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  1. Robert Ranting

    "No Core" game

    Sure, ditch the core races and classes, that should be no problem. Remember though, that the skill system is in the core books, as is the XP chart. Also, while there are thousands of other feats out there, many of them key off of core PHB feats like Power Attack, Expertise, Combat Reflexes...
  2. Robert Ranting

    Races and Class and the Leak's Effect

    No change. I'll be honest, I never intended to buy the preview book because I knew all the important bits from it would be fodder for message board conversations between the release of the preview and the release of the new edition. I don't see much point in spending money on the preview...
  3. Robert Ranting

    Honestly, how often have you used gnomes?

    I played a gnome druid in a 3.0 one-shot who then migrated over to a new campaign (different DM, different group) which lasted for about a year. He was a child-like and whimsical character, a sort of combination Mowgli and Peter Pan, and he fancied himself a Knight in the service of Ehlonna. He...
  4. Robert Ranting

    To ALL ENWorlders: Did you play 1E AD&D?

    No. A 2nd Edition one-shot, a couple of short 3.0 campaigns, 8 Arcana Unearthed/Evolved campaigns and numeros one-shots, and currently one 3.5 game. Robert "I'm Still Too Old To Be WotC's Target Audience" Ranting
  5. Robert Ranting

    X. It's what's for dinner.

    While I can't say that I consciously try to emphasize food, looking back on my previous campaigns, it seems that food definately does play a role in establishing the "feel" of a place. I think that this is probably more true in games where the PCs spend a lot of time journeying to foreign...
  6. Robert Ranting

    mystery race : what would you hate the most ?

    Half-Vampire or some such. As much as I hate the drow, they bother me far less than "halfbreed" races between humans and things that are not races. Vampires and Lycanthropes are people with afflictions, curses or diseases. Either you inherit the affliction from your afflicted parent, or you...
  7. Robert Ranting

    Yakfolk -- Why the jokes?

    I tend to agree with the "yak folk are silly" crowd. Our local gaming groups had our fair share of Yak jokes imported from other media. When the DM asks for initiative and someone has rolled a one, that person often quips "I move with the speed of pregnant yak". Or whenever someone kills...
  8. Robert Ranting

    Style, people!

    I voted in favor of everything except: WETA's badguys -I prefer green Warhammer orcs 90's Piercings and Tatoos, Death Metal, & Punk- I actually don't like mohawked Warhammer dwarves, and would prefer my blackguards not look like rejects from KISS Conan the Barbarian & Greeks in Speedos-...
  9. Robert Ranting

    D&D 4E OMG! 4E PHB to Have RP advice!

    *pulls out his copy of Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved and opens it to the section on creating a character* "Step One: Come up with a concept." Yeah, I thought I had seen this approach to 3.x RPGs before. Robert "AE Guru" Ranting
  10. Robert Ranting

    Campaigns with 2-3 playes only

    Initially I was skeptical about running games with the gestalt rules or with fewer than four players, but a couple months back my next door neighbor bought Gamesmastery D1: Crown of the Kobold King and offered to run it for myself and his roomate. We had a high pointbuy to work with, gestalt...
  11. Robert Ranting

    Favorite and Least Favorite 4th Edition Elements

    My favorite thing about Fourth Edition so far: Simplified monsters and encounters that make the game easier for the DM to run. If I can throw together a random encounter as quickly as James Wyatt did during the D&D podcast a while back, and have it actually play out well, then they will have...
  12. Robert Ranting

    There's Powerful Deviltry at Work Here...

    I think that the question has probably been suitably answered at this point. Thanks for all who posted. Also, as a note, much of what I said in my opening post was playing devil's advocate for a style of play that I do not practice. Most of my characters are morally ambiguous, and generally...
  13. Robert Ranting

    There's Powerful Deviltry at Work Here...

    Does anyone else feel that 4e may be putting too much of an emphasis on evil, even diabolical character options in the initial PHB? Tieflings, infernal-pact warlocks, clerics and even paladins of Asmodeus...it seems perfectly feasible to have an entire party composed of people who sold their...
  14. Robert Ranting

    D&D 4E 4E Pantheon Poll

    *ahem* Isn't Vecna a necromancer as well as iconic and mentioned already in the Design and Development articles? Also, Meepo should remain an iconic D&D character, rather than a deity.
  15. Robert Ranting

    Why have you dropped campaigns?

    The only reason I have ever left a campaign has been personal conflict with other players or the GM. I walked away from a 2+ year long Ravenloft campaign because of an incident that ended my friendship with the DM and his wife (who was also a player). I left another game because I broke up...
  16. Robert Ranting

    "...you all meet at an inn.."

    Generally the approach that I have found the most affective is to have the PCs be brought together by a person of authority and given a mission which has some sort of personal importance to each member of the group. Perhaps the best execution of this method that I've had thus far was my Urban...
  17. Robert Ranting

    "Requiem for a God" in Eberron - who bites it?

    For those who aren't familiar with the book, it is worth noting that Requiem for a God isn't an adventure or module, it's a sourcebook for running a campaign that features the death of a god as an event, just as Forge of War is a sourcebook for running a campaign that involves Eberron's Last...
  18. Robert Ranting

    D&D 4E Is liking 4E biased by how many books you own?

    I own nine 3.x D&D books published by WotC, seventeen d20/OGL compatible books, two issues of Dragon magazine, and the first volume of Pathfinder. It is worth noting that most of the WotC books were either bought second-hand or given to me as gifts by my players, while I spent my own money on...
  19. Robert Ranting

    Campaign Settings: metaplot or frozen?

    Generally speaking, I would prefer a frozen setting or at least one where the metaplot advances only occassionaly (as with an edition change). I find it difficult to integrate metaplot advancements into games I am currently running, and if I am going to be starting a new campaign I could just...
  20. Robert Ranting

    POLL: Furry Races

    I like sentient animals, and I like anthropomorphic, bipedal humanoids who resemble animals. Primarily, I like the idea of animals being "Uplifted" by magical or scientific means to relatively human intelligence as in David Brin's Uplift novels. I have no problem with a race that superficially...
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