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Lawrence Watt-Evans Ethshar series is great if you're into magic and wizards. The world of Ethshar is populated by a variety of magicians that all use different forms of magic that all function differently and by their own set of rules (wizardry, warlockry, witchery, etc.) and each book explores...

As someone who has tried making my own molds, I will say that (for me at least) it really wasn't worth the time, trouble and expense. It takes a LOT of practice and material to get the molds right. The stuff you're working with (especially the mold release compound) is toxic, smelly and...

Hirst Arts is really the best deal out there if you want solid construction. You can easily build all the dungeons you want with 4 molds (not all of which cost $35, IIRC the accessories mold only costs $15). Once you buy them you can cast thousands of blocks (great value for your money) and you...

I explained it to my wife by putting it in terms of Star Trek. The characters are a group of friends who all have adventures together, like Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty. Every week there is something to do, like kill the evil alien overlord or find the important doohickey to save the ship. The...

sorry.

sorry.

Sorry about the multipost everyone. Something went very screwy when I hit the submit button apparently.

I find your lack of small, nonsequential bills... disturbing.

My closest is about 5 minutes drive away, 15 minutes if I ride my bike.

In the option/versatility type games, the underlying system is usually constructed to make sure every situation has SOME combination of factors that can be tweaked to eek out an advantage. It's not a DM choice, it's built into the combat, skill or metagame resolution systems. I agree that this...

I think the games that make good use of system mastery tend to have a baseline effectiveness everyone can access and a reward system for mastery that allows more versatility and options rather than vastly higher effectiveness. The way I see it, some systems tell the players to choose "A", "B"...

I agree. That has been my experience as well. I'm not so sure this is true. I enjoy some system mastery in a game. My main concern is that a newb player who hasn't mastered the system shouldn't have a character SO ineffective compared to a character made by an experienced player that the two...

I'm not much of a Wizards defender (I was more of a striker during the 3e era :p ), but I think "the past 24 months" is inaccurate. During the 24 months surrounding the the 4e launch (before and after), perhaps. But I think the last year has seen a lot of really positive things (DM rewards...

I voted Psionics. I don't particularly like psionics as a game element, but I don't subscribe to the whole "this SF element doesn't belong in my fantasy game" idea either. I just don't care much about psionics one way or the other.

There is no better introduction to "what RPG gaming is all about" (at least for fantasy adventure roleplaying games) than the Moldvay Basic D&D book (the red book with the Erol Otus cover art). It's 64 pages, has evocative descriptions, a simple, solid rules system and great examples of play...

Sorry if that's the way my comments came across. That wasn't my intent. Good luck with your researches. :)

I can't pretend to read Gary's mind, but I suspect if he were still with us and you were to ask him this question, he would suggest your time would be better spent creating your own dungeons (with ideas borrowed liberally from any source you want) and filling them with your own play experiences...

It sounds like the group has had a lot of experience with John's playstyle, so instituting a "group pow-wow" or a "three strike process" isn't really a solution, it's just another way of postponing the inevitable. John's playstyle doesn't mesh with the rest of the group and it's ruining the game...

I think the assumption was that the DM was busy doing "DM stuff" and shouldn't be bothered with listening to all the player discussion/debate over what to do and that simply waiting for the caller to declare everyone's actions was faster and easier for the DM. I've never played with a group that...

Well, lesson learned for the future at least. It's always difficult to hand the reins of an existing campaign over to another person (especially if that person has a penchant for being manipulative and undependable, as you say this guy does). Awesome! It's amazing how these things tend to work...