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Personally, I find no real social interaction rules are necessary at all. For my players, it's generally the joy of roleplaying itself that we enjoy and we don't need rules for it. For me, a diplomacy roll is good enough to give me a guide for how much an NPC will divulge, and the rest we play...

Sometimes the issue is not player desire, but the storyline. Even when a player is okay with his character dying, epic storylines usually require longevity. LotR would not (imo) been better had Frodo and Sam died along the way and had to have Biffer and Boffer come pick up the slack and finish...

As a DM, we all have tricks to build tension. Some of those tricks rely on the game mechanics. I can scare my players with descriptions, but it's in some ways much scarier if I throw in the dice. For example, "you can feel the damp soaking into your boots as you plod through the mud-filled...

I, too, have been playing for over 20 years (actually, over 30 <shudder>). I think all of us go through the "realism" phase at one point or another. However, I wanted to address this specific comment above as I do not believe that risk of character death is the only (or even best) way to add...

I absolutely agree with the "I would never intentionally design something to kill a PC every 2 or 3 combats," but figured I'd try to keep my personal opinion out of it as most players go through this phase at some point. Anyway, here's probably the BEST way to make the game gritty: play WFRP...

Don't have things scale. When calculating things like hp, attack bonus, saves, damage, etc. assume the character is always first level. If it's not gritty enough, cut initial hit points.

I hope they are rituals and I hope they only open magically "locked" devices. I'd like to see a minute long ritual to magically seal or unseal a door. I don't want a mage unlocking stuff, otherwise we're back to mages eliminating the need for skills. The "rogue" should be the one sneaking...

Here are a couple things to think about: 1. At GenCon, there's something called the Iron Man tournament. Everyone creates the toughest character possible and they duke it out until only one is left standing. It's the true definition of min/maxing. I mention this because if you placed in the...

All the core classes could be fun or horribly unfun. The problem was that it depended entirely upon the DM -- and imo, THIS is the problem that they're trying to solve in 4e. Example: A DM loves undead and uses them as the main staple villains in the game. Well, your rogue is now a crippled...