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This is, in fact, the way it should be done. But you simply have to acknowledge that this is not what the original DMG told the DM to do. And the Essentials rulebook was even more explicit: "When choosing a DC from the table, the Dungeon Master should use the level of the creature performing the...

If the system uses D&D-style, inflationary hit points to represent a character's ability to mitigate damage (as explained here), I prefer AC. Trying to use the DR system in combination with inflationary hit points tends to (a) break the model and (b) produce wonky effects on gameplay. If you're...

I've got significant selections from: Aliens Assassin's Creed (I, II, Brotherhood) Baldur's Gate I, II Battlestar Galactica Bourne Trilogy Breath of Fire 3, 4, 5 Chrono Cross Conan (Barbarian, Destroyer, and Age of Conan) Cutthroat Island Dune (Movie and TV Miniseries) Final Fantasy (VII, VIII...

And let's not forget OneBookShelf's price-fixing policies that are specifically designed to prevent smaller online retailers from competing with them. It definitely sounds like he's upset that big retailers use the same market strong-arming tactics that his company uses in the RPG e-book market.

About a decade ago, I started prepping specific tracks cued to specific sequences. I would also take the playlists and burn copies of the adventure's "soundtrack" for the players (complete with CD cases and covers and the like). People generally liked it. Tip #1 - A Big Pitfall: "Wow, this 2...

Seriously, though: The lengths people will go to in an effort to convince themselves that something explicitly and repeatedly labeled as a guideline should be treated as if it were an ironclad rule just makes me sad. And the entire mindset that interprets a guideline as being inherently...

This thread makes me sad. It's like a poster child of everything that's wrong with D&D right now: The mindless desire to reduce the game to some sort of mechanical conveyor belt coupled with the insatiable desire to take guidelines and treat them as ironclad rules even when common sense and...

Short answer: No. Long answer: The 3.X/PF crowd has already demonstrated that they're fundamentally satisfied with the game they're currently playing. If they're dissatisfied with certain areas of the game, they've probably already made the necessary adjustments to fix them. They've spent years...

I'm looking for a great dragon's lair adventure. I don't particularly care which edition or even game system, but what I do want is a lair that's more than 6 or 7 rooms. (I want the lair itself to be the awesome centerpiece of the adventure.) Anybody got a suggestion?

I wouldn't say that's safe to say at all. Paizo's splats appear to be consistently 256 pages. WotC's appear to range from 192 (Complete X) to 288 (Tome of Magic/Spell Compendium).

This interpretation of the rules -- in which everyone walking down a busy street is "in combat" with each other -- fails the common sense test. The DMG pretty explicitly gives broad, discretionary powers to the DM in terms of determining when encounters start and how awareness/surprise is...

She gets it. In the three and a half years that Pathfinder has been in print, they've released only 5 player-oriented splats. Even a conservative count of player-oriented splats for 3.5 gives me a count of 23 books. If we further round that down and assume 20 is actually the limit for how many...

You need to resolve surprise. In 3E I use Sense Motive for these kind of "social stand-off" scenarios. In this case, if the Thief makes his Sense Motive check he's not surprised by the fighter throwing the punch: He actually starts moving before the punch is ever thrown.

That would be my read on it. (Although it seems fairly evident at this point that the market collapse of 4E was turning catastrophic, so they had little choice.) By my reading of the situation, the clear goal of 5E is to recover at least some of the market share that 4E has lost. To do that, it...

Legends & Labyrinths features a lot of tools -- XP budgets, easy monster stat block creation, a universal chart for setting DCs, etc. -- that will be similar to your 4E toolkit. And it'll be 100% compatible with 3.5, so you can use it interchangeably with zero conversion. Drop me your e-mail in...

There is absolutely no rational reason not to act as if we had free will. If we have free will, then I'm right. If we don't, then my decision to act as if we do have free will was predetermined anyway. Right. But we don't. We can't. And, more importantly, the universe can't either. It's...

Just so you know: I saw what you did there.

Hills just make it worse once you get to the top of them. A jungle environment, like the one Rechan proposes, is really the only way to meaningfully cut down on typical visibility during an extended overland trip.

You're running a campaign based on large area exploration but you don't even know if the players are interested in exploration? I suspect this is going to end poorly for you. Well, if you're serious about not wanting exploration to be a part of your exploration campaign, then you should...

For starters, check out Opening Your Game Table for a slightly different take on this. In particular, note how a truly open game table accepts the problems that come with the format because it also has unique benefits it can offer. The style you're talking about -- a small, essentially dedicated...