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My mom took away my D&D books when I was 12. Then she overheard us playing TMNT with a kidnapping scenario, and took those away, too. She told me she burned them. In reality, she just hid them. When I was 13, I did some work in stepdad's shop for which I was paid. I was told I could spend the...

AD& wizards were about "What spell is useful in this situation?" and "is it worth it to cast it?" Whereas in 3e they started moving toward a game where conceptually, wizards should be using magic all the time. In AD&D, you didn't have a lot of spell choice. You found what you found, you got a...

I've always liked it. It's a fairly classic swords-and-sorcery setting with some signature themes, such as a ecology, the remoteness of the gods, and metal poverty. It has that mid-20th century fantasy-with-a-sci-fi-accent thing going on. I see no reason it couldn't be done under various...

Spray and pray is sort of viable for a Chinese-type reloading crossbow. At some point, you are going to want to either become a Heroic Archer or get some kind of technological upgrade. In the world of Dungeon Fantasy, I see no reason why gatling crossbows couldn't be a thing.

I don't even like kobolds having strong ties to dragons. To me, they'll always be freaky little goblinoids.

I really struggled with understanding Dungeon Fantasy at first, it just seemed so snarky and parodic. I did eventually gain the understanding it wasn't explicitly inspired by old school dungeoneering, but primarily on Diablo-like games and fantasy board games, with D&D and CRPGs being a...

That just makes crossbows realistic. You load one or two of them. You fire them. If you're in close quarters, that's it. If you want to play a Gauntlet like game where you pew-pew-pew with a crossbow every round, GURPS out of the box is not friendly to that. You don't spend 80% of the combat...

Not even all humans get that bonus feat, if they take certain variant traits.

Basically, a unified skill + attribute system. Also, the ability modifiers from Ars Magica map pretty closely to the 3e-ified ability score modifiers, and that's about it. Tweet also worked on Talislanta 3rd edition, and I'd say there is more Talislanta in 3e than there is Ars Magica. Most of...

AEG's Mercenaries was basically a PHB II for 3.0. Green Ronin's Psychic's Handbook, if you wanted that in your campaigns.

I disliked the early presentation, which seemed to focus on magipunk elements and urban adventure. However, I eventually realized it had strong pulp roots, went pretty deep into traditional D&D mythology, had an interesting take on religion and alignment, and warforged were pretty cool.

I think there is no question that dire wolves are certainly in the top ten. Dire wolves, dire wolves everywhere. Every 2nd-5th level adventure of every edition seems to have an ogre, as well.

I just don't like the new goliaths. Pretty much all the old goliath lore is out the window, and ultimately, after three editions of being a giant-like race who were their own thing, they have finally been reduced to thematic lesser giantkin associated with specific species of giants. Humans...

This is 2025. We've been over the hills and back multiple times.

It was actually good. Comeliness was a mistake. I don't think I ever met anyone who cared about Social Class. The only real negative I can think of was making paladins a sub-class of cavalier, making entry into the class the province of dice-cheats, and also constraining their behavior in so...

The lesson is very simple: when you are updating a beloved brand, it's important the new version not only be good in its own right, but also acceptable as a substitute to a loyal base.

There's a lot to be said for classicism. Honestly, the more D&D drifts from its original lore and aesthetics, the more I am inclined to play something else instead. Not out of hate. It's just, if I'm going to have non-chromatic dragons and a customized magic system, why wouldn't I just play...

I hated that. I have always liked alignment in the way it makes D&D a morally realistic universe, while not actually settling the question of what the "best" way to behave is. It's clear that demons and devils are Evil, essentially; yet it's interesting not every act has to be an evil one...

1e and 2e used PC rules for NPCs. Even those MM elves were led by NPCs of higher character level. Up until 3e, NPC meant "a character built like a PC but controlled by the DM." Roving gangs of adventurers, which were a type of encounter in AD&D as well as BECMI D&D, consisted entirely of a group...