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As a DM, I prefer the run campaigns where the Weird collides with the Mundane. I tend to start things off looking fairly ordinary and historically based, and gradually reveal the utter strangeness lurking under the surface. In my opinion, the Weird (or Wahoo) quickly becomes ordinary and just as...

I have a somewhat unique gaming situation at the moment, one that I think provides a certain perspective on the Old-School versus New-School debate. Right now at my FLGS we have a large group (7-10 players per session) that alternates between 4th Edition and Classic D&D (Rules Cyclopedia...

Sure. 1st Edition had parts even Gygax didn't use! And part of what attracted me to AD&D at the time was the fact that it was definitely not intended for my age group.

I think of Alignment the way Gygax actually articulated the concept in the 1st Edition Player's Handbook and DMG: not really a description of behavior, but a characterization of one's spiritual essence and essential beliefs. Lawful good characters sometimes cheat, Chaotic Evil characters are...

Buffalo Wings. Flavorful, messy, and too hot for kids.

I'll play any edition of D&D, but I refuse to DM 3.x or 4th Edition. I won't DM 3.x Edition because its just too much work to ask any human being to perform in the name of fun. I don't want to DM 4th Edition because the world necessitated by the rules is too far away from the type of campaign...

In my campaign I assume that the gods don't exist independent of the devotion of intelligent creatures. Deities are created from the primal Chaos by sentient beings' desire to have something to worship. The miracles apparently granted by divinities are just another form of magic, which works by...

The problem is another metagame issue. Namely, everyone is at the table to have fun, and its the DMs job to try to keep the game enjoyable. The player of the wizard may very well feel that his or her character is being picked on, and by extension, that he or she is being picked on personally. I...

I think there are three fair ways of determining who gets attacked. 1) Whoever is directly in front of, or closest to, the Balor. 2) The last enemy who attacked the Balor. 3) A randomly determined enemy. None of those involved metagame knowledge, and reflect the kind of decision making that...

I tend to think of alignment in as a cosmic affiliation, rather than a description of behavior. Alignment describes how one feels about the multiverse on a deep level, and when push comes to shove, what cosmic powers the character will fight for. Behavior flows from alignment, but alignment...

One of the hardest lessons of my life has been learning that some problems cannot be solved, only endured. The lack of female D&D players seems to be one of those problems. In my experience, most woman don't really care about the fantasy artwork, the inherent violence of the game, or any...

I can also add that in my experience the association between Wicca/paganism/occultism and gaming is much stronger among females than males. Every single female gamer I know is either also a Wiccan or neo-pagan of some form.

I've noticed that gamers in their 30s tend to be also interested in non-mainstream religions, especially pagan/occult ones, while I've noticed no such tendency in younger gamers. I think it may have to do with growing up in the 80s, when D&D was often considered "evil". A lot of kids I knew...

So far, I've had no problem getting players to embrace and play their cultures. I don't force the issue. Instead, I give the players lists of 10 things the average member of their culture believes, but also tell them that their PCs could be rebels who don't believe those things. The campaign is...

My current Classic D&D campaign is set during a time when the Elven and Dwarven Empires are still at their height, vast and organized Hobgoblin Dicatorships are constant menaces, and monsters like Nagas, Sphinxes, and Rakshasas have their own kingdoms on the surface. Elves, Dwarves...

How about adding an option for Clark Ashton Smith? It's a little odd to include Howard and Lovecraft but not Smith.

In early D&D, Charisma was not a "dump stat" because there where no "dump stats"; abilities were rolled in order and you played what your scores indicated. The game didn't demand that all characters have super-human abilities in every category. Charisma is a vital ability for low-level...

The definition of horror is relative to a particular culture. To modern Westerners, used to living pampered existences provided by our technology, being powerless is perhaps the ultimate horror. Pre-modern people were used to being powerless, so what horrified them was the transgression of...

I personally present Halflings as mullet-wearing, moonshine-swilling rednecks who do not take kindly to strangers and have no compunctions about stealing from non-Halflings. They tend to put on weight, and do not wear shoes.

Bandits (and/or Urban Thieves) Basic Marauding Humanoids (such as Orcs, Hobgoblins, etc) Wolves (or other basic wilderness predators) Semi-Dangerous Herd Animals (Wild Cattle, etc.) Scheming Wizards Mad Cultists Basic Sea Monsters (stats could represent gigantic fish, monstrous eels...