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And Microsoft Windows OS to run the Character Builder, eh? But I think there are people who do just fine without all that. The books still work without being plugged in. (I do recall jokes to the effect that they would not, back before 4e hit the shelves.) Yes, lots of us have used personal...

Anyhow, the immediate thing is that many people not only don't feel a need for 1000+ pp. of rules, but if they are aware of the phenomenon they may dislike it or find it wanting. The longer-term possibility to which I alluded is that our current fetish for Official Rules -- upon which the big...

I'll bet TaiChara is more "with it". There are names I can almost remember, including a site that had several formally organized games, but I am not into the scene. Just looking around now, though, I found these items: Just a sample of the free form RPGs on sorcery.net IRC channels...

double post

The Striped Mage of Greyhawk got that name because a p.c. as a prank painted the Mage's tower like a barber's pole. The Mage turned out to be not pissed but pleased, and kept the paint job. There was no house-painting sub-game in the D & D booklets.

Gronard Lives! __^^^__(o o)__^^^___ __UUU___ U ___UUU___ GRONARD WAS HERE Where in the World is Gronard? What Would Gronard Do? Got Gronard? What is Gronard, and is it ANSI compliant?

What happens next has in fact been very explicitly up to you since 1974. Read the booklets, for goodness' sake. Arneson and Gygax tell you that it's up to you! They discourage you from trying to "have us do any more of your imagining for you". They encourage you to "decide how you would like it...

I have written no such thing.

TaiChara tells the truth, Mercurius, about what's going on. Kids (and other people, too) are grooving on the collaborative, socially mediated construction of story-telling games. It's "the other" direction of development from MUD, not the one that gets you EverQuest and World of Warcraft. This...

Actually, it turns out "the adventure" proper doesn't really get under way until the players "find" and investigate Mystery X. The investigation is another obvious assumption of their "making the right choice" or "taking the bait". As written, though, Mystery X is not really for them to find by...

I recently tried (A), and it was a royal pain and a half that basically turned into (B). The "railroad" business is too much work for Yours Truly! I'm used to (D), which I find a whole lot easier because it simply doesn't involve creating such stumbling blocks in the first place. (B) is the...

An "orchestrated" published scenario has "the adventure" proper starting with the player-characters as captives. However, the scenario does not start there. Instead, it presumes getting the players to "take the bait". Upon reflection, that seems extremely implausible. Unfortunately, that...

It would help to be able to substitute directly the main algorithmic advantage or disadvantage that accrues from a move, shift, slide or other spacial result. Is it setting up a figure to get a Combat Advantage bonus? Bunching personnel into the burst radius of an attack? For clarity, let us...

Not "we", since you do not share the valuation. Suit yourself! I, however, see no reason not to avail myself of the Combat Matrixes that are conveniently adjacent to the others you mentioned. Not in old D&D. You turn a number of the subjects (2-12 in Original, in Advanced normally 1-12 but...

That is NOT the same as "doing nothing"! It is points scored in the game for overcoming difficulties in the way. The difficulty assessment includes challenge to player thought as well as to character powers, potential for bypassing difficulties as well as for bashing them down head-on. The...

Because they are dead fast and easy relative to having to calculate everything from scratch. If you prefer to spend your time doing arithmetic, then there's not a single thing to stop you. You can just ignore those couple of pages after getting your "DCs" and "plus factors"! Or just not use...

1) You are allowed to send your men on missions. That's an implicit rule, like, "You are allowed to use swords and battle axes to fight." There are reaction and morale factors for testing their willingness to do something. There are as many "mechanical" provisions for missions conducted by my...

Me, too. I think the fad ended years ago, and the hobby is probably pretty well established at post-heyday size. The industry might be changing, and the changes might involve changes in the names of the industry leaders. This is hardly new. Avalon Hill turned down D&D, which led to the...

Unlike us kids back in the '70s and '80s DURING THE HEYDAY OF THE ARCADES, eh? People who prefer video games are not likely to drop 'em in favor of something that's somehow sort of kind of like a video game, I think. On the other hand, some people who prefer the computer games that are...

I don't think "exponentially" is quite accurate in anything ever billed as D&D. Magic-users in particular are extremely fragile, not "tough" at all -- as ambitious "inferiors" in the craft well know. In 1st ed. AD&D (without Unearthed Arcana), nonhuman characters, druids, paladins, and rangers...