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One common style I observed in the Old Days of D&D was of very rapid leveling up until the characters reached the Levels That Didn't Suck, at which point the emphasis and player goals moved away from "make my character better" as a top priority. It sounds to me like your player wants very...

Loretober 31: Tradition The one tradition observed by everyone in the world of Gold-Home is the Great Fall Feast. It's a mandate of the Golden Ones who created the world, and even peoples in tropical lands that don't have a "fall" observe it. The exact date of the Great Fall Feast varies by...

Loretober 30: Export/Import Despite its reputation for insularity, the Furfoot Counties import and export a surprising array of goods. In a halfling burrow-home in the Counties one might find wine from the Kingdom of Vinland, coffee from south of the Wine Sea, tea from the eastern lands of the...

Loretober 29: Artifact December 31 ("Yule") is an artifact of the Minuscule Calendar, a day of the month and year that doesn't belong to any day of the week. On leap years, the day of Wule ("double-Yule") is an additional artifact that likewise doesn't belong to any day of the week. Furthermore...

Thank you. I'll add Issue: The frequent use of temporary ability score increases and decreases is elegant in theory but a pain in the heat of play. Elegant because a broad cascade of effects can be produced by a simple +4 to DEX or -2 to CON. And a pain in the heat of play for the same reason -...

Back in the 3.0/3.5 days I wrote an essay listing the things I loved, things I hated, and things I had mixed feelings about. Posted here: D&D 3E/3.5 - Retro-cloning D&D 3.0 And here are some additional issues I have, despite 3.5e still being my preferred D&D version Issue: The exacerbation of...

Loretober 28: Death Nobody understands death. Not even Death.

There's an incident in Mr. Midshipman Hornblower where Hornblower discovers a group of sailors engaged in illegal gambling over rat-baiting. Since there are no terriers on board ship, the participants have their hands tied behind their backs and attack the rats with their teeth. Goggles are not...

Loretober 27: Gala Not every party is a gala. According to the Correspondence of Sages, for a party to qualify as a true gala it must be a very large party, one at least large enough to fill a huge ballroom to overflowing. It must also be a party that celebrates a special, once-in-a-lifetime...

Loretober 26: Political Leader Great Crilithar became acknowledged, after his death, as the first true Emperor of the Amphorian Empire. In his own time, he was 'merely' the Mayor of Amphora. In that office, he formally annexed nations that had previously been puppets of Amphora, paying tribute...

Loretober 25: Tome The Conjurors' Research Council (the one surviving remnant of the otherwise defunct Wizards' Guild) published the first edition of their Handbook of Alchemy and Metaphysics in the year 7,564. The 40th edition, published two centuries later, put the CRC Handbook essentially...

Loretober 24: Spell "Minute-spells" are minor, flashy spells beloved of apprentices, street conjurers, and hedge mages. They technically can last as long as a day, but very few last longer than a minute. "Day-spells" are the working spells of wizards and sorcerers. They are relatively easy to...

Loretober 23: Boon "Boon" is a term found in the northern dialects of various languages. It has a meaning of "blessing" or "answered prayer," with connotations of the blessing or answer being unusual or special in some way. Some theologians claim that all boons are divine, granted solely by the...

Loretober 22: Coming of Age In the Amphorian Empire (and in the Winesea Islands, after the Empire's fall) a coming-of-age ceremony took the form of a "Doomsday Party." In a Doomsday Party, the young person celebrating his or her coming-of-age wears clothing and applies makeup to appear as an...

I suppose my harshest house rule is "Any clever trick or exploit that the players can use can also be used by the NPCs and monsters." Now this usually works out as "Would this game-element be 'unfair' or fun-killing if used against the PCs? If yes, then it gets banned or nerfed, both for NPC and...

I can understand this in the abstract. But in practical terms it's going to be a highly unusual situation, at least in my games, where player knowledge is significantly greater than character knowledge. The PCs, after all, live in a world where those monsters are real, and are engaged in a...

Loretober 21: Sport The stereotype, when it comes to halfling sports, is that they're all of the aiming and throwing sort, or even that they're limited to darts and to various forms or target archery. Wrestling, however, is also a popular halfling sport. The halfling enthusiasm for wrestling is...

What I find attractive about your "must have something from the type of creature being shapeshifted into" rule is that it makes intuitive sense from a simulationist perspective. That it would also cut down on gamist-style player exploitation of shapeshifting is, for me, just a bonus. I'm not...

Loretober 20: Occupation "Manacle Maker" (or "Shackle Smith") is an established occupation, with reports indicating it to be better known here than in the various otherworlds, even if not actually more common. Before the founding of Great Amphora, and in the early days of the Amphorian Empire...

I'm an old-time rebel against harsh old-school-style rules, going back to the days when old-school was still new. But this... this is something I might actually adopt myself, at least for shapeshifting magic. Although I'd be inclined to make it a focus, instead of a component.