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I think it's the word "steam" that leads to confusion, insofar as Eberron is a steampunk/steam fantasy-setting-but-without-steam. I find it closer to gas-lamp fantasy but this is neither here nor there; a "non-victorian steam fantasy setting but without steam" actually describes Eberron pretty...

The final dungeon is a tavern were villains meet

Although this was 2e AD&D and material components were already turned down a notch, my thief/mage elf character would refuse to cast some spells based on their material components (and was part of the in-game reason for multiclassing). "I have to eat a live spider to cast spiderclimb! Ewww, no...

I tend to see innovation as a way to move things forward to make them better, or at least better for the themes/concept/style you're looking for. Putting old elements in a new context (like borrowing rules or mechanics) is a form of innovation, and looking at what others have done in the past...

Which is funny because crickets (plural) are indeed a natural white noise generator but alone, a (singular) cricket prevents a lot of people from falling asleep!

To be fair (ha!) with the OP however, his method **is**fair despite the (rather safe) gambling aspect.

No argument there. Point-buy is best for players who enjoy some individual custom-building but don’t mind standardisation. Rolled stats is best for players who enjoy thrill of rolling but don’t mind discrepancy between players. Rolled arrays is just a middle avenue, with its pros and cons...

Ah, didn't see that post. It would have saved me to write a long one! Increasing the variance between character is not the intent. On the contrary, the intent is to reduce power discrepancies caused by high variations between characters. If the goal is to increase in the variance between...

Interesting, this is very far from my own experience. Maybe less so 1); the 10-14 clustering is inherent of the 4d6-drop-lowest method. It has nothing to do with the sharing of arrays but out of four series, one invariably ends up something like 11,13,12,11,12,13. As for 2) the plethora of...

While I think there is a lot more to cooking than following recipes/instructions (it’s one of the few things where art truly meets science IMO), I like the GM-ing=cooking analogy: It requires you to know your public, care about tastes and intolerances of others. It requires a subtle balance of...

Most of the merchants I encounter in RPG are anything but honorable… Also, by the samurai’s definition of honour, the thief/rogue has a hard time being honourable. If « personal code » is a substitute for honour, then Paladin definitely qualifies and so does monk, cleric, and barbarian and...

I’ve had a fighter 2/wizard X PC in my last campaign (although he went EK 3/abjurer X relatively fast). I’ve seen (and played) a monk/warlock, and I’ve built plenty of NPC villains with hexblade multiclass shenanigans, but my only hexblade PC is pure warlock so far.

that’s not a bad idea. I don’t mind wizards casting Wish. I do mind wizards casting wish over and over again every day after a mere 8 hours and 10 minutes of rest/study. Settings with lots of high-level casters (such as FR) make more sense if their spells require more time to refresh. Not sure...

As other said, it isn't easy to use foreshadowing in RPG, but it is doable and can bring some of the most memorable moments around the table. First, in order to be foreshadowed, it needs to have happen (or be hinted at) before. That much is obvious. It can be done with enough forethought from...

Fair enough. However, I think that most problems, perceived or otherwise, ultimately stem from contradictory desires, and the solutions have been in constant evolution since the earliest days of RPG. In D&D alone, the evolution of Vancian magic throughout the editions is a perfect example of a...

Rolling stat arrays is a way to introduce elements of variance between games without forcing variance between players. I take that you don't like it, but I do. It's not different from varying between 27, 30, or 32 point-buy. Obviously, the more players you have, the more likely a high array will...

I think so. Maybe not so much differences as much as gross unbalance. That’s the whole point of stat arrays and point-buy; reduce the gap of difference between characters due to (un)luck

Because rolling is fun? And because inequity is not fun? OP’s solution sounds like a win to me. For what it’s worth, that’s what our group has been doing for years. Roll one series 4d6K3 each. These are the stats arrays available for this campaign, including villains with PC classes.

Re: fumbles I usually rule that natural 1s and 20s are automatic failures/successes, mostly because if I call for a roll, it’s because there’s a chance of failure/success (I used to call this the “shoestring fallacy” in 3e era). Consequences are variable depending on context. A critical...

That’s pretty much what we’ve been doing. It mostly became a “I want to reroll this crappy shot” or “I don’t want disadvantage on this roll” device. The advantage for sneak attack never occurred yet (or more likely, nobody though of it so far)