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In my old AD&D game I ruled that familiars weren't really animals at all, but spirits in animal form. Their masters (and other familiars) would hear them speaking with human voices, but to everybody else they just sounded like animals making normal animal noises. They were important and beloved...

Sometimes its been the location of the treasure that created the ick factor. Such as when the halfling PC had to pull a bag of gems out of a female ogre's.....um, special place. It's the kind of event I love to describe in exquisite detail, emphasizing the unique visual, auditory, and...

I think we're arguing different points. I don't disagree with anything you just outlined above. I simply made an observation that perhaps many design decisions relevant to 4th edition (and even 3rd edition) make more sense if you view them as legal strategies. I certainly wasn't questioning...

Not what I intended at all. In fact, as I understand it the OGL and SRD remove anything in 3rd edition from the public domain. My original point was that changing something like a dryad away from its generally understood form creates a new intellectual property that can't be challenged, unlike a...

True. Although let's remember that the OGL and SRD explicitly remove things from the public domain by defining terms, asserting ownership, and then granting a mechanism for use under the intellectual property owner's conditions.

My campaign worlds have tended towards the underlying assumption that the "gods" didn't really exist, and what intelligent beings worshiped were at best non-corporeal but magically potent creatures that pretended to be primordial powers (but were really just evolved beings like everybody else)...

Not from me. And I hated 2nd edition. But at least you could run more than 1 or 2 combats in a session in 2nd edition, and do it without miniatures.

Of course, the question may not be whether or not the current leadership of WOTC hates the OGL, as much as whether or not Hasbro dislikes it. Ultimately, 4th edition is Hasbro's game, so let's see what happens...

So much of 4th edition strikes me as game designers trying to justify their jobs to Hasbro, that I'm not surprised at yet another completely unnecessary and boneheaded butchering of the game. Of course, the redesign creates marketable intellectual property, taking the D&D dryad completely out...

My AD&D campaign in High School had PCs named after metal bands and musicians (other characters were named for figures in horror and action movies). The intermixing of the thrash/death/black/power/speed metal scene and D&D was definitely there. That was back when D&D totally ruled and did not...

Make the religion into an initiatory mystery cult, with segregated male and female groups who are named after letters of the alphabet. New initiates should be made to perform humiliating tasks and be the victims of practical jokes. Perhaps the cult is also noted for often playing pranks on the...

Simpler does not equal more role-play focused, of course. More complex, however, can definitely take away from role-playing. I haven't played Vampire since the 90s, so I can't address how the game system is now. I remember the game sessions being about 80-90% live action. The combat system was...

I'm not sure that a combat-like social "system", where NPC interactions are handled by die rolls, is the right way to go for a tabletop RPG. I'm wondering what percentage of players actually want to have more NPC encounters, and completely role-play them out without die rolling. I'm also...

Three of my current players are also World of Warcraft players (the other 3 are not). One of them recently asked me if I minded bringing another person into the group. The potential new player is a longstanding acquaintance of all of us, but I was concerned because our gaming style is role-play...

I think the new PC race is probably something reptilian, either lizardmen or some kind of dragon spawn. Reptilian humanoids are such as strong and recurrent theme in both world folklore and sword & sorcery fiction that I'm surprised no previous edition of D&D ever had them as a possibility for...

I've used that idea for an NPC. In my campaign Halflings are similar to American rednecks, and their religion is a parody of "holy roller" Christianity. A few sessions ago the halfling in the party wandered into "Brother Bumbo Love's Olde Tyme Revival" tent. Brother Bumbo is actually a Bard, of...

As a DM I would regard you as someone who is role-playing a cleric well. Hell, I'd give your PC an XP bonus for acting completely in-character!

The problem is when clerics are only played for their mechanical capabilities, which are focused on supporting other players. It's easy to forget why the clerics has these abilities - to help convert other people to their cause! Remember, clerics weren't intended to represent the mainline clergy...

From what I remember of world history, I'd say: 1) As high as 50% (Shogunate Japan) to as low as 5% (Dark Ages Europe with basically only the clergy literate). Historically, few societies bothered to educate non-noble women at all. 2) Pre-modern societies were anywhere from 80-90% farmers...

Friends don't let friends listen to Toto...