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I agree, Conan is just an easy thing to point to and does not always typify the genre for everyone. Conan is what comes to mind for me but not the original books, though I have read them, but actually my mind goes to 70s DC Conan comics which usually leaned toward more monster of the week fare...

An element I think of in Sword & Sorcery is actually Sword vs Sorcery. In classic stories magic is often inherently evil. Another thing I think of is cults that venerate some enormous fauna. Sword & Sorcery might also lean heavily on the anti-hero as well and might be what made Conan unique.

Way back in the day Caster Level confused me. I got muddled between Caster Level and Spell Level. The function of picking two domains was confusing to me once upon a time. We used to get AoO all wrong and played that way for a long time. Anyone moving INTO combat got one whacked for free unless...

I don't enjoy playing with a bunch of passive players very much. I end up doing all the talking and I want to be engaged by the other players. It makes me feel like I was monopolizing the table. I have a group where two players are passive and two are active. I find this more annoying as a GM to...

Is there anything Mr. Greenwood can't do? I actually didn't know he was a contributing artist. This cover is not my favorite. It's a little, i dunno, smurfy, which was in style at the time. I looked up The Nine Doctrine's of Darkness and was a little surprised to not see a PDF available...

I thought the same thing.

Trial by grits is a pretty gross way to get a promotion.

I did something like this in an evil PF AP. Possessed oracle. My character wasn't evil but was constantly driven to the dark side by its demonic infestation. The character cried a lot while the rest of the party laughed. Fun.

Just because I am in love with the concept does not mean the rest of the group will care or that the idea functions in the current game. Often we come to the table with a character we whipped up out of whole cloth only to find out we made a silk sash when we needed a burlap sack. I play at a...

Alien is an example right? The campaign book for Space Marines is finally coming out but I would be much more interested in space truckers. And what about this new Dune game. Looks great but am I going to get an adventure? While The One Ring was a neat game with a few cool tricks there wasn't a...

New editions are like Microsoft Windows versions. I let everyone else jump first and get beat up while I hold back to see if it is worth getting into, or possibly skipping. If it weren't for wanting to get into gaming at my local shop, I would probably never have touched 5e but I will be...

Good issue for sure. I didn't read these at the time of publication seeing as I would not be born for another four years, but not having an article from Gary in this issue got me thinking: I get the feeling that whenever Gary had an article, no matter the content, it would cause sort of a row in...

There is a lot of great material in the Gamemastery guide for Pathfinder. Also you could grab Kingmaker for Pathfinder and take a look at how it was done there. One of the best sources is The Alexadrian. I did my own hexcrawl rules using a few tables and tweaks from The Alexadrian and pathfinder...

Choose your own adventure magnets. Genius.

New format? My guesses are a bucket of loose pages. A text tattooed to a raw hide. Someone shouts rules at you from a roof with a bull horn. Homing pigeons.

I talk about it all the time but, these books are instrumental, imo, for Dark Ages games as they have more revelence in that world. As the Cappadocians and Lamia are still around, the Book about Lilith is quite handy. There is a story in the beginning of the Gypsy book that fits in with these...

I bought the Book of Nod back in 2002 I believe. It was such an interesting read and I think one of the most impactful things I read for Vampire. It really helped me understand how to characterize older vampires. It also helped me put a constant hint of mystery, history, and an expanded deeper...

The point about GM's not being professional storytellers goes to the heart of my dislike for most 'storytelling' games. By all means, everyone should spend their time how they wish, but most gamers I have played with over the years are not nearly imaginative enough for that style of play.

Necrobiotic is very intriguing. Cool idea with some great art.

You site the contributing writers in these but not the artists. I would guess much of the interior art is hard to site but what about the cover artists. The covers from this period are often delightful. This one is fantastic by Steve Oliff. He did a lot of comic art in the 90s, some for Marvel.