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I remember a great quote from a game designer. He was asking a fledgling designer what his post-apocalyptic game was about, and it came down to "hope." The more experienced game designer replied (in so many words) "Then why doesn't your game have a Hope mechanic?" In that context I think it's...

The vast majority of RPGs are inherently geared towards violent imaginary combat. Even in, say, a World of Darkness rulebook there are a lot of pages devoted to combat resolution. D&D has always been among the most violence-centric RPGs: if you look at all of the core books from every...

EDG: I apologize for my last post because it (implicitly) made you out to be a bad guy or troll. While I'm not crazy about the topic of this thread I think you've carried yourself well: my rant wasn't against you but against the general air of discussion that has dominated this post. I'm...

I'm willing to bet--without the benefit of any scientific study--that tabletop roleplayers are more intelligent and creative than the average bear. They're also more passionate about their hobby: at any point over the past 20 years I could have tossed my game books and thrown myself fully into...

WotC betrayed and gunned down my father, poured sugar in my gas tank, stole my girlfriend, made me look bad at work and called my mom a name that I can't type in this post because of the profanity filter. No, seriously. None of that actually happened. WotC publishes games. When I worked as a...

I could definitely make more use of this. Running a less combat-heavy game I I have a hard time getting my PCs worried about the amount of surges they have remaining (granted, they're pretty awesome) and incorporating this into more appropriate skill challenges is something I should do to make...

I asked myself the same question when I wrote my initial post, but I didn't want to limit the scope of the discussion to rules alone: I want us to talk about anything we like about 4E, be it artwork, rules, the game's "concept" or a combination of all three. I'm especially impressed with the...

The system is very balanced. Granted, on the far end of the character optimization spectrum you'll find characters who are extremely efficient, I can't think of any outright "broken" game mechanics. WotC has done a good job of releasing rules errata and it's easy to put those updates into play...

I know what you mean--it takes some time to open players up to the idea that a skill challenge isn't just a puzzle where you pick the right skills and roll well, but that there's a lot of room for player creativity. I've played a Rogue in LFR and found a way to work Streetwise into any urban...

I've read and posted in a lot of threads about the relative merits and flaws of 4E: those posts make for great debate (this is, after all, a forum) but they don't really leave much room for general appreciation (this, too, is a site for D&D fans). Some fans--and I've been guilty of this...

Agreed. It always struck me as funny that level limits were imposed on non-humans to encourage people to play humans. Why didn't they just create an incentive to play a human? That's one. If the lack of interest in humans had been a problem in my 2E games I might have also tried giving them +1...

You can't make Gary less of a jerk: he's the only one who can do that. But by working through Ted's learning curve and setting the tone by being an active player who makes the game better you can help Ted become a better DM.

I agree, and that's why I "min/max" when I play and encourage my players to do so when I DM, but I think some of the previous arguments in this thread assume that min/max-ing is an "all or nothing" exercise. There is a spectrum of min/max-ing that ranges from "I want my character to be good at...

1. Every good Defender longs to be known as cannon-fodder. There are intricacies to the role, but I've never met a good Defender whose layer wouldn't jump at the chance to be the target of every enemy resource for the duration of combat. 2. IMO the interests of the D&D team don't trump the...

Not to be rude, but why don't you just ask the dude about his character? His build might take multiple levels to develop, he might have tricks up his sleeve, he might have really wanted to test a Dragonborn Swordmage and made choices to compensate for their lack of an INT bonus. Maybe he has a...

At least the judge didn't make him run a game of Rifts...talk about cruel and unusual punishment! Thank you, folks, I'll be here all week. Don't forget to tip your servers.

I'm running my campaign with just the PHB, DMG the DM screen and DDI. I use Monster Builder for finding/creating monsters: so far I've only used monsters that I understand from my 2E/3E days, and from my browsing the MM doesn't seem to be too heavy on ecology/fluff anyway. I've also browsed DMG2...

I disagree: as a DM, my approach to campaign design and my group's approach to play is the same under 4E rules as it was under 2E. The designers--as always--present a playstyle "template" in the rulebooks, but that hasn't stopped us from playing a different sort of game. While running 4E I've...

Good eye! One of my favorite things about growing older and keeping up with D&D is seeing nods to (and even re-imaginings of) earlier materials. I even do it in my homebrew campaigns.

In most situations I would agree with the previous responders, but I enjoy designing, running and playing in rich settings, so I'll play devil's advocate. Here are a few questions I would ask before deciding how much "jargon" to put into my setting: 1. What's the return on investment? Before...