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Around 1984 or so, I ran a campaign modeled on Adams' "Horseclans" series. The main character was "Bili the Axe," a fighter with considerable psionic abilities of danger sense and telepathy. Only the danger sense really gave him an edge: the telepathy was only useful for role-playing. The...

I saw the ten-to-one ratio, and it seemed so out of place I assumed it was a fluke example -- possible but not exemplary. That was my bias, which your quotes show was really not well founded. I had been telling myself it was just one isolated piece of evidence, when in fact there was a lot of...

If you're in 3.5, a wizard with Martial Weapon Proficiency (shortbow) would be my first choice. Also, HeroBizKit's suggestion of an Aristocrat sounds interesting. Personally, I tend toward wizards, but possibly an Aristocrat could be cooler if the party already has a wizard. Even if the party...

I've played a lot of campaigns where the party would end up getting stuck somewhere without the possibility of resting to regain spells. So frequently the wizard would run out of spells first. The fighter and thief would still be able to use all their abilities. The cleric would get to pick...

I've used gods as NPCs. It worked pretty well except they tended to be just a touch too important to the setting. If you throw down the central deity of the pantheon, a lot of characters might start worshipping that deity even though you don't want it to be a big part of the story. Like all...

Having recently been told that I overemphasized the importance of killing and conquest in D&D, I've been looking at some old texts relevant to D&D. I couldn't find anything to substantiate the notion that treasure was supposed to be much more important than battle. First, Gygax's Role Playing...

Ancient cults of fertility promoted sex because they were interested in all aspects of expanded life for the tribe -- particularly children and crops. I would rule that if a fertility goddess was sponsoring a priest, that priest had better have at least twenty viable children, expected to live...

Howdy Colonel, and thanks for the advice! I think I need to motivate folks to seek the rewards -- both for convincing business customers to commit resources and for convincing gaming groups to really get emotionally involved in a game's goals and spirit. The two contexts are widely separated --...

The first time I saw a Buffy episode, I was with some female (and hardcore feminist) friends of mine who loved the show. I noted that it might appeal to hardcore feminists, but I had no emotional identification with any of the characters and the action appeared random and poorly choreographed...

For the most part, my experience has been the opposite: even though several groups started out as friendly, they had a tendency to drift apart and break up. Conventional politics was less important than cultural difference in this regard. Another problem is that it's easy to find a few dozen...

Hmm. If I can't figure out what the trainees find to be fun, maybe I can find out from the folks who deal with them every day. If I knew them better, I could keep them more engaged. I am happy to say that various forms of internet simulation games -- some serious, some playful-- seem to be...

Treebore, the pictures of your house seem to be missing today. I can see the site with the gemstones,though: those are some amazing stones. The AD&D DMG inspired me to take a geology class, but I stopped there. I'll also second the sentiment that role-playing is a healthier form of escapism...

Traveller definitely does require that you pick your battles and avoid getting forced to a battle that you can't win. It can get very unpleasantly gritty if you run some of the old adventure modules which are about how you live in a world where arbitrary individuals can send you to jail...

Yeah, I keep coming back to Basic/Expert and AD&D. You're right, Classic Traveller is very different from the later editions. I'm looking at GURPS Steampunk right now. The main writer was apparently a science editor, and his book does indeed stimulate me to research history of science, but...

I think I know a major cause of power-gaming, level-grind, munchkinism, etc. I think it's the arms race between players and DMs -- wherein the game companies are selling munitions to both sides. If the rulebooks give crunchy bits to the DMs which can be used to awe the players, then the...

I suspect a lot of folks will continue to tell me that I'm way out in left field for this. There might be something worth discussing here, there might not. I might be stupid, I might be otherwise.

If I had to sum up the flavor of D&D to me, I think I would say it is an Alice-in-Wonderland story of mystery and danger, with lots of close-ups on specific scenes. Similarly, Traveller is a wide-ranging view of a space empire that emphasizes application of general formulas. GURPS is a...

Hobbyists tend to add a lot of freeware to the market, so I doubt it's really a market niche. I would suggest choosing the players who you think add a lot to your games. Show them a few D&D books (I would start with Basic D&D in the red Erol Otus box, and the AD&D corebooks). Ask them, "Okay...

Are memes enough to constitute involvement? Context: Stross claims Gygax is the world dictator of gaming vision at: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2006/07/gary_gygax_world_dictator.html I frequently find myself in the minority because I often claim that Gygaxian writing extends...

For everyone else, I should preface all of them with a bit more explanation. I think the great names of role-playing are massively influential, and Gygax is the single most influential person. In fact, I annoy a lot of folks by saying that if only Gygax had done X, Y, or Z differently, we...