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I can remember several methods of making ability score saves around the time Blackmoor came out but most were rather wonky - much like grodog mentioned. Of course at that time we had just managed to replace chits with dice so d6 based mechanics were still fairly ingrained. By the time the Kerr...

Int of 6 but coupled with an equally poor Wisdom stat. They can learn, but slowly, and seem unable to forsee the consequences of their actions.

I liked the deathjump spider I got, but over all I too was unimpressed. Even the eye of flame was only so so. The gnoll marauder was the worst paint job I got - I've owned new cars that weren't that glossy.

That's for ranged attacks only. For melee attacks the defender simply loses Dex bonus to AC. I actually like the grapple rules, but having played with a variety of groups I notice that there seems to be some disconnect in the finer points of interpretation and implementation so I guess I'm in...

For my time line I had Sherman falling ill during the march on Atlanta. Longstreet is shifted west the way he was at Chickamauga the year before and captures much of Sherman's army which is paralyzed by disease. Chattanooga is then lost just before the 1864 election. Lincoln in turn loses the...

I'm running a d20 game, pbp and face to face, in which the players are American spies operating in Europe 25 years after the US civil war ended in a stalemate. This is primarily a historical game so magic has been limited to some seance stuff and such. Most of the plots involve trying to thwart...

I find myself having to have the players recap because I rarely remember, though starting each session out with a combat similar action oriented encounter helps get the juices flowing. For my bi weekly 1920's pulp game I used sepia toned and black and white video clips of the characters...

Piratecat, what I did for my city game was to use a roof tile texture in photoshop to make some simple roofs, most 4"x6", with squares and printed them out. They work well to lay down on the battle mat to make a built up city quickly but leave the streets open for marking up with a pen. To keep...

English common law has a concept of "adverse possession" which allows people to claim abandonded property and use it. If the owners show up within a specified period of time you'll have to move and may owe back rent. If they don't the squatters will be able to claim ownership. Details vary by...

Players were all sitting around trying to min max twenty different options each, so when one of the players finally handed me his character sheet and said "I'm done, I think" I didn't even look at it, just plopped his fig on the game mat and launched in with "Even as the goblin slides off your...

Rather than the Jenga tower we have taken to using a children's game that has plastic straws stuck through a tube to form a lattice supporting a bunch of steel marbles. As the straws are pulled just a few to all of the marbles can fall. The big advantage is it is much more resistant to...

In the 15 years I've been selling real estate I've seen this scam almost every year, and I'm in a low population area. I've seen the scam run by friends, relatives, attorneys, ministers, and strangers, and often with such garbled facts the perpetrators are effectively immune from prosecution...

I am poor at organization in the first place so spontaneous is just natural for me. Yet I find some planning does help, so I pre prep encounters with no idea of when and where I'll use them. Likewise I have made up several pre planned locations, each a variation from the run of the mill, that I...

I had a player in an older addition of the game bring up a similar dilemma about using the Helm to convert prisoners of war. My (via NPC cleric) reply was that the afterlife depended on choices made while under free will. The helm changed behavior, but removed the underlying core of free will...

Words have the power to convey a lot of baggage or preconceptions along with the primary meaning, so when assigning rank titles I first try to decide what type of impression it is I want to give. Using modern ranks tends to give the impression of a more modern style of army, something I...

Sunder and disarm can be good tactics too if anyone can get close.

I allow players who are out of APs to spend a freebie once per session but doing so adds one AP to a pool that can be used by any NPC or Monster. So far the only time I've abused it is when I burned 5 Aps in one combat on behalf of an unleveled goblin who exploited a once in a lifetime...

While I haven't used them myself several of the gamers in my circle have, primarily for historical minis. For the price the quality was good, but for rp'ing I would probably go with the the showcase. Yes you can get stuff painted closer for that price but I doubt they'd be to the same level...

For the full effect of a D&D illusion dim the lights a little, run instead of walk, and have some of the paintings and objects hurl things or try to hit you. Even when expected the two photos are outstanding. I'd hate to have to pick real versus not real under challenging circumstances.

Most fridge doors are removable and can easily be taken off while moving. Many people are not aware of this and I have seen quite a few doorways torn up to get the fridge through. The worst was a few years back when clients of mine got a new fridge for their wedding present while they were...