Search results

Gamma world works. That being said, Ability Scores are hindering the game. You take an average group of kids who want to play a fantasy game and pull the old switcharoo and show them it's really a game about math. They lose interest and you get Hasbro complaining that D&D isn't making enough money.

If WotC had any sense, they'd try to broaden the base. Don't concentrate on people that already play, get new players. Target middle schoolers and teens (while still making it fun for adults). Make it fun for those who avoid math like the plague but love Lord of the Rings. Slaughter sacred cows...

In 4e 1st level is fun. Also, the NPCs are whatever you make them.

Both free and paid introduce bias. The interesting part is you can't say which bias will give you the better results.

If the price is right. I paid $2 for the Ultima Online beta. I think I've still got that disk around here somewhere.

Let's examine the word "balance". In 4e that doesn't mean any class can kill any other class if they just get initiative. It just means that all classes contribute and the game is fun for all classes, regardless of level. That's why it's important.

I love the fact that you can play a rogue in 4e and not be gimped. The balancing in 4e was a godsend to players who played fighters and rogues.

Weapons, sub-class choice, powers. Honestly you can make the dex fighter a separate class and call him a duelist or something.

Think about it before you ask questions like this. When I say they should be "roughly equivalent in terms of damage" that means that there may/should be circumstances where one build would outperform the other but on the balance they contribute roughly the same damage per encounter. In other...

This is the crux of the issue. You don't need stats at all. The finesse vs. high strength characters should be roughly equivalent in terms of damage even though their styles are completely different.

Explain yourself? Sure every dwarven fighter will start with the same attributes but so what? This just makes the math easier. Does that mean they will all chose the same weapon or fighting style? Of course not. A 2H great axe fighter who concentrates on damage will feel different than a 1H...

This isn't necessarily a 20% difference. Take the following example for a typical enemy the character would be expected to fight: A) 12 (+1) hits on 12-20 B) 20 (+5) hits on 8-20. (sounds reasonable right?) Now the calculated chance to hit is: A) 9/20 = .45 B) 13/20 = .65 How much better is...

Since we're going to keep attributes, they should be a function of class and race. You shouldn't be buying or rolling anything. Rolling leads to too random results and buying leads to extra work trying to figure out future value. Attributes chosen at character creation are a big problem...

That's one of the biggest lies and misconceptions there is. Take attribute scores for example, how do you take those out without reworking and rebalancing everything that is derived from them? If anything the opposite is true: It's much easier to start with a simple core system and add the...

The magic item of knock spells, that's who. It really sucked being a rogue in a party that didn't need a rogue. Fighting undead and constructs, knock spell... the barbarian had a better base attack and more hit points and more damage... wow I wish I would have put those dex points into cha so I...

For the record, I'd like to state that every level should allow you to do something new that you couldn't do before. Levels (or even magic items) should not just make you slightly better at something you can already do (that inflation cancels out because the monsters are also getting slightly...

Different rules for PC vs NPC. The reason is this makes it faster and easier for the DM to set up "scenes". The PC's are the regulars. The NPCs are the guest stars. The audience doesn't need to know about them more than what they see. But if for some reason the DM wants to use PC rules to...

I say get rid of them... or at least move the tracking from the players to the dm "behind the screen". Alignment is something your characters do by the choices they make, not a stat on a character sheet. There should be hints to DMs on how to make good/evil/lawful/chaotic choices meaningful...

Adventures set the tone of the game. If KotS had replaced half the combat encounters with real dialogue trees and puzzles and magical items that enabled creativity to get past certain obstacles then many of the complaints about 4e being just a glorified tactical combat game would have been...

Two problems with this. The lesser is there shouldn't be two fighters in the same group. There should be enough classes and synergies that everyone wants to play (and benefits from playing) something different. The greater problem is conflating "disparity" with "different attribute scores."...