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Just my own preferences, but... Exceptional Strength seems like something that should either be removed or a subsystem that should be allowed for other ability scores (i.e., thieves get exceptional Dex, mages get exceptional Int, etc). My vote would be to remove it. My personal preference is...

1) I'd be more interested in a tweaked version that fixes some of the 2nd edition bugs. 2) Guidelines on how to build your own races and classes would probably be best. Expanding the core too much bogs the game down. 3) Tweaked spell schools would be a swell idea. 4) No kits. Most of the good...

1. Psionics: Depends on the setting. I haven't used them since 2nd edition, since they boil down to yet another form of magic. If someone wants to play a psion, I usually just reflavor the sorcerer class. 2. Tome of Battle: Never used it, not interested in using it. The same goes for most rule...

As long as I like the other players and the GM, I'll play any game system, regardless of whether I like it or not. If I had the opportunity to play a 1st edition game, I'd probably take it and enjoy playing. That said, 1st edition is far from my preferred version of D&D. I'd probably prefer to...

Can players make their own characters, or are they pregenned? Does the set have rules for advancement beyond 1st level, or is it like the 3.5 set where the game essentially ends at 2nd level?

Since no one else has mentioned it, I'll throw out the Rogues Gallery for AD&D 2nd edition. It had a ton of interesting NPCs to help flesh out a campaign, although the rules were not always consistent. Unfortunately, I haven't found that one in PDF format -- the closest anyone's got is the 1st...

I've DMed for almost 20 years now, and I still make tons of mistakes in a given session. I don't worry about any of them as long as they don't slow down the pace of the game.

D&D stops being D&D to me and becomes d20 Fantasy when you take out stuff like green slimes, rust monsters, owlbears, and beholders. When spellcasters don't get to use Bigby's hand spells to pummel their opponents and thieves don't have to check for disintegration traps behind locked doors. The...

3rd edition with just the core is great, in my opinion. I've run campaigns at all level ranges (except epic) without any difficulty. Maybe I'm an exception, but I've never seen the game as complex, nor have I had much of a desire to use the splatbooks that came out for 3.5.

I would be interested in a game that: 1) Restores most of the old D&D standards (druids, bards, half-orcs, et cetera), and 2) De-emphasizes tactical combat. If that's what somebody means when they say 4th edition with 1st edition feel, I'm all for it. However, especially in the case of my...

I think the number of people who ignore that the current Pathfinder release is an alpha version (i.e., try out your craziest ideas and see what works) is pretty staggering. The beta will be a better way to judge how the game is shaping up.

Three things that I think would have helped: 1) Don't tear down 3rd edition to build up 4th edition. 2) Avoid redundancy in the marketing speak -- specifically, things like, "fun and fair," "X killed Y and took its stuff," and calling everything cool got annoying and also failed to really...

Measuring purely by inflation, it seems gamers are probably getting a decent deal. In my case, at least, I can't judge by inflation. I was 11 years old when I first got into gaming. At that time, I had a lot more disposable income than I do now. I could buy supplements pretty rarely because my...

Drow in my campaign are elves who committed a serious crime and were marked for their sins. The ritual that serves as their punishment marks their skin black and does significant emotional and spiritual damage. Dark elves in my campaign are actually a bit weaker than normal elves, since this...

My current plan is to stick with 3.5. 4th edition is going in a direction that I do not care for, although it looks to be a very good game for what it is. Pathfinder has my attention, but there's a lot to be said for the level of comfort I have with the 3.5 rules. I'm more interested in...

The only problem I've seen with high-level campaigns comes if the DM has a need to know every spell or skill rank that a given custom creature/NPC uses. Unless it's an NPC who will be around for a while, I usually make a note as to the main attacks and most used abilities, winging the rest of...

While Bioware is now owned by EA, Obsidian Entertainment is not. Their credits include Neverwinter Nights 2 and Knights of the Old Republic 2. Their staff also has a lot of the folks who worked on the Baldur's Gate trilogy. Just sayin', is all.

3.5 drew the ire of fans not for the changes it made, but rather for the way it was released. Had WotC followed what was apparently their original plan and waited five years after the release of 3rd edition, I don't think they would have ticked quite so many people off. (And they would have had...

A few differences: -Zanzer's dungeon didn't use pregens. You made your character as you played. -By the time you finished Zanzer's dungeon, you knew how to play the entire basic D&D game. Sure, there were some monsters and spells that wouldn't come along until after 5th level, but that...

The Council of Wyrms campaign set for AD&D features a setting where dragons are dominant, demihumans serve as familiars in a way, and humans are rare dragon-slaying villaina. The setting is entirely self-contained in one boxed set (or one book, if you get the later revision), and it's one of the...