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Obvious problem is the size of any surface. No one wants combats limited to 5x7 and getting bigger gets expensive. The other limitation is that a huge perk of RPGs is that you can introduce anything you want. As soon as you rely on some tech (instead of your imagination), you're limited to what...

I think it depends on what role saves play in the game. I think 4e has an interesting balance with three defenses for physical, dodge, and mental attacks and then a single save. Third edition basically reversed that with a single defense (setting aside, touch attacks) and then three saves. I...

I think you make a number of strong points. My concern is that your point relies on well designed feat trees instead of a well designed system. Over time, badly designed feat trees are inevitable either because of splat or because the point of these homebrews is for casual gamers to toss their...

I fully agree with this. In my mind the calculus of "is it worth it?" has to balance the carrying cost of having to look up or reference rules versus the added variety that it introduces to the game. Let's say that you can summarize for your given level that "hard" ACs should be 18. Some...

In 3e we briefly used a house rule called mundane skills (mun-skills) equal to 2 + int mod with no x4 multiplier at first level. They went towards crafts, professions, languages (no auto languages for int anymore), and a few homebrew skills. It achieved the desired goal, but people still didn't...

It sounds like what you are really trying to do is put a little structure around what often occurs in games already. Stuff like making a useful contact in a city, gaining prestige for winning a tournament, etc. I think that is a perfectly admirable goal and probably will not upset game balance...

Suddenly and without warning you realize that your hair fell out. You're in math class, didn't study for the test, forgot your pants, and a tooth is loose. You attempt to disbelieve the illusion, and as reality flutters into view, you realize that you forgot to plan a session and so will have...

Actually, here's a link. Battlestar Muzactica--worth a listen.

The best I ever found was Battlestar Galactica. It is a great mix of different types of music that, somehow, always hits an uptempo combat song when combat gets exciting. There is also like 20+ hours of music, which means it never gets too familiar and you can just loop it for an entire...

I'm just going to add that I would absolutely be willing to read The Things they Carried from the perspective of a goblin.

H.L. Mencken Chresthomany. The first 30 minutes of any reading session are amazingly profound and interesting. Then I get desensitized to the depth of his cynicism and have to quit. It began as a theory that I could find common ground between Mencken, Thoreau, and de Tocqueville on American...

The idea of broadening the role of feats has two main pit falls for me. First, let's imagine that you develop enough levers (and instructions on how to use them) to perfectly balance every feat in the game. The choice between any two feats is now indifferent. What you haven't balanced, though...

Oh, I'm with you. I think shorter is not only better, but probably also superior design. But so far this entire thread has said PHBs should be dry and crisp and PHBs tend to reign in at 300 or so pages. I guess we could except out spells sections, feats, etc as just exposition of rules and not...

The thing that bothers me the most about how flippant the characters are towards the zombie apocalypse is that it undermines the tension of the show. Walking into a church and having three zombies stand up and turn--class. Beating them to death--epic. Then casually breaking into prayer... sort...

We structure our games to not have this problem as often as not. It just doesn't come up. When it does come up, we try and do something productive with it. Sometimes they kill the prisoner if he looks like he'll be a problem later, but as often as not the prisoner is a mercenary who is now quite...

I agree with all of these sentiments, but I imagine there are limits. For instance, clear and crisp rules are great, but what if it is 300 pages straight? There needs to be something to break up the monotony or people's eyes will glaze over. In most books, they try and just use that little intro...

Agreed. The game is about narrative and crafting something memorable, sometimes that necessitates being memorable. The thing is, you can push the fluff without *breaking* the crunch and I think the DM went too far in Elvenshae's case and broke the crunch. Sort of fits the OP -- in the 2e...

I really wanted to like this show, but I just can't. It has such an interesting premise (and a budget to support it) that I really expected them to take it in exciting directions. Instead, beginning with the second episode, it almost felt like episodes were in that mid-season filler rut where...

I actually just popped over to start a thread about D&D books in general and how they have to serve a double purpose of being a teaching aid and a reference manual. The reason this is a problem is that you would write in a very different style and with different organization for each of the two...

I think it depends hugely on your group and your gaming style. Some groups need to feel like they are defining the adventure and the GM is just reacting, other groups like a lot of structure and to overcome the challenges presented to them. Preparing for each group is hugely different. The...