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#1. I wanna change my answer now

I would warn that moving from 50% chance to hit to 40% chance to hit is not increasing monster difficulty. Stats like AC are the "walls", the constants of the maze design. Simply asking players to "be luckier" on their die rolls isn't increasing the challenge for them. But... Okay, yes. Making...

The PacMan Method (Man) XP Rating & XP Requirements aren't the only factors we can use to help guesstimate game length. Think of it like PacMan. 10 bits over there, 15 bits in the corner, a bit grouping is a "monster". Or a challenge, if XP is rewarded for other stuff. The number of bits is an...

Is XP gained as a result of accomplishing certain results in the game? Does gaining XP occur per character in the game? Does its challenges (and amounts) account for parties with characters of differing levels? IOW, can my 1st level PC adventure with your 20th and the game supports it? Varying...

Kardeshev is being very abstract. Tech grows like a tree. It has roots from something that came before. And exploring that tree isn't just how long the branches are and how they are positioned in reference to each other. That exploration also encompasses ancestor tech. I might care less about...

Early levels should require a similar ratio of XP. They go by faster because level 1 monsters are much easier to beat, even with level 1 PCs. The game is down right difficult at high levels, so it takes longer.

1. U1-3 and L1+2 are all very good. L3 is a miss. Don't even bother. L4 and beyond are on Dragonfoot by Len Lakofka if you want to look at them. A1 isn't playable until mid levels, or mid-single digit levels in D&D Next. A2-A4 are a mid-level campaign, but fit right into the history or current...

This is a good campaign decision to settle on for the game's default or baseline. But I had a couple of issues. 1. Overcoming monsters is not the sole source of XP 2. A location's wandering monsters are not uniform to every other location's. Actually, why not start rating everything in terms...

Thanks for that Mike Schley map. That's easily the best I've seen of for the Realms. And it helps me understand how FR map scales can work. It's simply that Forgotten Realms is so really very big it can be hard remember to focus on a local area as a campaign location. Below is the original...

This is my answer too. At least until I can go read the article some more.

It's easy to repeat a lot of the early adventures as they were designed as sandbox adventures. B2, L1, T1. What matters are there are both potential allies and enemies present. Both towns and dungeons and a history of their growth, relationships, and the current status of each. Instead I'll...

The whole hobby is full of dissension right now and extraordinary levels of self-assuredness. To put it simply: for 30+ years RPGs were almost exclusively pattern recognition games with the D&D game being first among all of those. Then everything was turned on its head and everyone was told...

What you have in Fellowship of the Ring is a mixed level group running average on treasure for a high level group. If D&D Next is 20 levels, then Aragorn begins in the mid to high teens. He is one of the most accomplished and storied warriors of the North. Boromir is powerful in court due to...

I'm pleased the article doesn't make distinctions between DMs who distribute treasure across the game map, those who fulfill player lists, those who simply have players choose their own out of books, and those who don't use any method. Another topic, while not mentioned specifically, is...

Whether the GM or another built the adventure I see it as homebrew because the DM needs to convert it to the rules he or she is going to use for our campaign. The quality of published works tends to be better overall IMHO, if only for the sake of professionals in a community learning and...

You can tell jokes funny to you and jokes you believe others will find funny. But without getting on stage you're not going to learn the latter. Playtest, Playtest, Playtest. Know what you like. Find that niche not being served and aim for them. Heavy games are good games too. If the...

Axis & Allies kicks butt! It a helluva lot more enjoyable to me than Risk, which is a whole lot "lighter". But then there are wargames which take 100s of hours too. And in certain circles Axis & Allies just cannot compete. It's too little, too easy. Design your game for your enjoyment. Don't...

I track Alignment and only somewhat Player codes. If I think a player is breaking their character's code, then I ask the player if they are. If the player ever tells me, asked or not, they are breaking their code, then I have them fall out of their deity's favor. Or whatever the predetermined...

I found this to be an OK article. I mean, I didn't get a whole lot out of it, but there is stuff there a group should know before playing D&D. Maybe it's all very introductory to me. The 1st and 2nd level default quick & simple design is a mechanical issue I don't really care for, but then as...