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While there are many things I like about 4e, I'm sorry to say that I truly dislike the layout of the core books. The large, white spaces on the pages simply fail Layout 101 in most of your basic publishing classes. But skipping that, look at the 3e PHB vs. the 4e PHB. The 3e PHB has colored...

I do a lot of informational cut scenes, actually. And my players actually will ask for them if I don't do one for a while. :) You're right in that you have to keep them really short and to the point. My cutscenes are always less than 5 minutes long. Usually they are only about 2 to 3 minutes...

Interesting. Have you not heard about the numerous TPKs in 4e? When I've played 4e, there have certainly been moments in which the whole party is in danger. Primarily because, if everyone is battered down, there is no "Heal" or insta-cure for everyone to be back up to full. Also, because the...

The advice here is so good, I don't have too much to add, so I'll just reflect a little bit and throw in some advice as it comes. Back in the day, I used a lot of music on cassette tapes. I'd carry around a boom box and play stuff that I had set up on mix tapes or even just pop out a movie...

I think that D&D has many horror elements, simply because horror elements have always been part and parcel of mythology and faerie tales. If you read/listen to a lot faerie tales, they're straight-up horror stories, with suspense, mystery and mysticism built right in. The reason I think that...

To understand RPGA numbers - a game like CoC in the RPGA probably had a few hundred loyal fans. So, for a game like CoC...eh. Not a big deal. Living Death, BTW, was run by Claire Hoffman - though Jae Walker was a big player of Living Death. For a game like Living Death, a few hundred players...

Well, we'll just have to agree to disagree here. For myself, what you propose seems to be a railroad. I'm not saying that you are railroader - I've not sat down at one of your games. But it simply appears that that is what you are proposing. For me, what makes an RPG fun is that I, even as the...

This is true to an extent - however your examples are a bit weak for me. What I see in your examples are things that empower the players. So what? I'm all for empowering the players. You want to make the innkeeper to dance a jig? So what? How does that ruin the game? In fact, it might make it...

It's not so much a need for a robust system outside of combat as it is having plenty of character abilities which affect things outside combat. World of Darkness, D&D 3.5, and many other game systems have a slew of character abilities which affect outcomes outside of combat. In 4E, there's...

You know, I am a bit concerned about what WotC policy for PDFs will do for on-line stores like RPGnow. After all, WotC controls the bulk of the market share. So, if I'm an on-line store, and my biggest seller suddenly pulls their product from my line up...I've now lost a lot of revenue...

I think there seems to be some misconceptions here in this thread. First and foremost, many people seem to be presuming that a) WotC once was an industry leader and is now no longer an industry leader, or that b) WotC was and still is an industry leader, or that c) WotC was never an industry...

Dude, I see so much potential. For example, did the succubus escape? If she did, perhaps she goes and beseeches her Greater Masters for aid? "I want revenge for the death of my son!" If she didn't survive, then you might have the "real" masters behind Vesuvius show up. However, if that's not...

I think this is precisely how a lot of arbitrariness happens in RPGs. The GM calls for a roll, but hasn't decided ahead of time what the DC or target number should be, etc. Then, all of the sudden, the GM is sort of caught in a "should they succeed or should they not succeed" moment...

We probably agree. I believe in a middle ground between planing and going-with-the-flow. I just don't like 110% off-the-cuff style DMing. :)

As many people here have said, it's best to think of the 4e Rogue as just another warrior, albeit with a different style than the armored tank warrior. However, to balance this - now everyone can contribute to disarming a trap. Disarming a trap no longer transforms into a little mini-game in...

Going all the way back to the OP - Ydars - what made you learn lessons as a player this time around as opposed to all of the other times? Just curious. For myself, I've learned the most about DM from being a player. Many people have said this and even the OP, but I'll reiterate it for...

Agreed. There should be a way for the game to express a character who has a "change of heart" or revelation which causes them to go in a different direction.

To answer the OP very easily the PCs are part of a special forces team for their army. And their country is at war. One thing I do like about staging the entire campaign around a war is that the PCs basically have an excuse to do whatever it is that they have set out to do. Whether it be to...

If the poster is referring to the podcast I'm thinking about then the designers never said that they hated Forgotten Realms. Only that they didn't know why it was called "Forgotten" Realms when every inch of the campaign world had been written about, documented, and cataloged. What they wanted...

Right. Thank you. That's all I was saying as well. Interestingly enough, as I look at 4e and think about the blog post - it seems as if this was a very deliberate decision on the part of the designers. If you want to play a sorcerer who becomes a monk in 3e, you can, but that decision will...