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Yep, that's the $64,000 question. My guesses are based on what little we know from 3E (and an innate pessimism), but one thing we can be certain of is that the 4E roll-out will be different. The market is very different from 8 years ago: the demand for a new edition is not as great; the hobby in...

Almost the exact same thing happened with me - a friend started playing Serenity with another group and it sounded so good, I picked up the book. Despite some critical reviews, I like what I saw of the system. I can see the argument, and for a few folks it's a real possibility. The question...

I'm not sure I understand the reasoning behind this statement. Exactly how do 3rd party publishers = more business for WOTC? For this to be true, they have to either bring in new blood, or encourage existing players to not only continue playing the game, but purchase new products. I don't see...

While I agree that trust (definition: everyone focused on having fun together) is the most important element, I won't let rules systems off the hook completely. Sometimes a rules system is just the wrong system for a group. If you want to kick butt and take names, playing Call of Cthulhu...

The problem with D12 is the randomness - 2d6 will roll 12 only 3% of the time. A d12 will do the same 8% of the time. There's a reason that 3.5 took the greataxe away from orcs (hint: too many dead pc's when the orc rolled max damage). That said, d12's are among my favorite dice to roll - just...

Ideally it would be somthing that would appeal to kids, but I'm not up on what the kids like (other than Harry Potter), so I'll skip that genre. Battletech might work - William Keith's Grey Death Legion saga would be pretty good translated to the big screen. Dream Park by Larry Niven might...

Whereas I see them as a high +0, weak +1. That Con penalty hurts, especially if this character has d4 hit points. Bonuses to specific skills are nice, but less flexible than Human skill bonus. Detect magic is useful, but not likely game-breaking. The problem is that while each bonus is not a...

For armor, just have it modify the damage die. Light, -1 step, Medium -2 steps, Heavy, -3 steps. So if the damage is 1d8 + modifiers, it becomes 1d6 (vs light), 1d4 (vs medium), 1d2 (vs heavy) + modifiers. Note, this makes modifiers a bit more important (that can be good or bad, depending on...

Fuzion Champions really wasn't a bad system, it just wasn't "Champions". The designers were very up front in declaring that their intent was to retain some elements of Champions, while "fixing" all the faults, real or perceived. They ended up with a system that was okay, but was more new than...

If WOTC doesn't do it first, then a real introductory rules-set, that can fill the role of the original Basic set.

It's still way too early to get excited, one way or another, about 4E. We have <1% information, >99% speculation, rumor, hyperbole, etc. Based on what I *know*, I'm completely neutral.

Any flexibility can be abused. The worst I ever saw was in a 3.0 game where the GM told us to create 19th level characters for a module he wanted to run. One player created a mind flayer/sorcerer that was light-years ahead of the rest of us. When I pointed out all the illegal things he did in...

Not to be too negative, but what industry? There are what, a couple hundred (few hundred?) full time people working for RPG companies? That's smaller than most companies I've worked for. You have better odds of becoming a Hollywood actor. If you want to work on RPG's (as opposed to a job in the...

Delta Vee is interesting - it's one of the few space combat games that tries to model newtonian physics (once you start moving, you have to apply force to slow down). That said, it has one critical flaw in the sequence of play. Basically, you move, then fire, the other player moves, then...

One GM? Nope. My 1E and 3E groups have been just the opposite - almost everyone GM'd at one time or another. We rotated GM's all the time.

I'm going to disagree slightly. While some players want more complex rules, an RPG doesn't have to have them to be complete or durable. Don't get me wrong - I believe strongly that the rules matter - but it's what a group adds to the rules that make the most difference. I believe the problem for...

Based on what little of the demo I tried out, yep. The main difference is that it's a first-person shooter, not the 3/4 isometric view of Diablo.

Gotta agree. I have no interest in threads where people are just arguing about 4E (especially when such arguements tend to 99% passion, 1% actual knowledge). In the past, I've bookmarked literally dozens of threads that I use for ideas and tips, but almost none in the past several months -...

A bit of a cliche, but you could go with the "tower" actually being a creature from the elemental plane of water. Like a salmon, it always returns to its birthplace to spawn. The saguagin could be from the elemental plane, or they could be local denizens who are expecting the creature to...

Also, too many early 3.x publishers thought that they could put out amateurish material with poor editing, layout, rules-knowledge, etc., and their buyers would "understand". Nope. Once you begin charging for the material, you're expected to be professional. Whether or not you think it's fair...