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In my case it's "level when the players say". I've abdicated even more power . . . That's kind of how it works. When the players tell me they level up I go looking for higher level monsters. Our story has escalated more or less in tandem with the PC power (they're currently starting a war in...

Once upon a time I would have dived right into the different XP distribution methods. But I've realized that I don't like awarding XP at all. IMC it's time to level when the players decide they need new toys to play with. Getting new spells before you've really master (or even used!) your...

Can you go with "which do you want?" for each player? It seems like the crux of the issue is that you're deciding what they get, and you don't want to botch the decision. So let them decide. I realize there are also players that just want to be surprised, so this isn't a universal solution . ...

Long ago I went from Risk to Chess to Melee. We played a million games of Melee, then Wizard, then Death Test. Then one of the kids at school decided to run us thru his own adventure, with these AD&D rules. We went to a hippy grade school, where the kids were "allowed to design their own...

I recently played in my least favorite edition, because my friends were playing and I was in town that night. It was a one shot for me, in the midst of an ongoing campaign for them. And interestingly for me, all the things I dislike about that edition came up in that single session. And even...

This is even more true in a one shot game. There's only 4 hours to pack in every single awesome thing every player wants to try. So get to the "yes" and get there fast! Especially if you want your players to let it all hang out. PS

We did plenty of BEMCI adventures with our 1e games, without even thinking about converting. It took us a good long while to realize they were even different versions. PS

When my older son was a teen he rolled up a whole party, 4 PCs. Not one stat below 12, and the only guy without an 18 had three 17s. :D I told him he was obviously cheating, which he earnestly denied. So I pulled out my old folder and showed him all my old characters . . . no stats below 12...

When we played our 1e days, granted we were 15, we just rolled until we got a good character. PS

I guess. We would roll randomly for essentially mindless enemies - undead, giant rats, etc. But that was always with the idea that those foes wouldn't care which PC they attacked. It seems like ExploderWizard was implying that NO ONE can target. Even if you are smart enough to pick out which...

I guess I'm not getting it. If the PCs move to engage, wouldn't the DM just say "you're in mass melee, roll randomly"? I've never used this rule, so I'm not defending it from experience. But if we accept that it exists, then any time there's more than one enemy in the same fight you just roll...

If three enemies are in a line across the hallway, and you apply that rule, wouldn't that make it a mass melee and then you're rolling randomly? Similarly, how would PCs prevent enemies from singling out PCs? PS

I looked in the DMG, but didn't see that paragraph. Hmmmm. I've never seen it played that way. PS

I'm pretty sure that's backwards, at least for 1e. I just read the rules last night. There's nary a word about picking targets for melee attacks, but there are for missile fire into melee. Presumably when using missile fire against targets that aren't in melee you can target as well. PS

"You must spread some Experience Points around before giving it to pemerton again." Pretty seriously good post, man. PS

LOL. Sorry man. I was making a joke about how there were like 5 other versions of D&D, not 2. :D PS

Both? I'm unsure. I feel that 4e plays pretty light. I pretty much never have to look something up during play. If you exclude powers, there's like a dozen pages of rules to the game. In a lot of ways Next looks like it should play light, where you can just wave your hands, pick an ability and...

Please switch to the default font color. With my settings your text is black on black. Without looking anything up, I go with DR only saves you from ability damage/drain if it prevents all the damage from an attack that has ability damage as a rider. PS

I kicked off my most recent phase of my campaign like this. I had the PCs doing political maneuvering at a party. I decided whichever NPC they liked the best would be kidnapped, another NPC they interacted with would be knifed, and there would be a conspiracy. So when one of my players made up...

We've been playing without alignment since we switched to 4e, and more or less without it for a long time. The only thing I miss is that tiny little insight into module NPCs, where it says LE (frex) in his write up. Just gives me a nugget to RP off of. But I've mostly been write my own...