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I decided that the Shadowfell gate could only be opened during a thunderstorm, and Kalarel's ritual took days to perform, so he needed to summon a magical storm. One of my players was running a paladin of Kord, so I had Kalarel use a stolen, storm-summoning relic called the "eye of storms"...

Has anybody mentioned D&D's Hollow World? Mystara's poles are misty chasms leading into the hollow world within, whose continents cling to the inner walls of the planet. A tiny sun floats at the planet's core. It still has jungles, rivers, mountains - but no night, no stars: just perpetual day...

I actually did a "flashback" to foreshadow Kalarel - who in my game was also a priest who was corrupted by Orcus. I handed out character sheets to the players, the last one of which was Kalarel himself. It was a great "oooo!" moment. The players then played a quick encounter using their new...

The DM's screen is there for a reason - and historically one of those reasons is definitely for fudging. For years, I've flip-flopped between fudging and not. I've tried rolling consistently the open, declaring my actions before rolling. I've tried keeping everything a secret, rolling the dice...

Great feedback here. I really appreciate it! You're right, I should have clarified this. The problem I have is that "ally" isn't a particularly well-defined term. The power is intended to trigger from members of your adventuring party dropping - as they fall, so you grow stronger. But to my...

Well, I finally got around to doing up the saddle as a proper write-up, which I've posted over in the fan-creations forum, and on my blog. I ended up using a bunch of suggestions that came from this thread - so thanks to everyone who posted!

I've been thinking for a while about how to make a magic saddle. Some recent discussion on these boards gave me some ideas, as well as a D&D article the other week about curses. This is what I finally came up with (along with a neat picture drawn by my girlfriend!). The Rhônic Saddle is...

I've played with women in my groups since I left school, and I have to say I find no real differences in playstyle to men. When it comes to bikinichick art, the girls I've played with just seem to shrug when questioned about it. They're not really that bothered. As somebody mentioned...

I guess you're right about power balance: there could still be some challenge there. Bumping characters up a few levels probably works for making them "elites" within a party, but for a solo character I think it's going to be too much of a grind. A solo, 7th level character still doesn't have...

I'd want it to be balanced though - adding levels just means that enemies never hit you, and you've got powers that may unbalance the adventure e.g. paragon flight, and so on. There would have to be the same sense of danger that you get with a decent, balanced encounter.

Yeah, this is actually the main thing I'd be worried about. I'd prefer something that doesn't feel sped-up. Instead, (assuming a martial theme) you'd have a bunch of free reaction powers that mimic ripostes, dodges, or shield bashes against closing enemies - each dealing encounter power...

Judging by the vibe I get from the FAQ, I'm guessing this will be a map-based game using lots of pop-up widgets for combat, settlement management, etc - rather than a full-blown 3D WoW extravaganza. Which could be all kinds of fun, and possibly quite popular if it's pretty enough.

This could work for that Elite boost. Maybe second wind twice per encounter too... I may run a few trial combats with that. Thanks!

Has anyone ever tried to create a solo PC class? I was thinking how neat it would be to have a 4E solo character you could airdrop straight into an unmodified, 5-character adventure. After all, scaling an adventure for one player is a headache, and loses much of the cool monster synergies that...

As this is Call of Cthulhu, you could possibly use something with a grounding in real world history. According to the internet, cuneiform tablets have been found bearing prayers to rid the body of sickness spirits called "Giddim" - allegedly the first recorded cases of demonic possession. The...

Hey, you're right. Looks like I'm misinformed, and McGuffins can sometimes stick around. I guess where the term is most often misused, is when people make the McGuffin actually do something crucial to the plot. Then it becomes a plot device. This is where I think the term has mutated - for...

Interesting. Things I like: Not counting failures and instead imposing a different form of time limit (e.g. each person in the group has just one action). In my experience, counting failures sometimes focuses blame unnecessarily on certain players, or just seems arbitrary when it ends a...

It's possible that all Domino is suggesting here is that you stick to the true meaning of the term "McGuffin". By definition, a McGuffin is a device that drives the plot and is then forgotten entirely. For example, the golden idol at the start of Raiders is the McGuffin - in that it serves to...

Absolutely. A good many people are simply flummoxed by situations where lateral thinking is demanded. Not to say they're bad players: they may struggle to reach that high lever, but they're great at roleplaying conversations, or cooking up tactics during combat. A good challenge, in my opinion...

I love the original poster's ideas about the first ever murder weapon, and I think Randomthoughts has a great suggestion here that builds on it. Cain would make a great antihero, especially as a villain in search of redemption. According to some readings, Cain was made immortal, cursed by God...