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I'm guessing it's largely due to action times and how melee attacking works. Lengths of actions is part of the reason why missile attackers can possibly attack twice in a combat round. Melee actions are considered occurring for the whole length of time two opponents are within melee weapon...

I know the book well. It's an interesting read with a mix of insight, humor, and sometimes doubt on my part. Not that anything in the book is deceptive, only that it's difficult to understand at times. And I know I can't remember that well to five years ago much less, what? I guess thirty? But...

That's a very hard question. I think a lot of it depends upon what you are publishing as a campaign setting. Some designs may work better as a series of modules or even one single one. Look at Greyhawk's modules. But also look at I6 Ravenloft. I think full-length adventures need to be able to...

Drop an item. Now your PC's equipment list has changed. This seems trivially easy. I'm guessing you're kidding me here for some reason. That's up to you. It seems blindly obvious that most DMs through D&D's history have tracked PC scores and stats and all that is entailed when implementing...

Alignment as a system, not just a mechanic, is used for the same reason every game uses game mechanics: to make the content playable. If it's non-referential, than you're dealing with fluff. The Alignment system doesn't determine a player's actions. A player's actions in a game change their...

Nice video. Both fun and informative. Just a couple comments. 1. Underground dungeons are often mapped by players (and other areas too). Dwarf players have benefits when their underground maps don't match up. It's not just ascents and descents. 2. Elves may freely change between Magic-User...

I don't see Alignment as judging player behavior, but simply a statistic that represents the current behavior of a game element, a construct within the game. Everything in D&D has an Alignment. Most everything in D&D has lots of the other common D&D statistics too (strength, intelligence, hit...

A $20 store credit coupon?

Adventure Modules ...but I could see a collection of them in its own DM's book too.

Game rules are the repetition that helps create the patterns that are those games. Game pieces moving through that pattern have options because of the divergences within the pattern. These are the game mechanics, those divergences created by the specific rules. A game is the code as created by...

Think of writing a D&D module like adding another dungeon level on to Dungeon! the boardgame. First and foremost you need a well designed spatial map that expands the board so it challenges and supports the character types which can explore it. (All of them in D&D) Are there secret doors off...

Making a strategic decision in a game isn't a game mechanic. Game mechanics are the game element designs which create variability in a game. A grid board is a game mechanic. A player making a decision about where to move a game piece on it isn't one. Again, there are no resolution rules in...

Wow! That's interesting. I've rarely met any group which uses Alignment Languages and I've been puzzling over its implementation in my own game. I understand the value of having Alignment Languages by creatures who share an Alignment, but the "language" is lost when alignment shifts and another...

Of course there are RPGs that are games, but a player "playing in character" is neither roleplaying or related to RPGs. And I apologize if you see me as attributing some common assumptions as coming from one source rather than from the posters here. There are a lot of mistaken assumptions...

Chess is solvable like Checkers was solved back in '97. You are trying to separate the the board, pieces, and rules from the total number of game states like someone trying to separate hard drives and programs from the operating implicatons of them. A game is the whole of the possibilities...

I'd have to agree that Rule Zero isn't a game mechanic at all. In fact, it's basically a rule that at any time you can quit following the rules of the game. ...and then you won't be playing one, so... Game boards are very useful game mechanics. This doesn't have to be a cardboard cut out...

It's a little confusing at first because it seems to imply long ago there were games heavy in "crunch". I think there were simply bigger games with more content and that content was playable. The key difference between the thousands of RPGs from the past and the comparatively very slim rulesets...

Set up the game as a game. Have actions occur within a system where players can reasonably have expectations of discerning what is going on and what is likely to happen next. "This baseball is flying towards my skull. What do I think is likely to happen next?" EDIT: Tracking time and...

Good points here. I agree an NPC who may potentially direct the PCs isn't necessarily part of a plotted adventure. In fact, we might stop thinking of them as hooks too. In a sandbox campaign everything the players can interact that is game-related should be able to be generated beforehand. It...

For me a module is quite simply a game. Sort of like modules for Advanced Squad Leader. They are pieces to place within the larger campaign setting, but they aren't a road that must be completed. In fact, completing them is a bit like emptying a dungeon. Unless you set up shop there more...