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You found that skill challenges encouraged one player to take over the scene and made it easier for the DM to railroad the result compared with either using simple skill checks or handling it by DM fiat? I dislike skill challenges and prefer to handle noncombat encounters with either specific...

I don't think this would work well. The important difference between d20 and 3d6 is that it's less likely to hit the highest and lowest numbers with 3d6. In AD&D you tend to hit less often at low levels and more often at high levels compared with later editions and this change would...

Seems to me that the problem with skill challenges is that the 4e DMG presented them as being like a combat system for noncombat scenes, when they're not analogous to the combat system at all. Completely different kinds of fun. Skill challenges are not a *game*; if you approach them as a game...

First edition AD&D. I would describe 1e as being like a wild-eyed homeless-looking person who sits beside you on the train and starts talking loudly in a way that doesn't make much sense at first and you want to tune him out, but if you listen and talk with him for a while you realize he's...

The player still has an incentive to describe how they're looking for a trap because they can still get the automatic success on the perception check you're rolling on their behalf due to the feat. So if they enjoy doing that and it's been effective I don't think this feat should change their...

Because the frequency of occurrence and the price of failure for combat are higher than they are for other aspects of the game.

Dark Sun, Wilderlands, and the Land of Nod (OSR setting).

I'd rather give XP for roleplaying (i.e. portraying a consistent character) than advantage in the current scene. With XP at least the reward is kind of diffuse and delayed, so it actually feels like a "bonus", something that's nice but not necessary. The immediacy of this inspiration bonus will...

Of course it matters what death means in the game. I think a really interesting house rule is to have 'death' cause you to lose a level rather than lose the character forever.

I would say that the flavor of the monster is more important to me than the statblock, but I also think that the 2e entries are overwritten and flavor is better conveyed with a few choice phrases, in particular descriptions that "show" rather than "tell"--e.g. don't tell me that a monster is...

I find it weird that they want to allow evil Paladins, but their adventures strongly assume good-aligned PCs.

I don't speak any other languages fluently but something tells me that languages like Latin (and maybe German?) are constructive in such a way that you're supposed to make up new compounds a lot, whereas in English with our ginormous polyglot vocabulary there's no need to do that and it sounds...

This. When you rename dinosaurs by translating the name into simpler English you're breaking down English words needlessly, which sounds bad because (at least in English) modifying/compounding simple words instead of using a specific word sounds facile and dimwitted. Or at best childish...

Agreed. This sounds like a lot of cruft around a basic do-what-this-NPC-says railroad. Also this dragon is a pretty lame villain. I would rather it be the female of the pair rather than the male who really, really needs to get that egg back or he's going to be in big trouble when his wife comes...

I think for some (maybe a lot) of players minmaxing and powergaming is just a symptom of a more general frustration with their lack of influence on the course of the game. The encounter "golden box" is the only place they have to demonstrate skillful+creative play so they come across as obsessed...

Heh, I think that's Coran from the Baldur's Gate PC game.

I was very saddened to hear of this. But what a life he led! The Planet of Adventure series is a masterpiece of intelligent pulp fiction. It's also some of the most D&Dish fantasy fiction I've ever read (aliens and laser pistols notwithstanding). The third novel of the series, The Dirdir...

Could you explain to me what is morally wrong in your opinion about the cover of Savant & Sorcerer there? It's not to my taste (I find it ludicrously hypersexualized) but I'm struggling to find anything sexist or demeaning about it. She doesn't need to be dressed for battle or strenuous travel...

OK--I'm not flabbergasted at your inability to take my words at face value instead of imputing rather a lot about my intentions and broader beliefs that isn't actually indicated anywhere. It happens with touchy subjects.

Equating an appeal to tradition with "it should be done like this because this is how it was done before" is a pretty huge strawman. That's not what anybody means by it. More like "this thing is more fun when we're all on the same page (or at least reading the same book) and maintaining a...