Search results

Some notes on the evolution of the Great Wheel: While I don't own any of the OD&D rule books or supplements, a lot of development took place in early issues of The Strategic Review/The Dragon, which I do have access to. (I hunted down the Dragon Archive CD-ROM a few years back.) I'd appreciate...

No experience myself, but Mythras + Classic Fantasy or the Companion does get you the grid-based option.

I've been haunting Half Price Books and similar used bookstores for RPG materials for 30 years and have had some great finds: The Complete Book of Necromancers in 2000 for $10 (along with Nightmares of Mine at half cover price in the same trip), a complete D&D Immortals set in the mid-2000s for...

Most of what I'm seeing comes from leaks/spoilers/rumors about tonight's episode, so if you've been avoiding those, that may change the game.

Hmm....erasure and/or cultural appropriation? ;)

That is one understanding of balance--that you can't eliminate evil without causing greater evils. The other, and the one that informs things like Dragonlance and certain readings of the Great Wheel, is that evil is morally and metaphysically coequal with good and has just as much importance to...

The idea of 'balance between good and evil' was floating around entertainment circles in the late 70s and early 80s, made it into the D&D game as some point (definitely by Dragonlance, but I've seen suggestions it was in Greyhawk as well) and has strongly influenced the modern game. The paladin...

The excerpts from the book suggest Mordenkainen's chief concern is the Balance between Law and Chaos. I know very little of Greyhawk, so while I know Mordenkainen has always been big on Balance, I don't know if it's always been an L/C balance or if it was the G/E balance a la Dragonlance and...

Judging from the Table of Contents: Greyhawk: 32 pages Mystara: 24 Krynn: 30 Faerun: 34 Eberron: 31 "Inner and Parallel Planes": 13 Feywild: 28 Shadowfell (including Ravenloft): 27 Spelljammer: 24 Nine Hells: 28 Abyss: 18 Sigil: 32 "Outer Planes and Far Realm": 18 It says something about D&D...

In this case, the fiction did come first--the moons as the source of/influence on magic shows up in the Dragonlance fiction (novels and game source material) from the beginning in 1984, but doesn't get reflected in mechanics until DRAGONLANCE Adventures in 1987.

And I.C.E. was planning a full-fledged RPG, but it turned out the license they were using for both was an illegitimate sublicense, which got them into trouble with the Lewis estate.

Advanced Player's Guide II includes design notes and two Social Combat Systems, covering 18 pages.

Very true. Forward worked on He-Man and She-Ra as well, and wrote what is generally considered the best episode of the former, "The Problem with Power."

There are numerous references in core Dragonlance material that Raistlin was "born with the gift" and that he and others are "strong in the magic." Older D&D kept the magic-user broader and less defined; it had some definite quirks (learning, memorization, dependence on Intelligence), but it...

I don't think the poly/henotheism shows up until Supplement IV. And don't forget the Templars in the original mix. :)

I tell you, Krynn makes a lot more sense once you realize that most of the 'gods' are ancient, lie-breathing, soul-devouring dragons ... ;)

I would note that the sharp divide between the two is a 3E innovation; while wizards/mages/magic-users in earlier editions need training of some sort, it's entirely up to players and DMs whether the capacity for magic itself is learned, inborn, or granted. I admit that part of me was grouchy...

Straight from Richard Baker himself, only a couple of weeks ago: https://richardbakerauthor.com/2024/03/10/50-years-of-dd-the-sorcerer/