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I ran a 3.x campaign for years and initially followed the monster creation rules to the letter. At low levels it was OK, but at high levels the work-benefit ratio went way down as the amount of work to stat up monsters and PCs kept climbing, and most of them died in their first encounter with...

Re Simulacrum, it's my experience that one or more NPCs of the DM use the spell first as it's apparently intended, as a "bad guy" spell to replace existing NPCs or perhaps PCs, or make loyal minions. For that purpose granting half levels, caster powers etc assists in the deception and/or their...

I ran a 3.x campaign to 23rd level, and I certainly felt that spellcasters had vastly more options over non spellcasters, particularly fighters. This is my personal subjective opinion of course, but my players gravitated towards selecting spellcasters at higher levels, at least those with the...

Making tactical errors doesn't necessarily make you a better roleplayer. Repeating tactical errors definitely doesn't. Taking risks with your own PC is part of the game, and can be fun. It's not so much fun when your PC, when confused, chops another PC's head off (I've seen similar incidents...

With so many different RPGs out there there are players with a huge variety of playstyles and expectations. Even within D&D there's been decades of a myriad of different games with widely differing styles, in a variety of editions, that have produced players with wildly different expectations...

DMs and players can have a variety of different goals and preferences of different strengths. Some people have very narrow and specific preferences, others can enjoy a variety of styles. IMO calling someone a "good DM" isn't an absolute, it's a subjective measure, generally with respect to how...

All NPCs have an innate advantage in that they are run by the DM who know how his gameworld works, and won't have them make mistakes unless he/she does so deliberately, unlike players, who have imperfect information on how the world works. In gamestyles where PC actions can be modified or...

For me DM force is making unilateral rulings to modify, bypass or ignore the rules the game is playing by. I think it's an essential tool in most or all RPGs involving a referee, a powerful tool, but one that's easy to abuse. DM force can be used to patch faulty rules, to force the game to match...

I'll buy the core books, but have no plans to run it, which is a big admission for me, as I bought significant amounts of the Basic and Expert D&D, AD&D, 2nd ed, 3rd Ed and 4th ed lines. It will be interesting to see how the printed product compares to the various playtest packets. There is...

Rpg sessions are ideally greater than the sum of their parts. One of the reasons that posters end up talking past each other is they can't see context in the narrow bandwidth that forum posts allow. Different campaigns aim for different levels of directness, action, plottedness, PC importance...

I'm 48 and ran my first game of D&D basic in 1981, though it took me a while to find a proper group subsequently.

One guideline I have for my own game is that if I as DM can't think of (at least) three different ways for the PCs to deal with a problem, it's probably a single-point-of-failure roadblock and needs to be rethought. Players, lacking the DM point of view, often don't see some or all viable...

One reason for the use of DM force is to patch inconsistencies between the simulated depiction of the world within the rules and how the DM wants the world to work. I've seen and read DMs who think 0-level rulers exist in D&D worlds and have real power. Further, while ruler being a pawn of the...

Oops posted to wrong thread, moved myself. Personally, I have problems with use of DM force which deviates far from the rules in ways that mystify the players without any attendant communication to the players to indicate whats happening. I've seen this happen in ways that totally deprotagonise...

For those that advocate "DM force" alone as a solution to every rules problem without context, be aware that you are at the same time advocating abusive DM force that deprotagonises PCs and negates players actions, whether you mean to or not. I think DM force on its own without attendant...

I think there's a survivor effect involved here. Wizards survive to mid or high level more often in games where they are effective. Wizards are incredibly vulnerable in all ways except magic. Making wizards effective often involves lots of planning, and complex spell and magic item interactions...

Be careful of penalising improvised actions too much - a -4 penalty to hit or multiple successes needed to make one attack can quickly makes improvised actions suboptimal compared to just hitting a monster normally. Which discourages such improvisation in future, and leads to a lot of players...

I think the OP is putting the cart before the horse on this question. Players, DMs, developers have the feeling or intuition of undead tendencies to evil first, and make up mechanics to support that opinion. And people have different opinions, and place different value on the importance of...

4e, because I find it less work to run than previous editions, and non-spellcasters are more viable. While I personally don't feel the appeal of essentials classes, I've had players who prefer less complex PCs and the essentials material gives them options. (I've played basic, 1st ed, 2nd ed...

Almost by definition, sword and sorcery protagonists are footloose adventures who deliberately avoid forming any but the loosest ties with others. They may be rich at the end of one adventure but conveniently lose it all before the start of the next adventure. This makes them great for...