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I mean, if you're an old hand, running the game your way is probably easier. But I think we have to look at what it means for a new DM when they encounter an element that runs contrary to what they have experienced. You may know perfectly how to employ Shadows, Wights, Rust Monsters...

I suppose that's a not unfair assessment, though I myself like a lot of new things as well. I dislike repackaging old things to make them "new" but I know it's unfortunately necessary to garner a new audience. OTOH, if the new update actually does something neat and interesting with the source...

You're correct, of course. Though somebody forgot to tell R.A. Salvatore about the change to monks in 2e, since he had a 1e Monk running around in the Cadderly books, lol.

Maybe, but when you look at how modern D&D is geared more towards players being able to take on challenges as they face them and less about picking and choosing your battles, I don't think it's any fault of players expecting to be able to take down things they fight as opposed to fleeing and...

One thing that annoyed me about 2e Thieves in particular is that in order to put points into a Thieving Ability, you had to use it. This presented a real issue for me- if you invest a lot of points in some skills so you have better than a coin flip to use them, that leaves you with skills that...

Got it, thanks. I've only seen Leverage, so I wasn't sure how it compared. Someone told me that Hustle was basically Leverage once, and when I tried Hustle, it didn't capture my interest.

So I game with mostly people younger than me, by 10 years or more. What I've found is that there is a mindset, deeply ingrained into younger people, that older things are not as good as newer things. I blame the relentless gears of capitalism for this, as companies are constantly trying to...

So...Leverage?

I'm reminded of the way golems used to be. Invulnerable save to a very specific list of spells, with odd resistances and weaknesses. If you didn't happen to know what spells worked on one, or had them memorized, your tactical options became very limited. And even for warriors, they required...

Yeah, basically Bosch was a victim of it's own success. The show kept getting more popular, but long-running shows get more expensive each season. Even with Bosch: Legacy paring down the number of characters, Amazon apparently felt that they weren't making a profit.* Corporate thinking, I...

Honestly, I could never understand why Bards were race-limited in the first place. Ok, maybe you didn't want Halfling or Dwarven Bards because they could cast M-U spells, but by 2e, there wasn't a lot of reason to deny Gnomes (oh no, they might cast Evocation spells!) and definitely no reason...

Of course, it seems everyone forgot the existence of Demi-Bards in the Complete Bards' Handbook, which would have allowed Olive to be a Herald, Jester, Jongleur, Riddlemaster, or Whistler.

Oh and A Nero Wolfe Mystery is also excellent- Maury Chaykin's take on the character contrasts quite well with Sydney Greenstreet's.

There's an old Polish proverb that says "there are many good shows to watch and then there is Banacek". Columbo has already been mentioned. I'm not sure what sort of mystery fiction sub-genre you like best. There's police procedurals like Bosch, hybrids like Elementary, more classic fare...

Also, knowledge rolls to know if something is a Jackalwere, for example, have not always been enshrined in D&D rules- in 5e, for example, it's all up to the DM whether you can make the roll or not, let alone at what difficulty. You still have DM's who don't want players to know things like "use...

All this talk about how were-creatures against low-level parties is a meaningful challenge, something designed to force the players to come up with inspired solutions, is all well and good, but in my experience (having played the game since the late 80's), it rarely works out that way. My first...

Said difference is somewhat tenuous at times. You can, for example, be born with superpowers inherited from your parents, and not be considered a mutant. You can carry the mutant gene and be considered to be a normal human. You can acquire mutant-derived powers from experimentation or Mutant...

Generally, my game worlds don't seem particularly fantastical at first glance. Most settlements are primarily Humans/Halflings, with the occasional Dwarf, Elf, or other species (becoming more prevalent in major settlements- the largest city in my current campaign that the players have traveled...

I just chalk it up to Matt's training with Stick. As far as we know, Stick didn't gain superpowers through anything more than his Chaste training. In the comics, at least, "martial arts" is a legitimate source of superhuman abilities (not unlike the D&D Monk), and the same seems to be true of...