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That's a great observation. I often hop on the computer, write down a quick snapshot of an idea, and it goes into a folder. Sometime later, I hit a situation in a game and say 'Hey, I had some good thoughts about something near to that back when' and break it out. Sometimes you can indeed use...

I'm sure they tried, but they were guided by three things: a) The illusion that you can build a complex system that won't always be broken in a myriad of ways b) The illusion that you can patch any complex system without always having side effects that themselves may end up being worse (and...

In every version of D&D we played through, from original bare bones 1E to 5E, there are some minor sweet spots and some weaker choices. (but there are so many throughout any rules set, and every patch has a side effect, that you need to look to entirely different ways of understanding what...

I take it y our own group or groups then never go beyond 5 players? It's pretty hard to keep that distinction and let players create a character THEY want when numbers exceed 5. I think the most we ever played with, over the course of 20 years in the same campaign world, was 12. But 7-9 was...

I like MgT, but the reality is, all you really need for Traveller as a game is: a) A bit of an idea of the setting b) A few nuggets and NPCs to knock together in ways that players may want to muck with c) A task system where you can easily describe any task (a difficulty, some assets, special...

The issue with this is .... we can't build the character who is a good fighter but can also dabble as a lock picker or a weak healer in that case. Every MC system breaks somewhere. Some worse than others. 3/3.5 Feats and the need to optimize and stack made a vast imbalance in power for players...

There have been a lot of folks under 30 and even older folks who are assuming their usual response to the flu will be how Covid-19 arrives for them if at all. You are an example of one of the more vulnerable people whom those self-centered or clueless individuals are putting at risk, but there...

Yes, although someone in a newer version may have done 101 or 1001 Patrons - I seem to recall something along that line either out of one of the official producers or a 3rd party sometime in the last decade. I was a completist for many years (I have a lot of the small press stuff from early...

If you've ever seen early Traveller (the LBBs - Little Black Books), there were a lot of patron driven adventures and a surprising number of those were either criminal (my group was never too interested in being criminals, but it must have been popular as there were plenty of examples in the...

We let people retire injured characters if they wished, but new PCs came in with 2/3 avg party XP so they usually came in 1-2 levels down and stayed behind a while. We also generally were more of a gritty group so scars and missing eyes and fingers were things that showed your character's...

True, not directly dangerous, but if a baddy can always be watching your team's strategy sessions and plans and relaying stuff to the other bad actors, that can pretty much make every encounter ambush city and also ensure encounters they wish to avoid are avoided. It is a powerful weapon in a...

To be a bit progressive, as you say you are below, should you and others encourage elitism in the gaming community? Making of games and products only for those with lots of disposable cash? That's exclusionary. (Really, just speaking to a point that it isn't obvious what is the 'right' or...

Best Adventure Module - One of T1:Village of Hommlet, U1:Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, or B2: Keep on the Borderlands - the three best campaign starter environments one could want. Worst Adventure Module - Castle Greyhawk.... we all waited for awesome... and it was a mish mash of stupid. Sad...

I have a friend who won't accept resurrection or raise dead or reincarnation. His logic goes "A Ming vase dropped, shattered, and crazy glued together is not the same vase." Character creation is fun, character arcs should matter, and when you die, it should matter and be a good conclusion...

In some variants which had rules for broken bones, burns, etc. the side effects of traumatic damage were more scary to players than the possibility of actually dying. Another rules-allowed but chaos inflicting: Halfling fighter/thief riding a war dog wielding a Wand of Viscid Globs (Gorilla...

And others have movement rates that are so glacial that the 'combat move' looks a lot like a very S-L-O-W meander...

cough Professor X with his machine cough Before they fixed it, I liked 'teleport, usable on others, at range* or desolidifcation, always on - talk about a great recce character. In the space ship wargame Red Chicken Rising (the only wargame to start with a shower scene), they had ships with...

Also Canadian. I've had family that have went through horrible, expensive medical regimes here and I know some friends who have faced comparable scenarios in the US. In my family's case, dual mastectomies, then a catastrophic car accident plus bones almost invisible on scans on the one hand and...

I tend to use about 1-3 encounters between rests (long or short depending on the need). I use the 1 hr/8 hr format. We tend to run about 2.5 hour games with some socializing to we get 2-3 encounters in during a session. Why so few encounters between rests? I use lingering injuries, horror...