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  1. Rob Kuntz

    D&D General Experience Points & Leveling: A Brief Primer on XP in the 1e DMG, and Why It Still Matters

    Righto. And you'll be happy to know that Gary never used it either! :) No one in our game groups did. If that starts an inter-topic response, let it be known that I'm heading to bed here in France to avoid that fusillade. ;)
  2. Rob Kuntz

    Dragonlance Elmore's 'The Four Women of Dragonlance' Painting Is Finished

    OK. It's static bordering on lifeless. They are in the wild but the wild is not in them. The backdrop could have been a sleepy morning bus stop for all of the foregrounded lack of vitality. Love his colors, as usual. But the composition as a whole? Nope. And I really wish it wasn't so.
  3. Rob Kuntz

    Dragonlance Elmore's 'The Four Women of Dragonlance' Painting Is Finished

    I love Elmore's art but really find this one lacking in some sense. Still studying why that's my first impression.
  4. Rob Kuntz

    Goal-Based Level Ups

    You are too logical. Go to the back of the class! ;) As per the OP's Q: Yes some of it this would work. Sure would like to see a play session example, though. Some of it has been added to games over the past but a codification of tiers would be a nice starting point.
  5. Rob Kuntz

    The JRR Tolkien Pronunciation Poll

    This is a "keen" poll... ;)
  6. Rob Kuntz

    D&D General On Grognardism...

    For the last I cannot say. Only you know you and your players. I'm just working from a general knowledge pool with others and from my own specific experiences. Maybe BitD people were less selfish? I dunno. All I know is that it's way too complicated for something that should be as easy as...
  7. Rob Kuntz

    D&D General On Powerful Classes, 1e, and why the Original Gygaxian Gatekeeping Failed

    Yep. Exponential works both ways, at least when I last looked at my abacus... ;)
  8. Rob Kuntz

    D&D General On Grognardism...

    Well, if you're in an abusive relationship what does one normally do? Get out (unless one is co-dependent). As for the DM as administrator, or worse, as only a cog in WotC's machine of fun production, that has been the prob since 3E. I suppose the solution will be found at each singular table...
  9. Rob Kuntz

    D&D General On Grognardism...

    The feature of design is also baked into the OD&D set and AD&D to a certain extent, so to steal @Democratus ' quote,"This is a feature and not a bug."
  10. Rob Kuntz

    D&D General On Grognardism...

    You don't need a set of rules to have DM Agency. This is where latter editions of the rules fail to note, in deference to a minority view that all DMs "might not be fair," that a DM has final agency; and where they misstep in that the players can exit the game, en masse, to show their...
  11. Rob Kuntz

    D&D General On Grognardism...

    Compromise is more readily (in games) brought about by differences rather than conflict, though in some cases they could be viewed as the same. The Classic style, which I myself refer to it as, results from informed need, and the latter will differ greatly depending on DM or player inquiry...
  12. Rob Kuntz

    D&D General On Grognardism...

    This harkens back to EGG's open stance in 1974, "If you don't like the rules then bloody change them." (paraphrase). It also exposes that "compromise" actually proceeds/is a reaction to the "median design meant for median use." But people are individuals and do not, in whole, gravitate to...
  13. Rob Kuntz

    D&D General On Grognardism...

    Yes. The more one foregrounds the mechanics a swelling standardization will occur and the resulting, and often flaring, POVs.
  14. Rob Kuntz

    D&D General On Powerful Classes, 1e, and why the Original Gygaxian Gatekeeping Failed

    The first time we (Gary, myself, Terry Kuntz and Ernie Gygax) heard about Dave's new concept has been detailed from start to finish in my relatively new publication, "The Game that Changed Everything" Sage's Tower (RPG History) About the progression approach. It works. It also works to have...
  15. Rob Kuntz

    D&D General On Grognardism...

    One-True-Waysim is possibly the most toxic of the lot and of course is the exact opposite of what Gygax and Arneson (myself included) extolled before it came to the LGTSA, during playtesting the concept, and after its publication in 1974. The wrench of "standardization" with AD&D divided the...
  16. Rob Kuntz

    D&D General On Powerful Classes, 1e, and why the Original Gygaxian Gatekeeping Failed

    Hind sight is 20/20. We had only 1 game from Arneson to digest the system. then his notes, typed, and then we went gonzo on it, with it in the playtests. The rules, 10 pages to start, grew in the backwash of the playtests, page by page. Normally rules are fashioned up front and then...
  17. Rob Kuntz

    D&D General On Powerful Classes, 1e, and why the Original Gygaxian Gatekeeping Failed

    Well, I made no claim to best stats/worst stats. In Brian Blume's short-lived game (late '74) I elected to play a dwarf and proceeded to roll a 4 intelligence for him. Brian said I could roll over but I decided to keep it and name him "Dorf". I RPd him to the hilt. Many funny parts, such as...
  18. Rob Kuntz

    D&D General On Powerful Classes, 1e, and why the Original Gygaxian Gatekeeping Failed

    That's right. But this is our games only. When we did Greyhawk Supplement #1 which intros the Paladin (and Thief) this left it up to straight rolls from players in other games. By then it was becoming intuited, I feel, that some of these rolls had to be discarded. The "Argh" Rule by both...
  19. Rob Kuntz

    D&D General On Powerful Classes, 1e, and why the Original Gygaxian Gatekeeping Failed

    In both our games either as co-Dms or DMs, we used a 4d6 roll for PC stats and dropped the lowest die roll,; in addition to this we sometimes rolled over on 1's, and sometimes we used 3d6 roll over on 1's, and/or on 1's and 2's. NPCs were always 3d6 straight up. Note: this is part of a House...
  20. Rob Kuntz

    D&D General On Grognardism...

    The older editions only get better through manicuring the warts and adding some house rules. The rules are very modular and to me that's always been a big plus.
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