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This is an issue of genre. In the classic super-heroes genre, the heroes are a force for the status quo. They are reactive to the super-villain of the month and his mad scheme to change the status quo in some way. A super-heroes campaign modeled on the classic Silver Age Marel or DC universe...

I'll use published examples, not because I assume everybody uses them, but because I think they're examples of how TSR thought the game was being run at the time, and are indicative of the "received wisdom" gamers were getting from the company. There were a number of published adventures...

Absolutely. This is why I always say that a game with great players and a mediocre DM is better than a game with mediocre players and a great DM.

Generally speaking, in old school adventure design the more dangerous road would be modeled with a higher frequency of more difficult/numerous wandering monsters and perhaps a lair or two of more difficult monsters/opponents. The less dangerous road would have a lower frequency of less...

I find it interesting that the term "sandbox" even needs to be used. Prior to 1984, there was no need for any term beyond "D&D campaign." Basically, with the advent of the Dragonlance series of adventures, it became common practice to create one's campaign based on a pre-planned series of...

To the original example, the only thing I'd add is that, "Bob, the famous warrior, and Phil, the powerful wizard, went into the mist to try to stop the menace and never returned." That should at least tell the characters that they better be a famous warrior or powerful wizard before setting out...

There's no reason why you can't have "big threats" fairly early on in the campaign for the pcs. The key is to give them enough information to intelligent choices with regard to that threat. Foremost of the information imparted to the players is that there is no safety net. In one campaign I...

I think the replacement for Weapons v. AC would look a bit like 2e's weapons v. armor types adjustments. Initiative would be quite different, though. One d6 roll for each side. No weapon speed adjustment, etc. It'd just be the 1e system with a clarification of one horribly worded sentence...

1. I'd try to act like nothing published after 1980 existed. 2. I like the idea behind weapons v. AC, but not the implementation. I'd make things simpler by assigning bonuses for certain classes of weapons versus certain type of armor. I'd also give shields bonuses against certain types of...

Cool! For some reason, I didn't think this came out until February. This will be the first WotC D&D product I've bought since the 3.5 PHB. (Assuming someone doesn't give it to me for Christmas.)

There are both supply and demand sides to that equation. The 1e PHB went through 17 printings from 1978 to 1991 and had a notoriously high quality binding. Millions of PHBs were printed and millions of them continue to float around the secondary market. The 3.5e PHB was in print from about...

The OP appears to be from Rhode Island, which is ironic, because I tend to say an area the size of R.I. is the perfect starter area for a campaign. I also think of it in terms of four Midwestern U.S. counties. World and continental maps are great, but for practical purposes, to see what the...

We're not judges or jurors. We're customers and I don't see why potential rpg customers should have to wait for the courts. I think people can read that RPG.net thread, come to their own conclusions, and act accordingly. What has happened seems pretty obvious to me. I would also point out...

There's another thread on the front page linking to a group of board game reviews from a newspaper in which the reviewer complains of the complexity of Ticket to Ride's rules. That rule book is about 8 pages long, with big pictures and a lot of colors. Give the current incarnation of D&D, and...

In calling Ticket to Ride too complicated, they essentially did the identical of a movie critic calling Star Wars a pretentious art-house film. Yeah, it's an opinion. But it's not an opinion anyone else could possibly share having looked at the movie or game. I mean, my Godmother learned that...

I'm not sure which version of the rules you're looking at, but in the 1981 version of the rules, the context of the statement makes clear that the morale check is for the side that had the first death. A lot of time, with the new editions, rules were cut and pasted out of context or words were...

But I bet your film professor could give a cogent explanation for his opinion that someone who liked the movie, while maybe not agreeing with, could at least understand... The sound is murky, some of the characters' motivations are unclear (why does Kay agree to get back with Michael?), it...

It's a misunderstanding of the rules. You check morale with the side's first death in combat. Obviously, if a monster is first to die, you check the monsters' morale. If it's the characters' side that had the first death, you're checking morale for their npc allies, cronies, and hangers-on...

I think it was because the DM was supposed to decide for himself when the monsters retreated. I have no problem with that in theory. However, I have found when I use the morale rules from O(A)D&D mechanically, monsters retreat or surrender far more often than they fight to the death. When I...

And if this is what they wrote in their review, I could have completely understood where they were coming from. The reviewers, on the other hand, said the game was too complicated. I think Clue, Monopoly, and Sorry are great games, by the way. I'm not one who normally thinks indie games =...