fascinating. I'll miss these Monday morning tidbits. Good luck on the job search.

You do some good work. I'm sorry to hear about the disaster. You might contact some of the local colleges about teaching art--and they may have some facilities for you to use as well. Of course, you may have already tried that a long time ago, or concluded that you weren't tempermentally...

There was an interesting page that actually ran the numbers on the actual chances of randomly typing "to be or not to be, that is the question." It seems to be off line, but I had saved a version (attached here as an rtf file). But, once again, a good find from our champion web trawler.

Here is another example, perhaps a bit less borderline than some: A player whose character was an illiterate woodsman in a low magic campaign (the party is around 3rd level) is joining in on a kind of raid of an evil temple to effect a cure on another party member. The central area is a...

I will keep you all in my prayers. You have had an agonizing time.

If you are having the fumble confirmation roll versus a fixed DC, you could always combine your severity table with it to make the severity of the fumble dependent on the degree of failure on the roll (and if the confirm roll is a 1, have them roll d20 and subtract from their attack bonus to...

I'm glad to hear no one was hurt at the plant. Overe here in east Tennessee, it seems that things looked pretty bad in west Tennessee (and we have schools closed due to flooding). As long as Little Debbie Swiss Cake Rolls are in good supply, I'll be okay (and, because I only eat them while...

I actually like the idea of three weapons--it means that the BBEG will actually need to recruit some help to accomplish the plan for total destruction (tm). That could mean a later opportunity to test the allegiances of some players, especially if the BBEG's plans are not clear. The main...

The DC formula: 10 - (level * 2) + (miles between sensor and spell). DC cannot be lower than 1. level= level of spell being cast (I use a vitality point system, so I just use the number of points used in the spell--level * 2 could work, or you could adopt some arithmetic or exponential scale...

As always, wonderful. Thanks much (it is certainly more fun than grading freshman papers--by a long shot).

I have a system that does just that, but it has so many other variants that you may not find it useful. The mechanic, translated into standard magic, might be as follows: Roll arcane awareness skill (wis bonus, trained only, a class skill for wizards only) against the following DC: 10 -...

For their potential for evil and mischief, humans.

If you opt for a lower DR (say, maxing out at 3 for heavy armor), you could also have that apply per die of damage. This would mean that someone could be chipped away at slightly faster, but would also have superior protection against criticals and spells. It also makes heavy armor incredibly...

I don't find VP/WP to be all that much more complicated in practice. And the threat of real harm even in an unbalanced fight (due to criticals) makes every combat just a bit riskier, and therefore a bit more fun (for my group--I'm not claiming that everyone else needs to think this way). I...

I don't wish to be obtuse or uncooperative, but there are other options (which, in my campaign, would be closer to B and A). You could have armor give both a deflection and absoprtion bonus, which you can fiddle with the balance out the various armors. I generally have light armor give +1 DR...