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I have tried point-based systems, skill-based systems, mana-point systems, keyword/rune-based systems and fixed-power-based systems. They have all had their advantages and disadvantages. At one point I felt the Vancian system was archaic and stupid. That was approximately 25 years ago. My...

Honestly, I'm not sure, since I don't have the 3E PHB in front of me. We always played it as 15d6 in that situation. The SRD does say this: "An empowered, maximized spell gains the separate benefits of each feat: the maximum result plus one-half the normally rolled result."...so I think...

Empower Spell, however, is a 3.0 and 3.5 feat that is core. When we played D&D 3.X up to Epic, the high-level wizard always had some empowered fireballs handy, which did 15d6. To say nothing of Delayed Blast Fireball (also core) which could do up to 20d6.

Another great review, Merric. Thanks!

For years I did group XP. With 3E we returned to mostly individual XP with the occassional bonus. I eventually switched to purely group-based XP. By the time we reached 4E, I was beginning to tire of the traditional 'DM does math at the end of the session to figure out XP'. We then sat down...

Well, there were several, to be sure. The first games we played were Basic D&D, Red box and they were pretty fast and loose. There wasn't a concept of story, per se. The whole idea of the RPG was still taking shape and while it was clearly a game of the imagination, the 'game' part loomed...

Tomorrow's game will feature the players leading a pre-emptive strike against a Storm Legion base, known as Doman'Sass or "The House of Little Shadows". Located amidst The Riftlands, an entire continent that was shattered like a pane of glass from an ancient magical catastrophe. Visualize...

I realize that, I'm saying I didn't like it. I think the concept of roles ossified some of the classes under 4E. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy 4E, but this is one the aspects of it that didn't appeal to me. Telling me the fighter is the one-eyed man among the blind in a kingdom of...

I should hasten to point out that I don't think the 4E fighter isn't a good class...it's not what I or my group envisioned the fighter to be, after four previous editions of the game (including BD&D for us). He's good at what he does, but he couldn't do what he used to...and that happened to be...

The 4E fighter was probably the biggest source of disappointment to some of my players. The reason being is that 4E made the fighter into something we didn't want. I LOVED the 3E fighter. Compared to the fighter of previous editions, he was exciting. He was customizable and could support a...

I just realized I haven't posted any new maps in AGES. I'll fix that this week.

My experience has been that there is no one single program that will meet the criteria you have, but some will do some tasks well. There are issues, depending on what you want to do. First off, the recommendation of Cartographer's Guild is Spot On. There are a lot of really nice maps there...

I've only played a few times, but I do posses a decent sized German army and am currently painting an American army. Some thoughts: It is NOT CHEAP. Even if you have the paints and other equipment, the miniatures can start to hit serious money. Battles are waged on the company level, but...

It's been a few years, but in one of my games, the party's rogue was granted a favor by a being she eventually realized was the avatar of her deity, a trickster god who also happened to be god of the dark elves (a mirthless elven race created by said god to mock the original creations of one of...

Agreed. I think the tools given were poorly executed...had WotC actually worked more on them, I think they would have truly been an innovation worthy of regular use. But too often, skill challenges were used sloppily or as just a combat using skills instead of powers. Piratecat's 4E story...

Argh. Double-post.

I generally liked everything I heard there. Implementation will be everything, but Monte has usually excelled in this area and playtesting is strong and on-going. More importantly, it sounds like they're informed by previous editions in a way that reminds me more of 3E's advancements of the...

I think the real question is how much money was that market base actually spending? I don't know. My expectation, though, is that it wasn't economically worth WotC/Hasbro's time to support two editions. WotC is a company that lays off people pretty much annually, now, so I suspect they look...

From WotC/Hasbro's perspective, they're right. To WotC: OD&D, OSRIC, BD&D, 1E, 2E, 3E, and 3.5E players all have one thing in common: they don't contribute to WotC's continued survival as a company financially in a significant way. It was a poor PR move to stop selling PDFs, but I'd wager it...

Arguably, this has been a problem for D&D since Basic was released. There has not been an adequate entry-point into the hobby like this for a long time. WotC has tried several times, but I still don't think they've managed it, yet. Too many recent efforts have either come across as incomplete...