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    Professional GM: Possible Return

    I agree - walking into a room full of strangers who drove away their last DM would be a little scary. The set of players I do know are bad enough. It might help to work with some sort of pimp-like person that can collect money and deal with the personality issues that arise.
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    Professional GM: Possible Return

    Those guys were so right. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. As an old gamer I have a number of special needs that could be catered to by someone who was spry and motivated: 1. crawling into narrow spaces to retrieve lost dice (d20s don't grow on trees and I can only afford so many on...
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    What is it about rogues?

    Yea, it would be like people thinking that a "serial-killer" character class would have something to do with being a pscyhopathic murder. Such a stereotype. Sheesh - it's like people are reading the dictionary or something. My dwarven serial-killer is just an axe specialist that likes wearing...
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    What is it about rogues?

    Ok, I'll try to defend the rogues of the world. I'm sure they'll back me up. Guys? guys?... As opposed to doing what with the loot? Core DnD rules and most people's DnD games don't really provide a religious/magical basis for believing that the loot is of any use to a dead character...
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    D&D 4E Turning 4e into a simulationist game

    There's never been a version of DnD that I'm aware of that hasn't scaled the level of monsters to the PCs. Earlier editions were less methodical about it, but even in the 1E days it would be unusual for a 10th level party to fight encounter after encounter with a handful of orcs just because...
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    D&D 4E Turning 4e into a simulationist game

    I agree with some other folks in the thread, "simulation" depends on what you want to simulate. A real world could contain some sort of glowing mineral that makes a sunrod a normal piece of equipment. There's nothing "unsimulationist" about that. It's a matter of trying to define what you...
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    D&D 4E Turning 4e into a simulationist game

    The definition of "hit" in DnD is not that you're physically hit with a weapon. And in reality, it's possible to be hit with a weapon and not be hurt at all (thanks to armor).
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    Defeating my powergamer Glave master

    It would be nice if it worked that way. I'm not sure though. Look at post #8 in this thread. Polearm gamble grants an OA, and OA interrupts the action that provoked it - and so according to what I think is a logical interpretation of the post, you stop the movement before they enter the...
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    Defeating my powergamer Glave master

    IIRC it's only against those opponents that he uses this against - which means he gets a free attack and if he hits, they go back to the square they started in. It makes it hard for me to see how the fighter is "constantly" granting CA unless he is "constantly" missing, which has not been my...
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    Defeating my powergamer Glave master

    I find the idea of having to choose specific monsters with specific tactics in order to pose a challenge to a character really unpleasant. I don't consider it some kind of "abusive" min-maxing for a fighter to choose a feat that works well with his powers. The problem IMO is the broken...
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    Forked from "An Epiphany" thread: Is World Building "Necessary"?

    I don't remember this. My recollection of past DMGs (especially 1st edition) was that the advice was to start with a village where the dungeon was located, and expand outward as needed. If I think back through other notes in the DMG, in no particular order, there was stuff on versimilitude...
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    Judging character performance

    I don't think Gary used this training system that he described. I recall someone asked him about it (at a Con or somewhere). This came up during some old 1e vs. 3e edition war but I don't know where the reference is now. The training system was inspired by one of Gary's PCs who found a...
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    Why did they say Vancian magic would be gone?

    That's a milestone? Your DM is interesting. Of course this is the same DM that gives you back your dailies when the clock strikes midnight. Also, apparently, the same DM whose monsters sit in their rooms and ignore the sounds of your PCs camping outside the dungeon. Obviously, from a point...
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    My 3 quibbles with 4e

    If you can't kill the party with monsters then IMO you're not trying. If your players aren't scared by things that can kill them then there's not much you can do about that. Maybe they don't care about their characters. If you were able to easily solve the problem by increasing CR then you...
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    "Exceptional Fluff" - the bane of RPGs (ranty)

    If you can't find 5,000 gp worth of diamonds in the area then wouldn't they be worth more? Are the PCs the only characters in the area in the market for diamonds? I would think even the church would have allies that it might want to raise, and so it would be in it's interest to at least know...
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    "Exceptional Fluff" - the bane of RPGs (ranty)

    I wonder if players of RPGs have any lower desire for versimilitude in their games as novel writers have for their books. What's good for the novel writers might be good for the players as well, but working through all of the various spells/rituals and details and trying to bring them into a...
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    Why the World Exists

    The whole basis of what the OP appears to be saying is that killing things and looting their bodies is only heroic when the loot is randomly generated. Oh - and the treasure wish-list suddenly turns DnD into a power-gamer's game. As if there was something stopping you before from being a power...
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    DM'ing is a skill, not an art.

    Art is a skill, not an art. I don't think the DM should have been so judgemental about the players' decision. Let them play the game, tell them what happens, and stick to your business which is running the game. IMO it's pointless and disrespectful to be expressing opinions when you're the...
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    How to handle "shopping"?

    I think the general advice would apply here - play it out if it interests people, and gloss over it if it doesn't. Similar to overland travel - talk about the interesting points and assume the rest. 4E is designed, AFAICT, for PCs to basically find whatever magic items that they can afford...
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    Organic Mythology

    Common to what? (I actually can't even think of a rain goddess off the top of my head)
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