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  1. rmcoen

    What's In The Cards? Looking At Some Card-Based Tools For Your Game

    I think it would be interesting to have the Fate cards, and add them to a D&D campaign session. Draw three or five cards from the deck; you can spend one card per encounter, however you like. Bonus/Penalty to AC, accuracy, damage, saves, whatever. Alternatively, you can "spend" the card to...
  2. rmcoen

    The Gunfighter: A Full New Class for 5th Edition!

    Other classes take a powder, the gunfighter is here! We're going to have a ball with this one.
  3. rmcoen

    From 7 Action Types To Pathfinder 2's New 3 Action Economy

    Here's an easy "separation from commoner": Adventurers get 3 actions, commoners get 2. works with "lesser" monsters and foes, too. Maybe kobolds, wolves, and goblins only get 2 actions, but the goblin bodyguard and the shaman get 3, and the chieftain gets 4...
  4. rmcoen

    From 7 Action Types To Pathfinder 2's New 3 Action Economy

    Depends on how the feats are defined. spending two actions to get three specific effects (like the Charger mentioned above) is reasonable, and seen in many other games. The RuneQuest/Mythras system gives 2 or 3 Action Points, and defending yourself from an attack is an Action -- so feel free...
  5. rmcoen

    Lovecraftian Corruption In Your Role-Playing Campaigns

    I have played in one game that used corruption, and written a few backstories/worlds that never got run as campaigns. Generally, "corruption" in those settings was handled more as "mutation" than "lessening of rationality and control" (the definition of "insanity" I'll use here). I've played a...
  6. rmcoen

    20 Random Battlefield Events To Add Chaos To Combat!

    This is a fun idea. I was thinking something similar recently, but along the "when initiative matches" lines like pmming. I would probably have a default table with a slightly less exotic set of options, like ClaytonCross suggested, and then a tailored table for exotic and specific locales...
  7. rmcoen

    Heroes In Shades Of Grey

    When I sit down to plan a new campaign, I generally start with a starting hook, and three distant goals (partially why 4e resonated with me). Thinking back over the current and previous half-dozen campaigns, the end goals have been: stop a Far Realms incursion, stop a barbarian invasion...
  8. rmcoen

    Looking At Dungeon Tiles Reincarnated

    Like several other respondents, I mix and match these tiles with a standard beige dry-erase battlemat. Most of the time what happens is I draw the room on the battlemat, then use all the little extras from the boxes to enhance it. the last battle, for example, was in a "storage vault" with a...
  9. rmcoen

    D&D 5E (2014) UA - Into the Wild

    This, definitely this! Long-term drain/exhaustion. Proper preparation mitigates the drain, but these aren't wounds a cure spell can just fix... Ultimately, though, adventurers in a "normal rules" situation have so many resources that it just comes down to Time. (unless they are 0th or 1st...
  10. rmcoen

    Unearthed Arcana Into the Wild: New Unearthed Arcana Covers Wilderness Exploration

    This, definitely this! Long-term drain/exhaustion. Proper preparation mitigates the drain, but these aren't wounds a cure spell can just fix... Ultimately, though, adventurers in a "normal rules" situation have so many resources that it just comes down to Time. (unless they are 0th or 1st...
  11. rmcoen

    Just How Immersive Can You Get?

    I'm surprised that World of Prime didn't come up. http://www.mcplanck.com/books.html Planck has a civil engineer dropped into a world that takes the concepts of 3e rules and the society that might "realistically" arise around leveled individuals... and then disrupts the whole thing with modern...
  12. rmcoen

    Whatever Happened to D&D's Underdog?

    I've been gaming with pretty much the same group of people for the last 19 years (give or take fluctuation in jobs and such). I've been the GM for 18 of those 19 years, through about 4 campaigns. The second one I ran began with 0-level characters (D&D 2e Skills & Powers), and is still...
  13. rmcoen

    RPG Evolution: The Lost Art of Packing It All In

    I think this is probably the key issue. When I was a kid, I *loved* the game Payday. I would play it against myself if no one was available! Now that I *live* that life of bills and budgeting, it's not fun at all! Likewise, I have three kids' stuff, friends, and activities to manage, every...
  14. rmcoen

    Is D&D Too Focused on Combat?

    IME, if you don't have a good story, the (RPG) rules don't matter. The players will go play a boardgame that fills their "combat itch". Having said that, the way the rules are written can and will influence the will the story is told and played. If you are playing a grim & gritty game system...
  15. rmcoen

    The Grim World Of Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play Second Edition

    My character, if I recall, got us the job at the village tavern, getting the mayor to hire a pair of unknowns, and pay us half up front (for supplies). Then we went into the woods, got into the first fight, and I died. I think I missed the first parry, took the hard hit, and things went...
  16. rmcoen

    The Grim World Of Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play Second Edition

    I remember playing exactly one game of WH 2e, and discovering that the heavily armored dwarf warrior was a much better (read = survivable) character than my quick-stepping elven thief. I took a hit, got badly injured, missed a lot, then took a second hit and died. He took hit after hit...
  17. rmcoen

    Surviving A Dangerous Night Of Gaming With Original Dungeons & Dragons

    Our college house rule was "75%". d8 = 6hp, d4 = 3hp. No rolling. Having popcorn characters resulted in very little investment in the characters, their relationship to the world, and in role-playing. We got silly caricatures, little commitment to the campaign (player attendance), and no care...
  18. rmcoen

    Basic Fantasy Role-Playing: An Entertaining Game With One Of The Most Robust Communities You'll Find

    Thank you for writing the article, and bringing this new system to light (for me). I'm always interested in seeing other options and opportunities. Ultimately, the *story* is what brings and keeps the players in an RPG; otherwise, you're playing a miniatures game, which tends to attract a...
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