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Every time I've GMed a Cthulhu adventure (though I use Trail of, rather than Call of), I've found myself wishing for a better threat assessment mechanic. It kinda sucks when I try to through my players against "will drive you insane and eat you, unless you flee now" monsters, only to see the...

That's a pretty reasonable criticism--the traitor certainly has to work harder to find opportunities for sabotage in Shadows. I wouldn't say the game is necessarily worse for it, though. (Then again, I've only played BSG once. I made a pretty ineffective cylon, mostly because I played too...

Didn't Sehanine show up with the rest of the Seldarine in 1992's Monster Mythology? Heck, they're not even calling her moonbow anymore (at least, not in the core books).

This. And given your goals, I'd say 16 is probably too high. Consider the following rules: *Play up through level six, as normal. Thereafter, their level is always considered 6 for purposes of level-based bonuses and effects, and they stop gaining hp. They are always considered heroic...

It's clear to me that Heal is a Wis-based skill only because they wanted clerics to be better at it. Take a look at Alternity--which uses the same six stats (albeit with Wisdom and Charisma renamed as Will and Personality). Skill/Ability dependencies match closely, with the major exception of...

But while it's perfectly common to see someone named Smith or Miller, try finding people named Ironhammer or Grainsmasher. Owlbear, despite the slights it's seen on these threads, is actually a great name. Someone who's never seen a picture of an owlbear would nevertheless imagine something...

How so?

Yes, the gamers should hew to the literary definitions of such terms, given their literary origin. In this instance, I think we mostly do, though that's been obfuscated by the poorly focused WikiPedia articles, and the inherently ambiguous nature of Genre labels. Certainly before this post...

For starters, avoid big dungeons. Not only does that mean that our mounted guy isn't stuck underground without his horse for a long time, it also encourages you to cut boring 'dungeon room filler' encounters. Take the three most interesting rooms in a dungeon, and just run those. Add an extra...

I wouldn't really call BSG a cooperative game--It's really a hidden teams game, like werewolves/mafia. That said, I enjoyed playing it, and my never having watched the show was no impediment (my never having played the game before, though, was--Playing a Cyclon, I managed to paint myself into a...

But magic is so versatile and "wizard who casts spells" is so generic, that the situations are not comparable. Instead consider more specific archetypes like "Wizard who summons creatures", or "Rogues that can pick pockets and disarm traps like nobody's business". Neither of these characters...

That mounted character gets off his god damned horse and walks for a bit. It's that simple, and I've yet to meet anyone who actually plays a mounted character who has any problems with doing so. See, even unmounted, that character can still stab orcs with a pointy stick just fine. Sure, the...

Krensky, the sources for the high fantasy=fantastic world definition aimed at elementary-school teachers who assign fantasy books as classroom reading. When it comes to literary criticism, that's just about as valuable as the opinions of posters on an RPG messageboard. Compare to the literary...

Something to keep in mind is that it's not nearly so simple as the 13.825 average result would suggest. Rolling two dice and keeping the highest varies widely in effectiveness depending on the target number. For example, when you need an 11+ on the die to succeed, rolling two dice and keeping...

Someone on the Fantasy Flight forums did a count. There are exactly as many monsters in the 3e core box as there were in the 2e core book, though the distribution is quite a bit different.

This is why I discussed problems with the system in my earlier posts. The complete ineffectiveness of rogues' sneak attack against so many monsters is a major reason why I dislike 3e. while a player might have a "chance to shine" every one in four encounters, they should remain competent in...

Let me be more clear where I'm coming from: If only one out of every four combats is one where the horse comes into play, that should be okay. If it's not, there's either a problem with the player or a problem with the system.

1) Acquire Paizo, if possible. Keep pathfinder in print alongside 4e. Keep them in print until 3rd quarter 2012. 2) New Edition of Dark•Matter, based on the Star Wars Saga Edition, planned release 1st quarter 2011. Advance the setting from 2001 to present day, with significant changes. If...

Well, Develop a product based on how well you want it to sell. I don't think WotC has any fantasies about Gamma World replacing D&D. I imagine that each person will have an average of one GW campaign happening in their "gaming circle". That's enough for WotC to make good money selling the...

It's also worth noting that most of these new products are boxed sets, rather than books. That alone might earn them a more favorable shelf space (my local Barnes and Noble has a pretty sweet display shelf for boardgames, most of which probably sell worse than the D&D books. The D&D books used...