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Lots of canon. Ooh let me edit that: Lots of canon is nice in settings I don't use, because I can muck around for material there for a different setting that can be bent more to my wishes.

Well you came in swinging. Personally there are a number of things that really appeal to me about 4th edition, and a number of things that are really annoying about it, and I don't consider my annoyances spurious (many of them anyway), and they have been voiced here a number of times, resulting...

Would you admit it if they didn't like your sainted game for a non-spurious, non-false reason, or is such a thing possible?

I haven't seen this specifically addressed yet though this thread is quite good. My ideas: 1) Popular revolt. This happens in real life: I visited Sicily several years ago and there was a huge anti-Mafia campaign brought on by the assassination of a judge. (Typical D&D-type kleptocracies aren't...

Top Twelve Most Iconically D&D Spells, as pulled directly out of Imp's hindquarters: 1. Magic Missile Outside of D&D most magicians seem to toss fireballs or zap lightning as their go-to form of attack. 2. Polymorph Sure, magicians anywhere can change shape, but Polymorph puts a number of...

I think what I would do as a 4e player (which I am not, currently) is just write up a little cheat-sheet list of my character's powers and how I visualize them working. Looking at the Great Wall of Powers from a DM-perspective, and trying to figure out how to rebrand the stupid-sounding ones...

My experiences: - 3d6-in-order for a couple games; total munchkin 3 18-ability characters for a bit; then some of the alternate systems such as 4d6 & pick - never did max hp at first level, but it was typical to set the minimum 1st-level hp to half your hit dice + Con bonus - never did max...

My understanding is that a) who even knows in real life what a "morning star" is, b) from 1e/UA, a morning star is a large blunt instrument with significant (as in, 3-inch-long or so) spikes and no chain – I think I remember one description saying it was entirely of wood, but with the metal...

What did I do with skill tricks... ...Many of them I found a little weak, plus I wanted to pump up skills a little, so I just rolled some of the tricks into the original skills as higher-DC uses. Some tricks I gave skill-rank qualifications in order to attempt – like, let's see, I rolled the...

Yeah, I've whined about this here before – I found the 4e PHB so violently uninspiring to read that it's keeping me from the game (which I'm still convinced has its virtues, I still want to try it sometime, and I'm sure plays better than it reads to me). I mean, I quite literally thought after...

I think the "shadow player" is most apparent in Belkar, because his appeal is as an id character – both as a psychotic little halfling who gets to act out all the time, and as a little bastard player behind the character, who also gets to act out all the time. You can see the hand in the puppet...

Honestly – and I like rogues, I do – it seems like it'd be more in-genre to have the small, quick, tricky guy running interference & setting things up for the swordmaster 70% of the time, and getting crucial deadly shots in every now and then, as opposed to the way it's conceived now, where the...

The thing is, there are a lot of little niche playstyles, and when you get done carving off a bunch of 2-percenters, you wind up really shrinking the appeal of the game (or whatever). Basically this is the platonic-D&D vs. toolbox-D&D argument. I would imagine 4e is going to head more towards...

Mentally? Having skills in Balance/ Jump/ Swim/ Use Rope imply fairly little about someone's ability to, say, tack into the wind on a caravel or when to use what knot for the sails or any other skills specific to sailing, since we're using that function as an example. And it just makes it more...

Well, AD&D rounds lasted a full minute.

Your magic missiles strike the gazebo.

I think this is a good point... slapping a demonic or pseudonatural or zappy-tailed template on an animal orcifies them to the point where they can be remorselessly slaughtered by the PCs, and conversely, makes it more plausible that they should go after the party with intent to kill. If you...

Have the minimal grace of not putting straw thoughts into people's heads. I don't see the appeal of an approach to roleplaying that says "look! The set is made of cardboard cutouts! Don't you ever forget that the set is made of cardboard cutouts!" And in this particular case, it's not even...

Sure, it's a "threat," though Miko was a high-level paladin/monk, which combo not only gave her saves out the yin-yang but allowed her to go nonlethal at little penalty anytime she wanted esp. against foes she outclassed; by some of the standards being applied to V's actions here, Miko's summary...

Compare to Miko's behavior (lawful-good but intolerant) early in the strip's history.