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Is The Big Bang Theory really the most popular show on television?

I generally agree with preferences here, and I adore #3 and intend to steal it, but I have to say I really don't like #17. To me, it doesn't look fantasy at all; rather it looks like an attempt to unnecessarily modernize a hobby that's based in nostalgia, tradition, and history (both of the game...

I run into the "spreading XP around" problem again. Thank you so much for an excellent explanation.

So this relates to the tiered nature of such feats in 4e, how they increase by +1 additional bonus at each tier. Interesting. Maybe this is caused by D&D's insistence that all halves are rounded down, so the half-level bonus goes +0/+1/+0/+1 rather than +1/+0/+1/+0, but monsters get full level...

You're right, of course; flavor is important, and thoughtful play isn't just figuring out which challenges won't kill you. I also can see that there are ways to have zones of equal challenge hold different meaning-- perhaps there's a town being attacked by orcs and a cult finishing up an evil...

You know what? I'm really impressed by this. NOW BEGINS THE NITPICKING. 1. In your bonus essay, you write, I believe you mean 1-.5^2=.75, since he has two rolls with a 50% chance of failure. :D 2. I may have simply missed this in your OP, but how do you set the DC for a task? I'm not...

Two unrelated thoughts. 1. I like CleverNickName's idea about a set of race-creation rules. My dream for 5e is a module that lets you build your own half-races. It's always bugged me that every "half-X" race is "other half human." I want a half-elf-half-dwarf, or a half-tiefling-half-halfling...

Okay, I'm showing my noob here but I have to ask a couple questions about terminology that's getting thrown around. 1. What is siloing? 2. What is a feat tax? 3. What's the deal with Weapon Focus, etc. being "math fixes?" I've heard this story before, that the designers realized at some...

What I'm hoping for from my complexity options is the ability to build exactly the character I envision without sacrificing effectiveness. I'd love to see a system where there's a Basic Human Fighter with a sword and shield that I could hand to a new player, but when I play I can create an...

I can buy the argument that epic = superpowered, but in that case epic-level play should itself be an add-on, not core. Before 4e people talked about playing a character from levels 1-20; anything past that was a special case. With 4e there's a built-in expectation that a long-term campaign will...

Strongly agreed, and I'm pretty confident this is something the designers are working towards with 5e. I think they specifically addressed this in one of the DDXP seminars; can't recall for sure, though. But it's something I'm looking forward to in 5e.

Hm, I disagree. Buzzword or no, part of the "sandbox" playstyle is that some options will be more or less dangerous than others. A well-run game should give the players information about their various options so they can make meaningful choices; perhaps they want to clear out low-level...

I chose "Game Style" because I've found 4e to be restrictive of the style of game that it can run. Disclaimer: I know this is an extremely hot-button issue, so what follows is only my opinion, based on my experience, in my games. YMMV, etc. I run a sandbox campaign, and I love the Exploration...

I run a sandbox campaign, and I warned my players at the beginning that they'd run into things way above their pay grade. That didn't stop them from literally leaping aboard the first ship they came across despite it being packed with foes (the PCs are pirates) and expecting to get a win...

Also against this. I like playing all sorts of classes, and I don't want my style or my fluff to be limited by my class features. I'm already not crazy about the roles in 4e-- I can't build a ranged fighter? Hm. My personal preference would be fewer classes, each of which is extremely modular...

He's referring to the fact that in 4e, you don't actually die until you hit your negative bloodied value (negative half your hp). This means that if you have 100 HP and you're instant killed when you hit 25 HP, you've essentially been dropped to -50 HP-- or taken 75 damage.

For some reason the HP thing has never really bugged me, but I definitely see what you're saying. You can make up different explanations for the different complex skill checks-- for example, the duke is starting to be convinced, you've located how one or two pins of the lock should sit, you've...

I think this is really the heart of the old-school/new-school divide, at least as I see it. Around the time of 2e the focus of D&D shifted from dungeon/hexcrawling to telling a coherent, epic story starring the characters. I read a good essay somewhere about how this started with the Dragonlance...

This is a cool idea, but like the "bad things" idea, won't apply in every situation. As a DM I don't want to have to come up with time limits, or granular bad things, for every complex skill check. What might be interesting is to have multiple mechanics for failure. The two mentioned above would...

The way I envision it, having skill effect rolls would make levels of mastery more or less unnecessary, or at least baked in. I've always been a little wary of putting hard caps on when someone simply can't even attempt to do something. Obviously in some examples given, like speaking Illithid...