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While I voted no in the poll, I have no problems with wish lists in D&D, and don't value mystery when it comes to magic items. I think that sort of mystery can never last, is highly subjective in appeal, and shouldn't be written in as the default. I would prefer magic items not to add bonuses...

Players whose characters are all inexplicably brave past the point of foolhardiness, constantly taking crazy and unnecessary risks, getting the whole party in trouble, and often getting other characters killed. Players who treat their PCs as completely expendable, and who have no value on...

I thought 1e thieves were noticeably weak PCs, who suffered from the highest death rate in D&D, higher than low level magic users. This was the name "thief" seemed to mean many players felt obligated to try and steal from the party, and some wouldn't stop even when repeatedly caught. This led to...

The balance of 2e speciality priests was awful, even for 2e. Most of the kits were crippled, a few were overpowered We have announcements of two priest-type classes - a fairly conventional armoured cleric and a more pure-caster unarmoured priest class. These two different classes are good bases...

I prefer 4e-type balance to all-or-nothing methods proported to provide "balance" - spell disruption, aging, system shock, death chances on teleport etc etc. In my experience the latter mechanics are catastrophic in the hands of bad GMs and prone to massive error in the hands of average GMs...

One way I can think of to reduce the book-keeping, and really hit players where it hurts, is to penalise everyone with the same amount of xp for one person using particular sorts of magic, like "I win" buttons. I think this is better than having one person fork up the xp, as other players may...

Given regrettably low proofreading standards, and the immense difficulty of getting fiddly mechanics exactly right the first time round, I don't expect any system ever produced to be flawless. I want it to be useable out of the box. I actually value a constant stream of meaningful errata...

It's interesting that you give the example of magic missile, which in many of it's incarnations was auto-hit, which misses the point that I was focussing on the success chance issue. I think that psychologically there is a real difference between 100% chance of low damage 50% chance of low...

Concerning lower ability in a pillar, I think it's important that the lower ability is of the "lesser effect" kind, not the "much less chance of any success" kind. With a simple succeed-or-fail sort of check, reducing success chances can soon feel like the player is wasting his time even trying...

I grew tired of constant chokepoint fights in 3e. The lack of tanking mechanics meant most fights had to be at chokepoints to isolate monsters from the squishies in the party. That and the need for full attacks made 3e combat very static. I would prefer not to go back to static chokepoint...

I would far prefer to avoid unrestricted multiple attacks for any class in the new edition, as that way lies brokeness. Any static bonuses to hit, or especially damage are multiplied dangerously by multiattacking, and tend to marginalise any other options provided to the detriment of variety. I...

Not my experience. New players of 4e have enough info on their character sheet to let them run their character. It takes time to run such a PC well, but the leniency of 4e doesnt demand super efficiency and they are far more self contained than eg spellcasters in previous editions, which...

This isn't a fact for everyone, as I have no such problem,as to me such abilities reflect the exploits of typical action film heroes, and want non-magical classes to have such resources. Old Irish folk tales had warriors as the heroes, and they performed amazing feats which would be most...

Two comments. First, I think CaS is much easier for new referees, as CaW requires a lot of system knowledge and background prep to make possible. New referees generally need relatively simple straightforward linear adventures, which CaS works better for IMO. The proposal for a single unified...

AFAIK this is done by having Drama points in the system that can be used for narrative purposes, introducing or modifying plot details, getting skill bonuses, emergency healing, and lucky escapes. There are different classes in the Buffy RPG, with the combat heroes having straightforward power...

As I see it the DM can always win if he really wants to. The players need a at least a chance to win, games where the PCs always lose tend to fall apart. So in groups that work, the PCs need to succeed at least part of the time. It's just a question of where the DM draws the line on what works...

I have seen a lot of hostility to the idea of combat roles in 4e, and I have a theory that at least some of this is about the competing ideals of the individual PC vs the group in D&D. In previous editions of D&D, while teamwork amongst the PCs was typical, there was also room for competition...

Healing in combat can't be separated from a number of other factors, which include: swinginess of combat how easy it is for PCs to die in combat can PCs bounce back from unconciousness? duration of average and long combats ease of making and introducing new PCs Disallowing combat healing or...

I like the char gen mini-game, and the poll results suggest a majority of the readers of this post do as well. I suspect more casual players, less likely to frequent this site, would have a majority that wouldn't like the character generation mini-game. Which illustrates one of the issues of...

I prefer Combat as Sport to Combat as War, so I'm trying to articulate my preference. This is a matter of taste and everyone is entitled to their opinion. The issue of concern is that systems are often biased in favour of particular game styles, so everyone wants the new game to address their...