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That was by far the lamest part of the adventure. Force the characters into a skill challenge where the skill is randomly determined, and they cannot assist each other? What was cool about that? I cut the difficulty in half, and wrote a different, more rational skill challenge, to set the...

There was a game convention in town the same weekend, so the local 4E Meetup cancelled its monthly meeting, but we had a full table anyway. We had one player that knew 4E well enough to DM it, one player that had never played any RPG, and the rest were 3.5/PF players that were curious about 4E...

Actual Costs of Running D&D Encounters We aren't charging for the Encounters, which we are starting Wednesday 3/24, but let me tell you: If I weren't "volunteering," my time would cost the store over $12/hour, including insurance and benefits. Luckily, I've "volunteered." If Wednesday were a...

My favorite magic item ever was a DM special: Ring of Night. It allowed the wearer to see the stars above the horizon as if it were night, regardless of time of day or obstruction, i.e. you could see the night sky day or night or underground, etc. The flavor was wonderful, and it involved some...

I don't see how lizardfolk could possibly purse their basically non-existant lips, yet they use blowguns as well. Perhaps some monsters simply blow. Smeelbo

6 + level/2 rounds is not a "rule," it was an approximation of my observations to date. I've personally DMed 1-8th level, plus the PHB2 Game Day Paragon Adventure, and those paragon combats were over 10 rounds. There are some biases involved here: most of my games are "store games," i.e. the...

6 + Level/2 rounds My experience has been very consistant, both as a player and a DM. Encounters at low level are 5-7 rounds, and as party level rises, combats last longer. At 8th level, combats consistantly last 8-12 rounds. This has held true for me regardless of party size or...

Since the Alchemist's Acid/Fire/Frost can already be made into ammunition at the cost of a level higher, I'd say it's okay. It wouldn't apply to things like Tanglefoot Bags, since they don't deal damage. I'd look at the rules for Ammunition from Adventurer's Vault II. Smeelbo

Besides magic, which dominates a D&D campaign more and more as level rises, I've found the real issue is really hit points. In contrast, Traveller T20 generates parties with characters ranging from 4th to 12th level, and it works quite well. In T20, a plasma blast to the chest kills you dead...

Favorite 3.5 settings Having DM'ed both, I can strongly recommend both Monte Cooke's Ptolus and Privateer Press's Iron Kingdoms. Monte Cooke was one of the designers for 3.0, and Ptolus is his 3.0 playtest campaign setting. Honestly, no other 3.5 product comes close in utility, quality, and...

Yeah, I found vulnerabilities way under-used, to the point where you have to ask, why bother with typed damage at all as a player? My solution as a DM has been to add small vulnerabilities and resistances to many monsters that lack them. So almost all creatures with the shadow descriptor gain...

I am having a great time with Axam The Dwarf Ranger. At level 8, he's STR 18, DEX 18, with +2 Paired Waraxe, and +1 Distance Handaxe, and Quick Draw to swap weapons nigh instantly. As I've written earlier, Quick Draw is necessary to swap between dual-wielding waraxes and throwing handaxes with...

No, the 70's was the Golden Age I found very compelling the definition given by an earlier poster, for the Golden Age as a time when "Things Were Done for the First Time," really means that the 70's were definitely the Golden Age of D&D. An age of heroes, when man was closer to the gods...

3.5 was the first really playable official D&D I started out with OD&D in 1975, but pretty quickly got involved with the Warlock D&D rules developed at CalTech and MIT and distributed on the ArpaNet. Compared to OD&D and the various homebrews that dominated the late 70s, Warlock was very...

Wait a second, I want to disrupt that... What I've found in practice is that usually, I declare to the DM a circumstance in which my ranger will interrupt, most often, "The next monster to attack SoAndSo I will disrupt," along with the occasional, "Wait a second, I disrupt that." So far it...

Cycling out old material as new material is introduced I strongly suspect that D&D will soon be following the model of Magic The Gathering. That is, older material will be "phased out" in order to make room for new material. I believe this for several reasons: Power Creep: It's just plain...

Legends of Anglierre Legends of Anglerre will be releasing soon from Cubicle 7, and will be essentially FUDGE/FATE, Spirit of the Century and especially Starblazer Adventures mechanics, but in a fantasy setting. Very different from earlier fantasy games, emphasizing fast, on-the-fly...

As customers, it is our right to demand better! As other posters in this thread have pointed out, Iron Heroes is incomplete, flawed, and does not perform as advertised. While full of clever ideas, Mearls in general does not finish his work having no incentive to do so once his contracted number...

Empire of the Petal Throne, using the Burning Wheel engine. The Feat Compendium for D&D 3.5. Smeelbo

Starblazer Adventures! I recommend the Starblazer Adventure Game, which is essentially FUDGE/FATE Spirit of the Century expanded into space. In contrast to SotC, Starblazer is better designed for "gritty" play, character advancement, detailed gear, campaigning, and large scale organizations...