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If that were fully the case, they wouldn't be worth any XP. Usually when people give minions more oomph, it's to try to make them a challenge commensurate with the XP earned for defeating them.

Thing is, in games that are designed to support that style of play, it does. Beliefs, Instincts, and Traits from the Burning series, Aspects from FATE, Best Interests from In a Wicked Age... these things very much do tell the player, "Hit a slow or uncertain moment? Here are some ideas for how...

Yeah, the lack of a turn structure was definitely part of it. It was fun while the characters were all attending a grand dance, each up to their own thing. (My Rogue got engaged to a prince!) It started to bog when the Paladin went to talk to some three or four different NPCs in succession...

I'll echo this statement. I played in one tonight, and while the roleplay opportunities were a nice change of pace overall (usually this is a two-battles-a-night game), it got to be a trifle on the dull side after three hours of talking in character. With combat representing most of the cool...

And hey, if you don't use somebody who shows up later, they don't have to get away ^.^

Aww, goodbye Strategist's Epiphany. That one's getting retrained out first chance I get. Mostly good stuff, though. Animal Master companions now at least get scaling defenses, even if they're paste going up against anything with a damaging aura.

Is that sentiment based on play experience? I thought that on first read of "Revenge of the Iron Lich" too, but after studying it more closely and then running it, it didn't turn out that way at all.

If you read the follow-up post getting into the ugly "why" behind the decision, it's clear that reconsideration is not an option, at least for Sersa V, and that it would be unkind to ask otherwise of him. We can still look forward to two more Saturday Night Delves and the "C1" adventure, but...

The Fourthcore Armory has some of the most eye-opening, fun magic items ever written for D&D4. Those are showing up in my game, even though it's a pretty wimpy campaign by fourthcore standards. Revenge of the Iron Lich is one of the most entertaining convention/one-off dungeon delves I've ever...

Yet again, I at least am not talking about D&D going in a direction as a whole, but about options for how to play the different spheres being discussed (specifically with respect to dialing complexity or detail up and down). Are you saying that if a suggestion for an abbreviated exploration...

There are other ways of dialing complexity than resolution methods. Does exploration involve graph paper and descriptions like "you proceed 50' down the corridor, then it turns to the left and goes another 20' before ending in a T-intersection"? Or is it "you make your way through the...

Coming up with a list of necessary and sufficient qualities for anything is hard--ponder the essentialist question, "What makes a tiger a tiger?" It's going to be even muddier when you try to do so with something that's a human invention, abstract, and different across time (/editions) and...

Need? No. But can you? Absolutely. I've mentioned Burning Wheel's Duel of Wits, which is a stellar example. (Exalted Second Edition has a Social Combat system, but it's a clumsy bolt-on by comparison.) It zooms in an argument to a combat-like level, with a sort of HP pool called the Body of...

That's a fair correction--I was probably overreacting to that, then. I for one would love to see at least some parts of RP codified as self-contained, fully defined subgames (a "social combat" system like BW's Duel of Wits, for example). And that's the exciting part of the dials/axes idea: can...

This is often said, but doesn't hold true. There are games where combat is treated no differently from any other form of inter-character conflict or moment of narrative uncertainty, and they're just fine on the fair-and-organized front. D&D is very much about grand fantastical battles--clashing...

I'm really intrigued by this, especially the "dials" as mentioned above. My one worry is his casual relegation of roleplaying as being outside the rules, especially when as examples he lists things that I would love to see mechanical structure for (alliances, castle-building, all that), even if...

Pun-Pun, or, The Means By Which the Kobold Species Shall Attain Universal Knowledge and Power, Conquering the Great Nations of Our Age In collaboration with notable Eschatologists, no doubt.

This looks nice! Can you provide links to the articles needed to use this? I don't really grasp the lower-leftmost table with the improvised action effects, for instance ('20' skill?).

The Wounding Effectiveness of Stealthy Singular Rapier Contrasted with a Twin Strike of Dual Long Swords Bwahaha. Martial Science academies = CharOp forums? ^.^

Cool idea! Shouldn't be too difficult to take the Military versions of those weapons, knock off a die size or the Versatile property, and call them Simple weapons of the corresponding group. EDIT: Whoops, ninjaed by the very fellow I was replying to. Missed the new thread page!