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You started 5 years before I did, so I'll just be hitting my quarter-centennial come this fall (though it's been long enough now that I can't remember whether I started playing in August or September; all I know is that it was very early in the school year, the second week or so of my freshman...

My sentiment as well. AD&D is Gary's D&D, which is cool and all, I respect it, I have all the AD&D books on my shelf and regard them as "case law" or "precedent" with respect to my own D&D campaigns — but I'm interested in playing my take on the game that Gary & Dave made, not Gary's take on the...

It's worth pointing out, I think, that "roll under the stat" is not a commonly used mechanic in any 70s or early 80s expression of the OD&D or AD&D rules as published by TSR. We see it used once or twice in early modules like B1 (where it's expressed as d%, 5% per point of ability score to...

The idea that spellcasting clerics aren't run-on-of-the-mill clergy or run-of-the-mill church militant, they're rare and exceptional individuals like prophets and miracle-workers, has been around for a long time; but I don't think it was ever codified into any flavor text in a D&D rulebook until...

Well I certainly like the silicone mat that comes in the Best Chess Set Ever better than the traditional tournament vinyl mats. So, yeah, this is really tempting; especially if it works with dry-erase markers. Pity it looks like they're only doing 1" grids. I'm a 20mm minis guy.

33rd level with Int 18 for mage, 36th level with Wis 18 for cleric. Mages, of course, have to find the spell and learn it, while clerics can just pray for it; what's more, a cleric will reach 36th level a cool million XP before a mage hits 33rd (2.9 vs 3.9 million XP).

This is where I'm at. I tend to be the only one in my circle who cares about these games enough to DM, tinker, design, playtest, read forums, etc. But because I care, I'm also particular about what I'm willing to run — and if there's something about a system that I don't like, I won't hesitate...

"Magic-user minus spellbook" has never exactly been a compelling archetype. The only time it's ever felt justified has been when it was called "psionicist."

71 Making 4e all rigid and perfectly balanced RUINED D&D FOREVER 72 Making 5e all loosey-goosey and unbalanced RUINED D&D FOREVER

OD&D vol 1 Men & Magic says: "Prior to the character selection by players it is necessary for the referee to roll three six-sided dice in order to rate each as to various abilities, and thus aid them in selecting a role." So I have myself roll for my players' stats, old-old-school style. I do...

WotC doesn't do "new editions" without changing the XP table and the saving throw mechanics.

@Man in the Funny Hat Yep, that's how I've always interpreted the distinction too. Clerics get their powers from deities and are all about religion; paladins get their powers from the impersonal force of Lawful Goodness that even LG gods are beholden to and don't so much serve LG gods as ally...

Oh… I don't think I can agree with that at all. Let's be clear here: illusionism is fundamentally a force play — it's forcing a GM-desired outcome in spite of a mechanism for choosing between multiple possible outcomes (be that mechanism a player decision, a random generator, a subsystem of...

Interested to see where this discussion goes. For my part, I try very hard to avoid illusionism at all costs, chiefly for ideological/play-style reasons. It's more habit than necessity these days, but in the past, I found myself needing to resort to transparency techniques to avoid both the...

Babylon 5, Enterprise, and Farscape all deserved the fifth season they didn't get. Stargate SG-1 deserved at least five, and maybe even as many as seven, of its ten seasons. (Stargate Atlantis, meanwhile, definitely jumped the shark far sooner.)

I made sure to get some ectoplasm-colored d6s for playing d6 Ghostbusters / Spooktacular. :cool:

My brain immediately goes to Final Fantasy for this question. It is my core reference point for what a class system ought to look like. And if we map FF1's original six classes onto the D&D ability scores, it looks like this: Strength — Fighter Dexterity — Thief Constitution — Black Belt...

My aesthetic:

Only if the Classic rules come with it. ;)