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    New Article: Death and Dying

    No, no they're not. They're dead only if no one wants to interrogate one, at which point- boom! Hey look, there's an Orc over there still bleeding out! His name is Dorngan! He's only here in human lands to search for his sister, lost in an attack on an orc colony... Ten seconds ago he was J...
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    Game rules are not the physics of the game world

    Not only that, but the god-given intellect of the GM allows him to recognize when the provisionally applied abstraction of the rules does not produce an enjoyable outcome within the metagame context. For example, a thousand climb checks just to get to the top of a mountain, instead of just one...
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    New Article: Death and Dying

    You aren't. I can't see any logic to your statements. Your point is, frankly, nonsensical. EDIT: I'm entirely serious. How is "Dead at 0" somehow automatically removing anything interesting from an NPC? How is a "Dead at -10" npc any more developed than a "Dead at 0" NPC? There's no connection...
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    New Article: Death and Dying

    You can still do that, though, at the DM's discretion. What this means is you don't have to keep track of that stuff for J. Random Orc. And, for god's sake, people, if the PC's say, "Hey, is there one we could heal up and interrogate?" Just say yes! So what if he hit 0 hit points? You're only...
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    New Article: Death and Dying

    Clint Eastwood gets nearly beaten to death in A Fistfull of Dollars, but recovers enough to drag himself away. He heals up in a mine and comes back to kill everyone....
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    New Article: Death and Dying

    Yeah, but in actual play, that's a needless increase in complexity, headache, and boredom, so no one bothers. Yes, exactly. I like this rule. 4th is very slowly warming my heart. Admittedly this is mostly because I'm playing 3.5th right now and it isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would...
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    Death and Dying: Annoying new subsystem reduces fun.

    Didn't that article specifically say you aren't expected to keep track of this for NPCs unless you deem it necessary? If they're all important, named NPCs and it actually matters how long it takes for them to die, just pick an arbitrary number of rounds they stay stable before dying. Assume...
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    New Article: Death and Dying

    Jack McFighter's allies had all fallen. The castle was overrun. Beset on all sides by his foes, one finally brought him down- a sword through the chest. Jack stared down at it as he fell to the ground, life leaking away, watching as the enemy found the civilians taking refuge in the cellars and...
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    New Article: Death and Dying

    Besides, you should be aware of the plot-critical NPCs anyway, since they're the ones who get detailed, do all the talking, have names instead of 'Orc Guard 17", etc...
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    D&D 4E Stephen Radney-MacFarland on Conversions and Adventures in 4e

    Huh. Funny, I could have sworn the new World of Darkness was entirely playable, what with my playing it all the time and all. I never noticed any gaping rules...
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    D&D 4E Stephen Radney-MacFarland on Conversions and Adventures in 4e

    To what RPGs do you refer? Just so I have a sense of what you're talking about when you say "gaping holes."
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    D&D 4E 4e and My Setting: Can You Convince Me To Convert?

    Not until we see the new rules in their entirety, no.
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    D&D 4E Mouseferatu weighs in on 4e

    Mr. Rogers: It came up on another board that someone took your "What else besides basic combat? Roleplaying!" statement as indicative of the complete absence of anything non-combat, non-roleplaying, like stealth or investigation. I thought that was a bit of a narrow reading, I took you to mean...
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    D&D 4E Will we be able to play 4E without minis?

    About as well as you could do it now with 3.5, I suspect.
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    Houserule: Non Adventuring Skills

    Yeah, straight-up attribute check works fine. If the character doesn't know how to do it, the player won't try to roll it and there's really no point clogging up chargen just to get it all detailed.
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    Houserule: Non Adventuring Skills

    Tri-Stat DX had a system like that. It was terrible- all it did was add to the needless complexity. I'm really not inclined to deny a player anything in this regard. As far as I'm concerned, they can cook if they want, know how to build houses if that's what they want, and speak as many...
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    Houserule: Non Adventuring Skills

    Easy solution: In the off chance something like this comes up mattering to the adventure, the PC can spend an action point to do anything appropriate to his background in some kind of excellent manner. And if it's just routine use, assume it's fine. So, say, "My rogue used to be an expert cook...
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    "Just House Rule It" and the New DM

    Of course they can ignore them! Supplements are optional!
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    "Just House Rule It" and the New DM

    Funny, the new game I joined just last week (incidentally the first time I've ever played D&D outside of Baldur's Gate/Torment/Icewind Dale) had a metric truckload of house rules. All which I agreed with immediately! The SRD is a bloated abomination and the DM had trimmed a lot of the cruft...
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    The Devil's in the Details: Slavicsek reveals the Pit Fiend in all its glory

    If a player tells me that, they can walk away from my table and never return. Monsters are mine to make and break. Of course, every experienced player I have not only expects me to wing things, but appreciates it. Especially since I say "yes" to them, with few exceptions.
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