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Weirdly, out of all of the Pathfinder adventures and all of the encounters I've converted to 4e, this is the one design choice that keeps coming back to haunt me. :p I've since warmed to the idea of leaving it as just one goblin (though I still think it works fine with more than goblin one in...

A feature-complete character sheet mobile application for iOS/Windows 8/Android capable of tracking changes to your character over the course of gameplay would really be an excellent start.

Well-crafted digital tools wouldn't take away from the "game and experience" any more than a pencil and paper would. Unless your definition of "game and experience" literally requires a pencil and paper, that is. I think that there are more important things to focus on.

That's simply not true. WotC is the publisher for a number of digital products unrelated to D&D, including the Duels of the Planeswalkers franchise - a product that has done extremely well by all accounts. What's important isn't whether or not WotC is a digital company (they are, but whatever)...

No, it's really a matter of striking upon what works best for the game. When it comes to PCs, flexibility is great and you might reasonably consider it to carry a primary importance relative to other considerations. But, as a DM, the flexibility of an NPC is far less important, since they...

Not all of them. Increase in hit points is automatic, and represents ability to withstand physical harm, psychic harm, roll with abuse, hold onto one's life force, etc. Base attack bonus (in 3e/3.5/PF) goes up even if you never so much as lift a weapon. My point is that this already existed in...

But not really, right? Because there are plenty of ways in [insert D&D edition of your choice here] for characters to get better at things they have no "specific reason" for being better at - adding skill points to a skill you've never rolled before, for instance, or taking a level in a class...

Yes, from reading these boards - not to mention discussions by industry professionals on how D&D games are typically run. Individual games do not vary anywhere near as dramatically as you are undoubtedly inclined to think that they do. That's what I'm arguing against. The information is not...

It's not a matter of "necessarily." There may be some (really) corner cases where the general rules outlined below don't apply. That's not the point. The point is that, in general and in very large part, the ways that NPCs are utilized in the course of a game are fundamentally different from the...

It is more complicated than that, and it seems like that's an almost purposefully shallow examination of what goes on when you use a character in a roleplaying game. No, his abilities don't change. The fundamental purposes for which those abilities are used do change, and as a result the way in...

Who is playing the character is irrelevant? You'll have to back that one up, because I can easily think of reasons that NPCs and PCs exist which are fundamentally different.

No. You have some support for a claim like that, I'm sure? I don't think you know what a double-standard is. You poor thing. It must be so tough for you, to have to deal with people who genuinely enjoy the game they choose to play, and who have the gall to defend it in the face of...

This is it, exactly.

Your call. A lot of people have gone through a lot of effort in the face of a lot of unwarranted hostility to explain a lot of things to you about a game you do not have a lot of understanding about. You cling to that ignorance like a bulwark and maintain your opinion in the face of people who...

Which is fine. When you're arguing with other people who have equally little experience and none of you really gives a damn about what actually is the case. On the other hand, when you're in the middle of a group of people who have infinitely more experience than you and they're all telling you...

It doesn't strike you that your view of 4e may - just maybe - be a touch inaccurate based on the fact that you know literally no one who has actually played it?

Both would be perfectly acceptable in my games. They're different, but let's not pretend that the latter is how True D&D plays and that the former is somehow less.

While I don't agree that building everything in "perfect balance" would make the game necessarily boring, I do believe it would make its development process prohibitively lengthy. Perfect balance is not required for a good game. Sufficient balance is. As for the...

That is false.

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