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I handle player additions to the setting the same way I handle pieces of other settings that I steal for my campaign. If the idea is a good one, it gets worked in, but usually modified in some way to fit what already exists. That way the setting looks like a finely woven tapestry, rather than a...

To paraphrase Mentzer's introduction to the 1983 B/E set, oD&D was created by hobbyists for hobbyists. It is obscure in terms of rules, and assumes you'll make things up and change the rules as needed to fit your game. This is true of every edition of D&D to an extent, but it was a necessity in...

If you're looking to recreate oD&D, I'd recommend buying the Holmes set and then expanding it with the Cook Expert rules. That will give you 14 levels of play in a system that is reasonably close to the original.

Hm...I suppose we're still a long way away from Expedition to Io's Blood Isles, then.

Mentzer's edition had a longer progression track and more options. While Moldvay ran to level 14, Mentzer went out to level 36 and introduced weapon mastery, siege warfare, immortals, and a boatload of other options. My preference for Moldvay is simple that Mentzer feels more like AD&D to me as...

I'd cast my vote for Moldvay/Cook. The 1974 boxed set is a nightmare to go through as far as editing goes, though if you go with that I'd recommend using it without supplements (my preference only). The Mentzer BECMI rules make for a solid game, but has a lot of extraneous stuff added on that I...

My experience on character creation through the editions: Basic D&D - As simple as it comes. Roll your ability scores, pick a class, and you're done. I didn't use skills, weapon mastery, or the like, as these were not options introduced in the basic sets. You didn't go into character creation...

My games seem to run just fine without tailoring the NPCs to the levels of the PCs. The group has had 20th-level allies and faced off against (or rather, ran the hell away from) a 20th-level foe when they were at level 4. The setting doesn't tailor itself to the PCs, but the adventures do. If a...

I like Eberron to an extent. I like the adventures, which give a very action-packed and interesting feel, even if I do have to dramatically tweak them to eliminate some of the uber-conspiracy junk that makes no sense. I don't like the setting, because I prefer something lower magic. I don't...

No. That's partly a matter of my playing style, though. I don't cite the rules during game unless it's for something minor like a spell duration. If the players complain about a rule, one of two things happen: If they can cite the rule quickly, I'll probably use it. If they can't, we use a...

3e does seem to incite a lot of worries about game balance. I'm wondering why that's so. Is it a company thing, a reflection of the current players, or something else? I don't think it's a system thing, because I know from personal experience that the game responds well to many different tweaks...

Not to start an edition war or anything, but that's because the Cyclopedia was better than a lot of 2nd edition products. For such a simple system, it did a heck of a lot without the rules expansions that 2nd edition AD&D had.

So the whole party's dead. The campaign could be trashed, and everyone would have to make new characters. But maybe I'm feeling generous, and am going to give them a chance to fight their way back from beyond the boundaries of death. Are there any good adventures out there that allow something...

In my experience, I've never seen any issues of DM control in any of the versions of D&D I've played. The DM is the guy running the game. You can disagree with him, but you can hardly hold him hostage -- there won't be a game if you don't let it be on his terms. I think a lot of this DM control...

Maybe because the Ruins of Greyhawk adventure was a 2nd edition product...?

1. No multiclassing? It hasn't hurt my game in the least, especailly since, even when I was playing 3e, most players never, ever took advantage of the M/C option, except to cherrypick a level or two. In theory, it sounds really nice to say that your 5th level fighter can train with a thieves'...

I think both schools have merits. My own homebrew began with me fleshing out the setting to suit the adventure at hand. When that campaign concluded, I spent quite a bit of time building up the world, mostly because I enjoyed it. The end result is that my setting is now detailed enough to...

As to the whole house rules mean the system is broken thing... Is there anyone who doesn't add house rules to any version of D&D? I have never, ever, ever run any version of D&D where I didn't make some house rules of my own. Even when I was learning the game, I tweaked things here and there...

I'd love to see it happen -- mainly because I really want to play NWN 2 but don't have a computer that can run it. I know I've borrowed liberally from other Bioware games for my tabletops, including the Baldur's Gate series, Planescape: Torment, and the original Neverwinter Nights. As to...

Unless you're being sarcastic, that's extremely condescending -- not to mention flat out wrong.