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Combat being as important as it is to D&D/Pathfinder, IMO it's worthwhile to schedule a "learn the combat system" session. Just run various combats with the players and their characters, just for practice. Things to teach/learn: Movement, including difficult terrain Reach Cover and...

This is one of my favorite adventures from Dungeon. It is kinda Eberron-specific, though. (BTW, it actually has two sequels. "Quoth the Raven," in 150, and "Hell's Heart," in one of the later online issues.) Oh, there's also "Murder in Oakbridge," another excellent Eberron-specific murder...

Off the top of my head: (1) I'm a geek and I (generally) enjoy being around other geeks. (2) I like playing games I can't play at home, due to time or interest level. (3) I actually enjoy playing RPGs with strangers. When it sucks, it sucks, but when you get a table of good, fun players and...

1E - "Who wants to be the caller?" 2E - "Who wants to map?" 3E - "Who wants to clean the ink off the battlemat?" 4E - "Who wants hold the shakey-cam?" Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?

You need to switch to Bing®, the Decision Engine.

It's also possible to have a hybrid of these, the most obvious (and least satisfying) is a time-related deadline that the DM constantly adjusts for dramatic effects. Although players quickly catch on to this if the DM isn't subtle about it, it's possible to do it well.

Correct. And, yet, not coincidentally, movies are like books in many ways. Depending upon the context, one can analogize meaningfully between movies and books. (Of course, the word "like," which you removed for your argument, makes the difference.)

As I said, this is not always correct. Watch interviews. Different directors work in different ways, and while there are "my way or the highway" directors, they grow increasingly rare. (And, yes, I'm talking about film.) Simply not true in modern cinema. Apparently so.

It's not a perfect analogy, but it's a decent one. Can somebody come up with a better analogy, or are analogies off the table when talking about RPGs, because RPGs are just plain special? Kinda like a director and actors, right? How not? Couldn't Lord of the Rings have been a fantasy RPG...

As a player: I am most comfortable if I have a clear goal. I am not comfortable deciding what the other players' goal is going to be. I don't like playing "60 minute" RPGs, where the characters' goals are so fractured that out of a five-hour game session, each player gets 60 minutes with the...

That's interesting, because I feel that the DM's role is to impartially enforce the rules and to ensure the players' fun. I don't see how I could possibly side with "Mr. Wilder," who clearly doesn't care about ensuring the players' fun! Gee willikers, I'm in a pickle now! (But at least I'm...

So you believe that these are mutually exclusive. Okay. If I believed that they were mutually exclusive ... well, I might do things your way, or I might decide not to DM at all. Tough call.

Actually, I didn't say. If I literally cannot fix my screw-up other than in the (remarkably tiny) window of time following rolling the crit, I will tell the player: "I screwed up earlier, by doing this: <explanation>. That led to this situation, and I just rolled a crit against you, which I'm...

Absolutely. Make-up calls are an abomination. Bad calls happen. It's part of the imperfect system of having human referees. In theory, bad calls for and against a player or team will even out. Deliberately making a bad call is a corruption of the ethics of officiating.

My definition of fudging is apparently much narrower than I'd thought. To fudge - (In an RPG) To alter an ostensibly random outcome after seeing the result and deciding that it is undesirable. I'm pretty strongly on the DM's side, authority-wise, but fudging is the one thing I simply will not do.

Something like 20 cents per linear foot. The one I go to has a width limit of 33 inches.

I feel that. There are certain places that, when I visit, I have to make a Will save to escape solvent. Teacher supply stores -- which I discovered for the super-cheap lamination, when I was playing DDM -- are perfect examples.

First, that's not true. In one case, the DM is actually engaged with the game and with the consequences of the choices he's making in terms of challenges for the players. A DM that thinks about these things -- "can my 4th level group reasonably survive the crit from this T. rex?" -- is a...

Okay, so when you're about to make a roll that may kill every single character, it's still not a good time to "stop and think deeply" about making that roll. Well ... okay, I guess. (But ... seriously?) But even that aside, how does the DM know it's "easier" to just discard some of the...

If that is a possibility that the DM won't accept, why is the DM rolling? There are so many non-fudging ways to avoid this outcome, up to and including, "Sir Merrick, all that ale is really taking its toll. You awaken and reach blearily for the chamber pot, when you hear the almost silent...