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I actually think this is a potentially really good idea. One of the problems with the 4e extended rest mechanic is that it restored the PCs to a more-or-less pristine state with a single night of rest. There should be a complete rest/recovery mechanic, but overnight is too quick. If a...

I'm pretty sure at least one of the blog posts said that classes would come with suggested default backgrounds and themes so you could get a more AD&D/BECMI style of character creation. That all being said, I think the Background / Theme system is a great way of simplifying character creation...

We've seen a little about traits before: Blog: Avoiding Choice Traps What's new here is that they are saying that background equally supports the exploration (skills) and interaction (traits) pillars. We don't really have good info on what traits are (if they are all like languages, that...

I really like the idea that implements are different from weapons because they are personal to the caster. Breaking or stealing a caster's implement shouldn't be permanently debilitating, but I really like the idea that it is a serious problem that is much greater than breaking a fighter's...

There is nothing "traditional" about a Wand of Cure Light Wounds. That is purely an artifact of 3e, and it's not an artifact I'd like to see in D&DN. The rule that you can put any ole' spell into a wand is a great example of the law of unintended consequences. -KS

I want to add that I really like this idea. Because shifting and 5-foot-steps were so easy, I thought it was too difficult to spoil the casting of 3e and 4e characters with a melee assault. Sure, you could back them into a corner, but 3e casters could cast defensively and 4e casters had close...

This is a critical point, but it goes both ways. On the one hand, you're totally right, individual encounters are more disposable and the PCs should be expected to blow through some of them with a combination of cleverness, luck and party make-up (where the encounter's vulnerabilities line up...

I'm in the camp of liking maps for some encounters at ToM for others. I agree that ToM can have it's problems. I've definitely known encounters where my mental picture of the encounter turns out to be weirdly different from the DM's -- rarely in a way that makes the encounter better. But I've...

The fighter has been able to be a defender since the beginning of the game. The fighter was shoehorned into exclusively being a defender for about 2-3 years near the beginning of 4e (until the Slayer build was published in Essentials). And I think it is also worth noting that even the PH1...

I agree with your analysis, but not with the result. I never found that my 3.x games were made better by all these maneuvers. Sure, it was nice to have a bull rush when there's interesting terrain where a target can be pushed, and it's good to have trip if an enemy is trying to escape. But I...

I do not agree with this statement. Robust flavor text absolutely enhances imagination. That's the point of it. It's not the difference between reading a book and watching TV. Flavor text is the book. It's like the difference between reading a novel and reading the phone book. D&D rule...

This is one of those things where the rules need to support a range of play styles. At least at my table, it's important to be able to fall back on character skill when you're just not up to role-playing that night. But, at the same time, when a player says the perfect thing or writes the...

We have all seen the model of what feats should look like. They are published in 4e and labeled "utility powers." Most provide new abilities. Some (like the rogue stealth enhancing powers) allow the use of old powers in new ways. A number of at-will class abilities in the Essentials books...

QFT. I find the survey odd. I'm sure I have read most paragraphs in my AD&D DMG and my 3.5 PH at least a half-dozen times, but I can't say that I've ever read them from cover-to-cover. The 4e books are mostly awful for browse-ability. It's my primary game, but I bet half of my 4e material...

I fear option (a) because it generates huge lists of abilities (ten feats with three powers each is very hard to remember). I posit that it would be better to have combat feats, exploration feats and interaction feats where each theme (including custom themes) has at least one feat from each...

At least for adults, I don't think a great many rules were ignored because they were incomprehensible. I would guess that most ignored rules were ignored because (1) they were more complicated that they were worth and/or (2) the DM wanted to do something else. I came to AD&D in grade school...

As much as I used to think that unambiguous rules relying on strong key words were a great idea, having spent the past few years with 4e books, I now seriously regret that WotC adopted that approach. I now think that a strong separation between fluff and crunch is a huge mistake (as is that...

Much like taking 10 and 20 in 3.x, this strikes me as one of those really useful rules that can make skill gameplay a lot less annoying. Of course, skill challenges (mulligans on the 1st two failures provides a much greater chance for success) is the answer for this problem in 4e, but D&DN also...

If you look at the complaints about prior editions, many of them spring from the difference between rules as played and rules as intended. For example in 4e the rules contemplate that players would frequently improvise actions. Page 42 in the DMG was all about that. But in actual practice...

I agree that the DMG should provide guidelines that explicitly suggest that DMs creating their own campaign worlds allocate different races along the common / uncommon / rare / unknown spectrum. That's a critical part of the DM empowerment goal of D&DN, and the whole idea would be screwed up...