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I'm sorry to hear that. His cover illustration for A Swarm of Stirges is the nastiest (in a good way!) stirge I've ever seen. My condolences.

I think it was trying to wrap your head around the idea of helping other people *in a boardgame*, after a lifetime of Monopoly and its ilk.

I think this is important. Ticket to Ride, D&D, and other geek games have a certain dimension to them that the rulebook can't get across. For instance, Ticket to Ride could easily look like a dull game. It doesn't click until you really understand how everything works together. You have to see...

One other thing: hit the characters over the head with roleplaying opportunities. And when I say hit, I mean with the subtle approach of a tac nuke. Earlier in the campaign, I twice had the PCs use an NPCs attempt to parlay as an excuse to start the killing with a one round edge in actions. I...

I'm running the original Temple of Elemental Evil, and here are a few things I've learned: 1. In AD&D, three characters were supposed to be able to fight abreast in a 10-foot wide square, so I tend to convert each 10 foot square into a 3 by 3 square in 4e terms. 2. You can get around the issue...

In part, yes. It definitely had an influence on that decision. There were also other design considerations, but this is a case where it was important for the story and the mechanics to blend together.

Part of this falls on to the player, part on the DM. The DM can place interesting places to 'port to in an area, but the player has to try and use them. For instance, you might teleport to the top of a bookcase, teleport under a table to hide, stuff like that. If you're not using miniatures, I...

Shroud damage is in addition to the attack's normal damage. I believe that we'll have specific ki foci up over the course of the month. As a hack, I'd suggest putting any weapon property that can be applied to any weapon into the ki focus. That's just a temporary hack until the official rules...

Holy crap, that is the most incredible thing I've seen all week. I need to track down that cruise ship and liberate our iconic, half-orc assassin! Freedom!

Yeah, the feat is necessary to keep the shrouds hidden. Otherwise, the critter knows what's up.

I think it's open to freelancers, but I can't say for sure.

One of the exciting things about this project is that we can add hooks and connections as we go along. When we first worked up the idea, the potential of finding a weird, jade key in the first cave that opens a door in the tenth cave was one of the interesting parts of it. That's a fairly...

I'm not sure a casual gamer is always going to be system or setting driven. I think there's room for booth, depending on what makes a particular person tick. But I think that your friend is really into One Piece is the key - the game system didn't matter much. What was important was tearing...

Every gaming group needs at least one person who is into/hardcore about the game they're playing. That person is the DM, the guy who bought the boardgame they're sitting down to play, or the guy who hooked his friends on the collectible minis/card game. RPGs have an advantage over other types...

Try running fights with only one or two normal monsters, with the rest minions. Those fights are easier, but it seems like you might want that in a shorter fight. Something as simple as putting one fewer monster than normal in the fight speeds things up, too, maybe even dropping two. I've...

Whenever anyone posts their thoughts on where the industry is going, they're telling you where their personal slice of the industry is heading. They might spin it as some global thing, but that very rarely applies. I think we'd be all far better served if prophets of doom worked on, and...

It could work as a good way to balance spellcaster, or at least to show why fighters are always important, but it does break down. In one AD&D campaign, through the luck of random treasure and goodies in published modules I had a magic user character with a 16 Dexterity, ring of protection +2...

Yes! It's a subtle but huge shift. Looking back at 3e, I sort of grokked the change but didn't fully understand it until I played around with OSRIC. IME, in AD&D magic users and clerics lived in constant fear of having a spell ruined by an incoming attack. Since you had to declare casting...

D&D is such a subjective, personal thing that trying to push everyone's experience with it into a single box is a waste of time. To me, an old school game is one where the players cede much of the narrative and mechanical control of the game to the DM. The specific mechanics behind the game...

It's funny, because at first I was a bit disappointed at the announcement. I thought GR was announcing a new game, rather than a license. However, the more I think about it, the more excited I've become. I *love* KOTOR and Baldur's Gate. I can't wait to dive into Mass Effect. The bigger...