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Not really. The archer doesn't decide what to do (in WotC D&D) until you complete your action. The archer gets to see the resolution of your action (if you attack and hit or miss, or run away, or drink a potion, or whatever) before he decides what to do. At that point you can say that he's...

The way I DMed the power was that it would drive the target insane. Creatures reduced to 0 HP by it would take their own lives as a default. If the player actually said something their behaviour might be different, but with 0 HP they didn't have much staying power.

I'd say something like this: "It's a game where you go into a dungeon, try to find some loot, and make it out without dying. I tell you what you see, you tell me what you want to do, and I tell you what happens. If what happens is in doubt, we'll roll some dice to see what happens." I'd...

I played in that game on Friday night. Funny thing is that I knew that going in and was okay with it, but the DM made it difficult: I had a pretty good idea of where he wanted to take his story, and I was cool with that, but he kept bringing up 2.b (maintaining the fidelity of the world) in a...

Yeah, the DM allowed it - we don't use miniatures and I think that makes easier to house-rule that sort of initiative issue. I disagree with the notion that it's an artifact of chases, though - keeping pace is the sort of thing you see all the time in all sports; I have no experience with...

I was playing d20 Modern last night, and it uses the same combat system that WotC D&D does. Anyway. My PC was riding his motorcycle underneath a flying alien caravel. They were shooting at me and I was shooting back. I told the DM that I'd stay under the caravel so I would have cover, then...

I like this because I think it has a nice but subtle effect on how the game is played. It's pretty easy to say "I Bluff him" and have the DM respond "Okay, roll your Bluff." Then, maybe, the DM catches himself and says, "Hang on - what did you actually say?" It's a little harder to do that...

Yeah, but would a guy who has those emotional issues be able to defeat the Mountain? I doubt he'd have the title of "Red Viper" or whatever it was if that were the case. I can see some random dude succumbing to pressure, but one of the world's best warriors - one who explicitly can kill the...

I found the death out-of-character. We're supposed to believe that one of the best warriors in the world is caught off-guard like that? I'm sure he's fought big tough guys before. I'm surprised he didn't realize that the guy was still able to act, since he's one of the best warriors in the...

What I did when I went back to AD&D was to rely on the classes. Most of the time you don't need a check; the character gains the information/can perform the task because he or she is a member of the right class. (This would cover pretty much every DC 20 or less task, maybe some DC 25 tasks...

Ouch! I don't think that's true. AD&D is a well-designed game. I'm pretty sure you can point to any "this" and get a reason for that mechanic. Like, I don't know, encumbrance: since you get XP for GP, and you can only carry so much, and how much you carry has an impact on how many wandering...

Thanks again for the reply. There's a lot to go on but I'll hit this at the moment. Does this mean that, if the DM doesn't create the scent/texture/whatever of goblin dung before play, it's inadmissible as an object in the game? If not, why not? If it is admissible, how does the DM...

What about Numenara? Seems like it could be interesting.

I don't know if this will be much help at this point in the game, but maybe you can still use something. I'm thinking about Dwarf Fortress and how I used to build my forts. Outside: There are two main entrances here: the main entrance - well guarded, with traps and murder holes and all that -...

I'm not trying to answer for Ahnehnois, I'm trying to put his philosophy in my own words. Maybe he can tell me if I get it right. Anyway. There's no point saying that the DM overrules the mechanics because the DM making decisions is the entirety of the game's mechanics. The rules are there*...

This post sums up my feelings well. (Well, I like the encounter difficulty guidelines, but I use them in a "status quo" way.) I play story games as well as D&D and they differ in that the story I get from retelling what happened during a D&D game is more of a "I can't believe everything worked...

Thanks for the reply. I may be mentally imprisoned in a philosophy but, if I am, the prison keeps me from knowing. So that's difficult! The point of my second sentence wasn't about individuals living different lives, it was more about the difficulty of communication on the internet. I...

I don't use them. I have non-combatants who only have a handful of HP (they'll usually drop from a typical hit) and I fiddle around with some encounter budget stuff for monster lairs, but that's different enough from 4E that I don't think I can call them minions.

Each episode is only 40 minutes long so there probably won't be 20 sessions of play. I don't know how much editing they plan to do so it's hard to say how many sessions they'll be aiming for.

That's not fortune in the middle. There's nothing to decide after the roll has been made. Sure, there are descriptions to figure out, but if those descriptions have no standing in the game then there's nothing that comes after the fortune. It's conch-passing. (If the description of the...