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Worth repeating.

Absolutely - what I like about the sage is that it costs the adventurers coin - so does buying drinks to pick up rumors and bribing officials for information. If my players are not the type to dig for information, then they're not going to get very far - rumors rarely just show up on their...

Investigation, Intrigue and Politics - everything I run turns into a spy caper at some point.

This was a regular feature of the D&D games I ran over the years. Only it wasn't metagame. It was called "hiring a sage."

I did something similar with a 1e AD&D dungeon back in the day, only it was a purple worm - they eventually discovered its cavern lair and killed it, recovering the treasure they lost on the mules it grabbed.

On the other hand, telling a player, "Don't worry about what's on your character sheet yet - just tell me what you want your character to do and we'll figure it out from there," encourages players to stop fussing about the rules and start thinking as someone in the setting. Once the player tells...

You don't need ranks in Diplomacy to negotiate - in fact, I could make the argument that this isn't how Diplomacy is meant to work in the first place, but that's a whole 'nother kettle o' fish. ANYONE can negotiate - a skill check says how sucessful they are, and the referee can add bonuses or...

"You must spread some Experience Points around . . ." :erm:

"Primarily" for roleplaying? Well, arguably all of them - I don't know who will become the adventurers' allies and who will become their rivals until after the game starts, and that's determined through roleplay. Everyone gets stats, even if they're just generic stats (farmer, guard, bravo, et...

I direct them to this (WARNING: linked post contains profanity).

At "giddyup!"

Anything that drains levels or turns your ass to stone.

I'm not the guy who needs this explained.

Of course, if the local authorities are unable to handle the Swordsage, the Swordsage may discover that his reputation among other outlaws skyrockets - he may be able to attract a considerable band of cutthroats, which brings with it its own brand of dangers. I couldn't disagree more. Having a...

I didn't go back and re-read every post, but for my part I used the words "smart gameplay" and "verisimilitude," not realism. Do the adventurers have a chance to detect the poison? Do they get saving throws against its effects? And did they really post only a single guard of low enough level...

All this right here? Yeah, not at my table. If a someone or something knows it's about to be bested and has the means and opportunity to flee, then of course it's going to get out of there, and if the chance presents itself, it may even toss off a few choice insults on the way out the door. I...

I rarely include 'gettin' to know ya' - it's a time-sink with little benefit as far as I'm concerned. In most instances, when a new character is introduced, we all decide who knows the new character and how, and we go from there.

First semester of junior high, fall of 1977. My friend Tim and I played all sorts of wargames - tabletop minis and board-and-chit. One weekend he showed up with the Holmes blue box and a couple of the OD&D supplements. My mom took us to The War Club, our local gaming store that night - we bought...

Except to the other half.

Most of the games I enjoy include called shots - in fact, every shot or blow in Flashing Blades is a called (or more properly, aimed) shot.