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I have used many methods of creating characters (PCs and NPCs) in the past. A few were created to "try out a mechanic" ("best archer possible in 4e", or "highest Divination skill possible in 3.5e") - these have varying success as being fun to play. The latter was actually a blast, but the...

In the series "The Dragon and the George" (IIRC), the author made a few setting-based comments that have stuck with me for years. Essentially - in the middle ages (the generic background timeframe/setting of most fantastic worlds), people don't travel. "Fare well" is the parting salutation...

I love both presented solutions - "Kinetic Poisoning" and "only works in anomaly zone beneath the hole". Also, as a games designer, I like mechanics to be consistent across everything, so a *break* from the consistency is intentional and important and carefully considered. Too many writers in...

Traps, I've found, do two things: the first one causes damage to the unwary party, alerting them to the possibility of further traps; thereafter, the party moves very slowly, searching/detecting/sacrificing ("101 uses for a dead gnome") looking for more traps. As a DM, I don't like the...

Someone upthread posted the design question for a lair: Is this a Home? A battlefield? A mix of both (like a castle)? Think about your house - okay, maybe not. Think about a house in a wartorn land, or where law and order isn't ubiquitous (inner city slums, perhaps). Your basic home has...

In my current (4e) campaign, the PCs come from a wide variety of backgrounds, most of which aren't relevant to this conversation. However, there is one elf in the group, and he is also the only one who understands Elven without magical aid. (There are two wizards, and both have Comprehend...

I think it would be interesting to have the Fate cards, and add them to a D&D campaign session. Draw three or five cards from the deck; you can spend one card per encounter, however you like. Bonus/Penalty to AC, accuracy, damage, saves, whatever. Alternatively, you can "spend" the card to...

Other classes take a powder, the gunfighter is here! We're going to have a ball with this one.

Here's an easy "separation from commoner": Adventurers get 3 actions, commoners get 2. works with "lesser" monsters and foes, too. Maybe kobolds, wolves, and goblins only get 2 actions, but the goblin bodyguard and the shaman get 3, and the chieftain gets 4...

Depends on how the feats are defined. spending two actions to get three specific effects (like the Charger mentioned above) is reasonable, and seen in many other games. The RuneQuest/Mythras system gives 2 or 3 Action Points, and defending yourself from an attack is an Action -- so feel free...

I have played in one game that used corruption, and written a few backstories/worlds that never got run as campaigns. Generally, "corruption" in those settings was handled more as "mutation" than "lessening of rationality and control" (the definition of "insanity" I'll use here). I've played a...

This is a fun idea. I was thinking something similar recently, but along the "when initiative matches" lines like pmming. I would probably have a default table with a slightly less exotic set of options, like ClaytonCross suggested, and then a tailored table for exotic and specific locales...

When I sit down to plan a new campaign, I generally start with a starting hook, and three distant goals (partially why 4e resonated with me). Thinking back over the current and previous half-dozen campaigns, the end goals have been: stop a Far Realms incursion, stop a barbarian invasion...

Like several other respondents, I mix and match these tiles with a standard beige dry-erase battlemat. Most of the time what happens is I draw the room on the battlemat, then use all the little extras from the boxes to enhance it. the last battle, for example, was in a "storage vault" with a...

This, definitely this! Long-term drain/exhaustion. Proper preparation mitigates the drain, but these aren't wounds a cure spell can just fix... Ultimately, though, adventurers in a "normal rules" situation have so many resources that it just comes down to Time. (unless they are 0th or 1st...

This, definitely this! Long-term drain/exhaustion. Proper preparation mitigates the drain, but these aren't wounds a cure spell can just fix... Ultimately, though, adventurers in a "normal rules" situation have so many resources that it just comes down to Time. (unless they are 0th or 1st...

I'm surprised that World of Prime didn't come up. http://www.mcplanck.com/books.html Planck has a civil engineer dropped into a world that takes the concepts of 3e rules and the society that might "realistically" arise around leveled individuals... and then disrupts the whole thing with modern...

I've been gaming with pretty much the same group of people for the last 19 years (give or take fluctuation in jobs and such). I've been the GM for 18 of those 19 years, through about 4 campaigns. The second one I ran began with 0-level characters (D&D 2e Skills & Powers), and is still...

I think this is probably the key issue. When I was a kid, I *loved* the game Payday. I would play it against myself if no one was available! Now that I *live* that life of bills and budgeting, it's not fun at all! Likewise, I have three kids' stuff, friends, and activities to manage, every...

IME, if you don't have a good story, the (RPG) rules don't matter. The players will go play a boardgame that fills their "combat itch". Having said that, the way the rules are written can and will influence the will the story is told and played. If you are playing a grim & gritty game system...