Search results

Although I use 3D minis I have used homemade counters for swarms and things I had no comparable mini for (rage winds for example). After seeing the mummy I was inspired to make a number of 1" rat tokens for a massive swarm and for a black pudding, since they could change shape and divide. -Q.

I keep the casting times for rituals intentionally vague and allow the player to make associated skill checks to speed the process or make slight alterations to the ritual's effects. It's better overall for dramatic effect imo. -Q.

Oh yes, gonna have to make room on the big shelf. Remind me of when I bought the colossal red at Dragon*Con the year it came out and my players said "Are we gonna face that? No way you'll surprise us with that!" I built a subsection of the campaign around introducing it and came an hour early to...

1981 D&D basic, Jailae Shuntec human cleric, bear food on our second encounter. Recycled him for a friend's game and he made it to 9th level before the game ended. -Q.

In my own campaign I use the term "ur titan" to distinguish between huge giants and their progenitors. -Q.

Back in the old days it was a good bit, I loved running classic bits like 'Tomb of Horrors' and I put two groups through 'Scourge of the Slave Lords' and I spent a wonderful year with a group cleansing 'The Temple of Elemental Evil'. During my time running 2E I can honestly say I didn't run or...

Review Review of Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space - RPGnet Sounds interesting, especially the way the rules try to maintain the feel and moral standards of the show. It's one case where I wouldn't mind being a bit straitjacketed for the sake of the genre. -Q.

I've been rebuilding my old campaign world and I'm rereading Jarred Diamond's Guns, Germs & Steel where he explains how circumstance rather than any inherent superiority allowed Europeans to conquer or influence most of the world. It's made me think a great deal about the dynamics of cultural...

In 3.5 I never ran beholder by itself, they always had charmed slaves (I made the assumption that anything hit with the charm ray enough times would eventually become slavish to it's master). The last time I used one it had a number of charmed trolls and I tweaked it's telekinesis so it could...

I love the D12 so much that I usually make my random encounter charts 1-12. As for the D4 it seems to get a good bit of use at our gaming table. -Q.

Is immortality worth the price? -Q.

I remember a few AD&D game where it was used, two chaotic characters trying to drive the lawful cleric nuts by pretending to talk about him in front of his face. They passed notes back and forth and the DM forbade him to read them until he was steaming. As a DM I just sort of ignored the rules...

"When is the Contemplative going to take an action?! He's giving it deep consideration..." "How do you like playing an Adherent? I'm sticking to it." "Why did you land on him? He said he was the softest!" "You're an Erudite you say? How are things in Erudia these days?" -Q.

I'd like to see an UA as well, my own house rules for 4E are only three pages, but by the time I was done with 3.5 my set for those had hit 70 (including campaign specific prestige classes). I'm always interested in more options. -Q.

I have globs of dice, more than I can use, but if I see some pretty design that catches my eye at the Chessex table or online the wallet comes out. I like to switch dice every session and I always keep spares for each player to have his own set or if some lout touched my GM set and gets his...

As one of the most powerful NPCs in my old campaign said when the players asked for his direct help: "I can't scratch my ass without it sending shock waves from here to the far corners of the world." Power having a price was one of the key themes of the campaign and I tried to make it clear that...

Only non-humans could dual or triple class if I recall correctly. If you were a fighter/wizard you had to split your exp between the two classes. Since demihumans only had unlimited advancement in thief, some sort of class/thf combo was common. Humans could change class, becoming a 1st level...

In my homebrew, which stretches back to 2ed, the players always end up in a city called Stormgate and inherit the title The Keepers of Stormgate, which is what the citizen call their greatest heroes. Excepting my last 3.5 campaign ever, where they insisted on calling themselves 'The Turks'. :p -Q.

Don't forget hunting, a trip into the king's reserve provides a chance for combat and possible intrigue: poachers etc. -Q.

In my homebrew dragons are creatures of magic, hybrid beings of both the mortal and spiritual world. When a dragon kills and eats a deer (or anything else) it's not the gross physical matter the dragon needs, it's the spiritual essence that really feeds it. This is why some dragons hunt while...