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Money in D and D has always been a problem. Most of it was hand-waved in very early editions of the game and never fixed. Gygax based wealth on Conan and Fafhrd/Grey Mouser, in which fortunes were (improbably) "lost in a twinkling." This makes great pulp fiction (and is the basis for every...

This and the previous comment are *exactly* what I was talking about. You're arguing for superiority of mechanics, just like it was 1981. And, yes, I am quite familiar with Melee, Wizard, and TFT, having owned first editions of all three. Or more succinctly, you're arguing for orc with a pie.

Just not of "The Gnome Cache" if the gods are merciful...

Just not of "The Gnome Cache" if the gods are merciful...

I'd also be interested in the story of the rights recovery. It's my understanding that the founder of Metagaming essentially disappeared, leaving, for instance, an unclaimed contest that AFAIK has never been solved. Like David Trampier's sudden exit from the world of gaming, this whole saga has...

I owned TFT. I see Jackson's emphasis on the ruleset as common to the old-school era. The market was about Dungeons and Dragons and a few tiny competitors. Near universally, those competitors competed on the basis of their supposedly-superior rules. (Most of this was usually "But TSR isn't...

I remember the FF being greeted with widespread scorn on its arrival. If a twelve-year-old can clock how awful a nilbog is, you've got problems. (Also, how the &$%$ did something like that ever survive the editorial review?) Of course, there were only a bare handful of players in the...

Great thread(s) on Asmodee over at boardgamegeek. The smart money thinks that Eurazeo's play is to shop the company to someone who will develop branded IP in, e.g., movies and video games. It's also likely that many boardgames owned by the cartel, I mean company, will go permanently out of print...

I do user experience consulting. Last week I spoke with a startup who have perfected a $30,000 injection printer. Yep, it's a slightly inferior version of the injection molder used to make, say, those 3.5" Batman action figures. Except the mold for Batman costs $50,000 and the old Batman machine...

It's odd, isn't it? My feeling is that WOTC is *overspecifying*. Calling a spell "Mordenkainen's Sword" in 1e rules allows you to come up with the backstory or just shrug when players ask. Now Mordenkainen is a developed figure with a history that may or may not fit with yours...and if it's...

It's odd, isn't it? My feeling is that WOTC is *overspecifying*. Calling a spell "Mordenkainen's Sword" in 1e rules allows you to come up with the backstory or just shrug when players ask. Now Mordenkainen is a developed figure with a history that may or may not fit with yours...and if it's...

I'd argue it's not so much about politics as it is about framing. But I do psych research, so. People associate Starbucks with a negative experience...and they judge it as negative because millions of people sent strong signals that it is negative. As apes who somehow learned to go to space, we...

I'd argue it's not so much about politics as it is about framing. But I do psych research, so. People associate Starbucks with a negative experience...and they judge it as negative because millions of people sent strong signals that it is negative. As apes who somehow learned to go to space, we...

It would be odd indeed, given that the displacer beast was shamelessly stolen from A.E. Van Vogt. Identity theft maybe?!?

It would be odd indeed, given that the displacer beast was shamelessly stolen from A.E. Van Vogt. Identity theft maybe?!?

Tolkien is a potentially misleading comparison, as the Silmarillion and other early works are full of magic. LOTR represents a world in which much of that magic is gone or slowly leaking out. The real fun of a low-magic campaign has to come from Wonder/Discovery, which is the players...

This looks like a giant steaming turd, especially if those hacks Weis and Hickman are within a country mile of it. Come ON. Have they considered selling the property to Marvel/Disney? That might be a thing.

Is it a good idea to "grow the hobby" with people who think Dungeons and Dragons movies are worth watching??

Honestly, there ought to be a descriptive framework. Pick a few elements--maybe Horror, Mystery, Action, Skills Use, Roleplaying--and rate the adventure 1-10 on each of the scales. Modules that get "10s" on all the axes are suspect. The real work is to figure out what those axes are. All of...

In general, as a grognard who owned all of the common 1e modules and a number of the rarer ones (Dungeonland, Isle of the Ape, Tharizdun, etc.), I'd recommend anything from the A or C series, which were designed to be run at tournaments (i.e., a four-hour slot).