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Hmmm... 13+yr-olds are fairly aware of the world. IMHO, you do them (and society) a disservice going with black-and-white morality. IMHO, RPing is an opportunity for exploring things, as well as escapism. And i think you're shirking your responsibility any time you're in a leadership role for...

Bring a water bottle. Don't over-schedule--you'll find plenty to do when you're not attending games. Particularly don't fill up your schedule in the 10am-6pm hours, because that's the only time the dealer's room and art show are open. Don't play games you're familiar with. Or, more precisely...

Which is why tennis, basketball, golf, and baseball all use the same basic rules. Or why Settlers of Catan, Monopoly, and Trivial Pursuit all use the same rules. Point is, while there are virtues to similarity/constancy of system, there are also virtues to new systems, and/or systems tailored...

Yeah: this is news? Not to belittle, but i guess i feel a bit like somebody just posted "ever notice the extreme similarities between the races and classes of D&D and The Lord of the Rings?" Of course they're there--'cause that's the source material. In fact, it's precisely the excessive...

You talking the specific sorts of psionics described in D&D3E? Or psychic powers in general? Because the latter actually has a plausible scientific explanation, involving the interactions of the brain and quantum pairs. But only for ESP/clairsentience, mind-control, and *maybe* firestarter type...

I think his point is that those are all things that don't have a good scientific basis, and are integral elements of Star Trek, which, according to the general public qualifies as science fiction [if science-poor scifi]. There're scientific theories to explain psychic powers (mostly having...

The flavor is just some trappings--as someone else pointed out, just ignore the flavor of the "psicrystal" in favor of the mechanical bits, and it still works. And so on, for the rest of the flavor bits (crystals, ecto-whatever, etc.). And, in fact, that's my primary problem with D&D3E psionics...

A great reason to spend some time on RPGNet. And that's meant as a serious recommendation, not a jab by any means: You'll likely never hear about the Latest Cool Thing on EnWorld, unless it's D20 System. Sure, some things get mentioned in passing, and there's teh occaisional thread like this...

What's "WoW"?

Especially given the number of popular fantasy archetypes that D&D3[.5]E can't do really at all, and the even larger number that can't be done without multiclassing. Arcana Unearthed/Evolved does a better job than D&D3E at representing typcial high-fantasy archetypes, and, so far, it looks like...

One: IME, Mearls is an excellent game designer, but sometimes a bit narrow-minded in exactly this way (focusing on a single playstyle). He is, in general, not a good persuader. His rules, luckily, do the work for him, because i don't think i'd ever have bought one of his books based on his...

That's sort of a tricky question. First, it's ambiguous as to topic: D20 System in general, or the specific D&D3[.5]E instantiation (and closely-related versions)? Second, it has that lovely ambiguity that makes the "have you stopped beating your wife?" question work. So, to answer as best as i...

Well, it's sorta poorly worded, assuming you copied it verbatim (minus the company names). However, it probably is intended to release either all game mechanics "derived from" existing OGC, or just plain all game mechanics. Anyway, i dunno about "we", but i know that I pay a lot of attention...

Magivores: realistic, in this context. Might go with that--certainly explains (1) how they survive and (2) why it's the only place giant insects are found in the world. Of course, no water is no big deal in and of itself--plenty of critters in the real world never consume water directly, instead...

Actually, IIRC, all (or at least most) spiders use hydraulic pressure to expand joints, and only have muscles for contracting. That's why they curl up into a ball when they die--muscles contract, and nothing to counter them. And that's unlike insects, which have muscles acting in opposition...

Actually, there are real-world animal toxins with onset times on the order of seconds, in a human-sized target. Recovery times, rather than times per day, would probably be better--can use poison N times (probably 2-3), and then takes X hours (or minutes) before it can use it again. My bigger...

Well, i get to decide. [not only can i change it, of course, but the source materials don't say much.] I'm picturing mostly a sandy waste, but maybe rocky outcroppings, too. At least one area has a volcanic cone, and presumably lava fields (either flows of hard stone and/or fields of pyroclast)...

Yep. There're a number of reasons it got abandoned--mostly, just became more than i could handle. I occasionally toy with resurrecting it, now that i have the tools to automate most of it (in particular, checking for dead links), but it's not a big priority. I gave up years ago, after years of...

I'm actually perfectly aware that there's at least as much variety in insects (never mind other arthropods) as in the whole vertebrate world put together. My intention is to put giant insects of some sort in the Genie's Anvil (in Al Qadim--particularly hot and dry desert, pretty much...

It's much worse than that. Chitin is much less rigid than bone. So long before an equivalent bone structure would collapse, an insect's skeleton would become too floppy to do it's job. There're also some issues with square-cube and muscle attachment area. Plus, exoskeletons don't leave you any...