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That's an interesting thought. I might actually try that. ALmost allof our games have an elaborate "draft" process by which players select their PCs from a slate of possible characters. It is something we've all come to look forward to and lends itself well to one of the players/co-refs painting...

Oh I agree; I need to get my *players* to watch those shows :)

I do play to my audience which is why I haven't run that type of start yet :) I like to have a little buy-in with the players while preserving something dramatic for the campaign start; it usually helps kick things off crisply. When I offer them the outline of several starts, it is with the...

Not yet; I'd like it to be a complete surprise but the next time I try, I may hint at it since the current course has failed so miserably :p

A recent thread got me to thinking about starting a campaign with the players in a military order. I’ve considered it a few times for my campaigns but have always shied away from it due to player objections. Most players seem at best lukewarm to the idea and a few are vociferously opposed to...

Simple but not necessarily very effective for a campaign meant to last a while. It's possible to start a game without much setting work but I wouldn't recommend it for anything except for a short throw-away campaign. For me, a setting is key to the sense of verisimilitude that I expect in a...

That's the way I read it, myself. One might still expect some authority to order the players to various places but it need not be for large unit combats. In wars, you still need scouts and there are still small skirmishes. The authority need not exist at all of the party is acting on its own...

After reading both, I prefer the second but I will say as I read the first it seemed fine. But between the two, I've always loved "dark age" kind of settings. I find them an interesting period. My current campaign setting is a dark age period and I've used them a number of times. From a...

I've always gone with the current system. I don't convert a campaign mid-course but when one ends, I roll to the next one. I have generally found the merits of the new system out weight sticking with the old one. That even applies for me with 4E which initially I despised but have come to...

I think there is a lot of merit to the concept. The example I always used for this was a member of an assassins guild. Within it the members may act very lawfully and to some extent might even be considered neutral or even good in terms of the sacrifices they are willing to make for others in...

I agree this is a heavy hammer to use and a problemmatic one but if the referee really doesn't like the behavior and is not willing to eject the player, I think the referee needs to try something and tiered XP awards will alter behavior. Something needs to give. A referee tolerating disruption...

For one thing, when a science fiction setting wants to introduce "magical powers" it is often treated as psionic powers, some sort of mental ability to see or control things. As example is the Traveller system and to some extent Star Wars. This makes psionics to me, something used more often in...

It is tempting to kick a player like that. You need to evaluate your external friendship with him and his impact to your own game enjoyment as well as the other players to make a decision. As much as it annoys you, it is tolerable if it is not overly impacting the other players. But if it is...

I'm a strong 'no' on psionics. Fundamentally for me, psionics seems to be a science fiction game element that has no place (for my aesthetics) in a fantasy game. My other objections: Most systems, D&D in particular, already have many sources of magic power (divine, arcane-study for wizards...

Interesting choice of D&D attributes since some of them are not in 4E ;) Good question, though, especially with the major change of 4E which for the record, after some test sessions and a campaign that started a few months ago, so far I am really enjoying. I guess for me, it isn't so much...

This is a matter of style so YMMV as they say but I find it useful to mentally anticipate several outcomes to any encounter. It helps me be open to outcomes I didn't expect. If I have just one expectation in mind, it can be easy to try to slant things that way (hey, we're all human). Also, by...

I think my post on another thread spurred this one and I'll admit I could have been more diplomatic. However, my intent was entirely from the "how can we do something different to avoid this" school of thought and not the "poster X is an idiot" school of thought. While I have not to my memory...

There are expectations and then there are EXPECTATIONS. Meaning, we (almost) all try to predict a little about where the game heading to we can prepare appropriate material if it doesn't already exist. Where the problem arises is if our expectations limit the freedom of the players. Thinking...

Thinking about this, while I may have chosen to flee, I'm not sure I would have chosen to try boarding the enemy ships without some indication that we were a superior force in some ways. Additionally, once our ship was blasted to little bits, we probably would have a boarding action anyway...

I heartily agree. I once worked up a really elaborate set of castle plans (5' scale, all floors mapped, many pages of maps and notes.) The players managed to avoid it by going in some other direction. They knew I had been working on it so we ended up with a running gag about the "distant sound...