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I don't know the historicity of it, but I once heard a neat story about some Greek hoplites and their shields. Many hoplites would adorn their shields with motifs of animals or mythological creatures, usually one they personally identified with or sought to emulate. Supposedly, one hoplite...

After what Chris Perkins went through from posting celebrity D&D games on line, I'd say that it'd take a serious set of brass balls to post videos of your own game online. I'd give you XP just for doing it--I bet you that the vast majority of people who criticize "bad" DMing wouldn't have the...

Unfortunately, this sort of rules ignorance isn't limited to DMs. When I was DMing 4E, I had someone playing an assassin. He was under the impression that Stealth was an "I win" button to press, and every time Stealth didn't work for him, he got flustered and wanted to argue at the table about...

Generally good stuff... But D&D in particular has always had several neat ways of keeping villains around, even after a legitimate defeat. They don't always have to escape to make a plausible threat later on. For example... If the PCs take the villain alive, imagine their reaction when their...

As a general thing, this is how I usually handle questions about the rules. I'm willing to take a minute or two to address a rules question, but after that, I'll tell the group the way that it's going to go down this time, and that we're going to examine the rules in greater detail during the...

I'm also on Majoru's side on this one. When I play an RPG, I want my choices to matter. If victory is a foregone conclusion (i.e., the DM is willing to fudge things to make his awesome "final boss" battle last suitably long, or worse, make sure that we always win and no character ever dies)...

I believe that most DMs that I've played with are simply mediocre, not necessarily "bad." In some ways, I'm glad for the bad DMs though--they've shown me several pitfalls to avoid and reminded me that the game is supposed to be fun. To break it down, the DMs that I have played under would fall...

Hand-drawn with a pencil and graph paper, almost exclusively. Why? Well, I actually got my hands on a copy of Campaign Cartographer 2 when it was new and took a shot at it. I was quite willing to use it and satisfied with the results until I realized that I was spending inordinate amounts of...

There are two parts to this. Keep in mind, for starters, that weapon nomenclature is a hotly debated topic among historians and military buffs, not to mention LARPers, wargamers, and tabletop RPG enthusiasts. What one person might call a "bastard sword" would be a longsword to some folks, a...

Most of my group's funny stuff comes through healing. After the AC Transit bus fight, whenever a character became bloodied, someone had to tell that character, "You leakin'!" And, of course, the bloodied character perforce responded, "Get the amber lamps!" Before that, we were playing in a 4E...

Give Wraith: the Oblivion a shot. The titular characters are ghosts trapped in the Underworld. They must struggle against their urge for self-destruction ("Oblivion"), each wraith character has a shadow that impels them towards utter annihilation. If a character engages in acts of destruction...

Howdy folks! I'm gearing up to do a good ol' 1E game at my FLGS. I'd like to do random treasure, but some sort of application would speed things up for me. Can anyone point me toward an online resource that does 1E random treasure generation? Thanks!

Yeah, there are strong arguments for and against on both sides of that particular issue. Helping the talent get cozy is certainly important, especially since almost every actor nowadays is a method actor. For some applications, it's even a good thing--when you're working on a commercial, for...

At the risk of derailing the thread a bit and sounding like an old fart... I don't think that lowering standards of quality are limited to tabletop RPG products. Most facets of American culture are losing overall quality and a critical polish, even our basic discourse and communication. I...

One thing I forgot about until now... I do like how many powers include effects beyond damage, in theory, although it's a real pain to keep track of. I've seen a few different people mentioning "no buffs to track" as something they like about 4E. I must respectfully disagree with this...

I actually played 4E for about a year and a half before coming to Pathfinder, so I'm not sure how I qualify, but here's my two cents anyway. • Point buy method as the standard for ability score generation. I love that you have to make a decision to have an 18 instead of whining to a DM to let...

I'm flattered that you chose my neck of the woods for your example. :) There are many gamers here indeed, but there could always be more. Unfortunately, I think that word-of-mouth is still the most effective way to get sales for tabletop RPG products. I can convince my non-gamer friends to give...

My absolute favorite out-of-print game, by a wide margin, is Wraith: the Oblivion. Other out-of-prints that I like and would play again include: • FASA Star Trek RPG • Mage: the Ascension • Vampire: the Masquerade • Dune: Chronicles of the Imperium. • Various flavors of D&D, including BECMI...

Believe me, I know the feeling... Which is the big reason I offered in the first place. :) If I remember correctly, the last time I got to actually play in someone else's campaign was in March, and we had just hit second level when that game hit the skids. I've tried playing in organized play...

You're pretty close to my neck of the woods, catsclaw. If you feel like trekking to the northwest corner of Raleigh on Saturday afternoons, you're welcome to play in my Pathfinder game.