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Go with number 1, but only because cover 2 hides a big chunk of the art away with a useless black block. Go with number 1, and please improve legibility. Put black on the bottom band, make the top band a grey, anything. You should know that contrasting colors is a great way to draw attention...

Any sort of pre-planned adventure is necessarily going to take focus away from the players, because it's no longer about the players, it's about this neato adventure, hey go do this. Find the magical sword, slay the Ogre Cheiftan, then it's on to the next pre-planned adventure. It's like...

This is actually the way I run my game, and it's pretty fun. The players tend to blow their money on parties and stuff, especially since there's no "magic item economy" where players can buy +3 halberds or whatever. They're forced to host giant parties, or invest in land, or otherwise become...

I agree with what the Jester said- I'm not really looking for more complexity, especially when it's just to try and prevent everybody from dying. If your players' characters die, whoopsie- at least they learned something about their capabilities as players and will adjust fire when they continue...

Honestly, I'd probably let the name D&D die off and give subsequent versions a new name. I think the biggest travesty was when they flat out redesigned the game from the ground up, with nothing but stylistic similarities to the former game. Gradually shifting, sure. But why keep calling it D&D...

I don't really see the point of taking away experience, to be honest with you. It seems like a lot of "I'm the DM and I'm in total control of this game," mentality, which is what causes a lot of players to quit gaming altogether. Nobody's playing a game so that another player can get fussy at...

Fighter = Meat Shield Magic User = Bag of Tricks Thief = Trapspringer Cleric = Healbot Elf = Spellsword Dwarf = Sword and Boarder Halfling = ??

King Arthur's sword, perhaps? Elric's doom-bringing sword? In most legends, heroes are given magical items by well-wishers or the guardians of such magic, as they're destined to use it, the prophecy foretold their coming, or some such. It makes more sense to be given magic than to loot it from...

I currently play Labyrinth Lord and I haven't noticed any balance issues. Seriously. Everybody has a useful role to play, and the party functions coherently. Isn't that what the game is about? Sure, not everybody's as "good" in combat, but the game isn't about combat. Everybody contributes to...

My tastes certainly change. When I was a little younger, I was more than happy "building" characters with multiple classes and powers and stuff, and attempting to gain total systems mastery. It used to be interesting to me to do those sorts of things, and I don't know that a simpler game would...

Not a big fan of Todd Lockwood or Wayne Reynolds, in direct contrast to the great majority of people here, it seems. Mr. Reynolds' art is horrible, simply horrible. Not to my taste at all. Extremely, extremely hit-or-miss: for every piece with potential, there are four or five more composed of...

I'm not a big fan of demi-humans, being one of those people who believes that another race of being would have totally inscrutable thoughts and should be some sort of monster class. Although not necessarily hostile. Still, even when I don't outright say, "No elves or dwarves or whatever," there...

As a player, I add. I'm concerned with how close I am to dead, and there's not much of a chance of me going over. There's just the one number to compare to, after all. As a DM I subtract. When I'm keeping track of seven guys' hit points, it can be difficult to remember how much health each guy...

If you want a less combat-oriented game, may I suggest Labyrinth Lord? At first level, your characters have anywhere from 1 to 8 hit points, if they're lucky. That has the effect of strongly discouraging combat and strongly encouraging avoiding monsters, running away, tricks, and tactics. Going...

Alcohol is a poison. Just because people enjoy the effects of alcohol doesn't mean it's not. 4e doesn't model poisons very well, and I don't think it has regeneration do anything but heal hit points, so I guess it wouldn't affect it. As counterintuitive as that is. If you're playing a...

I would like to second that. Older games tend to be much more free-flowing, without the need to have a certain number of encounters per day or equal difficulty monsters, or any of that unfun stuff. Get your hands on a good, old-school module and try running a one-shot of Labyrinth Lord or...

Now that you mention it, I do notice a startling similarity between all my responses to the "help, my players are awful" posts. Makes you wonder why talking to the people you're supposed to be playing a game with is so difficult.

If anybody in this discussion hasn't read Ron Edward's essay on "System Does Matter", I think they need to. By the way, I agree with you. :) See, if the system spends most of its time talking about combat, and most of the character sheet is about combat, and all of your skills are either...

I feel that Magic the Gathering and DDM are sufficiently different that a comparison isn't accurate. In M:tG, randomized boosters are a good way to get rare cards that you can't afford to buy otherwise. They're also an essential component of an actual game that you can play. DDM is marketed...

Sad enough to say, but if they can't be bothered to actually carry around a note, then they're going to need another way to carry about their cash. It's not like people had government-issued picture IDs, you know. They should really consider just hiding it somewhere, like people did in real...