Search results

I think fundamentally the coup de gras mechanics need to be changed. Allow assassins to coup de gras more easily. I would so something like: Coup de gras: if a target is unaware or unable to defend itself, an attacker can make a coup de gras. The target of the coup de gras must make a d20 +...

I think one of the primary contributing factors to the deteriorating market of RPG players is that the rules books are daunting. When I was 9 years old and played my first D&D adventure, DMed by my brother (8 years older than I), the rule books were so intimidating that I thought one must be a...

I have had a few characters and neutral parties engage in such behavior. I've had a long recurring group of chaotic individuals who believe entropy is the only path to societal improvement. Essentially they are organized anarchists, as strange as that sounds. Their leader is a millennia old...

What makes a setting interesting? I think places are cool, but they are usually just rocks and water and trees and stuff. So, in essence the setting geography is an integral but minor part in my opinion. The true guts of the setting are the cultures, the history, and the people. I think...

Your numbers are pretty good. You have to remember most adventurers travel with a healthy dose of gear as well. In the real world, special forces can travel with a weapon, ammo, and fifty or so pounds of gear around thirty miles a day in pretty calm environs and around twenty miles in rough...

if you are open to using apps on your phone, dice rollers and the like are greatly helpful. You can also use rpg side kick for android to input bad guy stats. I just use a spreadsheet or more commonly a piece of paper, heh.

I think efficiency versus elaboration is a spectrum largely based on individual and party preference. But, I think in general skipping the less essential content in favor of more interesting fare is typical at most tables. The danger of this is creating a tone of intentional road blocking. In...

So I've been thinking about it, and I have a natural inclination to create obstacles for a party through some kind of antagonist. That antagonist might not be a single person, but it usually is embodied by an individual or a group of individuals, whether sentient or not. More recently in my...

Villains should be multi-layered and not an archetypal caricature. If the tone of the game is giga-extreme, or based on superlatives of ethics or something, then I guess it is alright for the villain to be a paragon of a particular theme, such as death. In most cases though, villains should...

I typically prefer cities to have evolved naturally over the course of history. Therefore my campaign world has to have such a history as to have an impact on a city. On top of that, I consider things such as geography, climate, and other natural influences that could change or alter how the...

To be honest, what you have already is about as detailed as I would go. I ran a 224 session campaign in 4e that had a mega-giga-ultra-supra plot. I wrote it down as one word: Primordials. I didn't touch it again until about level 6. Now, this is somewhat personal taste, but every ounce of...

Remember that we're using normal human vision. Depending on what universe or setting you're in, creatures can see considerably better and farther than humans. Elves in LoTR and other similar settings can supposedly see thrice as far as humans. Twenty medium creatures would be very very...

The 3 miles is a pretty good answer, on a hilltop it could easily be triple that. Seeing that far and understanding what you're looking at are very different matters however. It would have to be subsequently large enough groups to be visible at greater than a mile away. Rescue pilots can see...

I really like what you've done here. Have you worked on this entirely by yourself?

I think Star Wars Saga Edition is the best choice. It is a system I have extensive experience with, and can be really easily refluffed to make a whole slew of different settings. I'm the lead designer for a Modern/Sci-fi system called OMEN RPG. If you guys are interested in being a playtest...

I think another one that might be less cool but simpler than obviate is "ward." It sounds like a block or mental dodge in my head. Although wouldn't 10 + Intelligence or Willpower make more sense for this kind of attack? Yet, that's another matter :)

I like things to make sense. If something doesn't fit or belong contextually, then it shouldn't exist. If something is out of place, it should be interesting enough to have a purpose and reason to exist out of place. Even if that reason is as simple as the person who owns it brought it to a...

I think that house rules should realistically fall under the DM's jurisdiction. Essentially the less rules the players need to know, the more interactive they can be with their character. Of course this is my opinion, and a lot of players love tons of crunch, but I've always found that if a...

Gornok's Tusk Marrow Drinkers Cairn of Gornok [Mountain Name] Raiders Gornok'uns Gorenok's Gorers Razorhide Rampagers I prefer to name things in the native language, so if they speak some general form of goblinoid, it would have lots of guttural and consonant sounds. Tulkanag al Gornok Akk...

I don't know how official or legitimate this was, but for years at any of my pre-4e groups we used single effect damage = (level + 5)x2 to (level + 10)x2. This is sort of a sloppy hack for rules, but it was pretty easy to remember as a DM and felt like it fit nicely. Most 3.x characters had 6...