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I like rolling less when there's a linear chance of success/failure, such as with a single die roll. With a bell curve my character's training tends to mean a lot more and I'm not at the mercy of chance in quite as bad of a way. I never did care for watching one highly skilled character fail...

Nope. For harsh games, the possibility of death makes it more interesting. Though even in that case we may give the player more narrative control over how exactly they died, perhaps with a slightly more interesting narration than "the goblin stabbed you." For other games death simply isn't an...

I'm giving away my PHB3 copy in a thread at RPGnet, so if any of you nice folk would like to contribute a cool story to the thread I'd be happy to send it to you! [D&D 4E] (Contest) Win a copy of PHB3 from me! (Story Time) - RPGnet Forums

I don't find the Skill Powers to be unbalancing. At best most of them are a hard choice or offer something merely competitive with existing powers. Losing a Feat to pick one up is rough as, by now, there are a lot of nice Feat options that can boost other aspects of a character and any...

I've been kicking around a few ideas for some holiday adventures. Last year I ran Spirit of the Season, which was a lot of fun, but this year I'm thinking of doing a Shadowrun game with a Christmas tie-in. Something involving intelligence hidden in Christmas tree ornaments and a race between...

In Short Spirit of the Season offers readers a collection of holiday themed (Christmas and Chanukah) heroes and villains for use with either Spirit of the Century or Truth & Justice. I had the opportunity to use Spirit of the Season for a night of holiday adventure with a group of friends and...

I've done Sci-Fi, fantasy, horror, and everything else with SotC and have used it as my go-to for years. That said, Starblazer now occupies the same role for me. Starblazer is a giant toolkit and has plenty of great ideas for other ways to tweak the system.

For Planescape I consider Factol's Manifesto and In The Cage to be absolutely awesome, and extremely helpful for getting the feel of the setting right. In The Cage, in particular, showcases a variety of stores, writs, and people that just make Sigil come to life.

I suppose. There are many, many games that focus less on physical violence, and I'm not sold that non-violent, interactive games are a better way to bring young people into roleplaying. That said, violence is definitely a part of Mouse Guard. It can be a very brutal game, in fact.

Just an FYI, Mouse Guard isn't a children's game. Which isn't a comment about what children should have, but that the content is aimed at adults and the system remains somewhat involved despite being much simpler than Burning Wheel. I believe the cute mice have caused a misconception about the...

The ENnies don't influence my purchases. However, I'm already pretty aggressive about chasing down publishers for review copies of the buzziest titles well in advance of the ENnies. If I completely gave up on reviewing I'd probably take a look at the nominees and see if anything grabbed my...

I'm running. I very occasionally post or contribute a review to ENWorld, but I'm largely unknown here. While I'm currently playing D&D 4E, I try to play as many games as I possibly can. I voted for Chris Gath. Both in person and online, I tend to think of him as ENWorld's goodwill...

In Short Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies offers fast paced, cinematic combat thanks to a small number of rules that do a great job of creating a swashbuckling play experience. Clearly inspired by such works as The Three Musketeers, The Princess Bride, and Robin Hood, S7S supports the group from...

In Short Offering a wealth of new options, the Player’s Handbook 2 sets out to provide players with good supporting build options and it succeeds wildly at its goal. With old classics reimagined for 4E, such as the Bard, alongside tactically fascinating new options like the Avenger this book...

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I have room for two guests for Gen Con on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. Thursday is at the Sheraton while Friday and Saturday are at the Hyatt Regency. If you're still looking for accomodations within easy walking distance of the convention then drop me an email (cwricheson gmail). It's...

As I finalize my plans for Gen Con and print things out I sure could use a simple description of the duties and expectations of the booth volunteers. I expect smiling, explaining the ENnies to interested folk, and documenting publisher product for the upcoming judges constitutes most of it but...

There are lots of great games, new games, well received games being released all the time. They're being played all the time, too. They're just not all d20 products. If you want to read more about other games, you may have to leave ENWorld on occasion. d20 games and ENWorld both rock, but if...

I also consider the Go Play symbol to be a general gaming symbol. For what it's worth, I think treating playing RPGs like some sort of sin that needs to be hidden is part of the behaviour that makes it seem strange.