Search results

Its quite all right to declare 'practice', too. "Okay guys, we're going to run a one-shot/practice adventure today. Here are some characters..." Likewise, its okay to practice on your own: you can get a good idea for what some of the mechanics 'look like' just by setting up and playing on your...

My most recent campaign setting, I started with D&D, and said, 'what does epic magic imply'? But by the time I was done with it, it was a world fairly different from that described in the core rulebooks, and I wandered off to adopt some other options and modifications to the 'core' system to...

I've been very entertained by this discussion, since I've been attempting to address exactly this point in my next campaign setting. To funsangite's point, about playing in a pre-modern mindset, I'm explicitly touching on the concepts of 'equality', 'freedom', 'vote', and 'slavery' in the...

Thanks for the observations, ouini. The 'gestalt' I took from your post is that it sounds like one of the 'balancing acts' involved is the cost of feats and powers. Your complaint about "gateway" feats costing too much, coupled with "Martial Artist" being worth too much for the price, and the...

I'd echo that one: remember how important surprise is. The effective level of an encounter goes up or down dramatically based on whether or not the party is awake and alert to the upcoming encounter, or is half asleep, out of armor, and the person standing watch missed his Spot check. Flip...

The debate goes away entirely if you reword the item/feat relationship subtly. "This item grants the weilder a magical effect which has the same benefits as the feat [such-and-such]..." The item, then, explicitly doesn't grant the FEAT for any other purposes (feat chain progression, PrC...

My GM sets a specific time of day for each character that the items reset. The time is chosen individually for the character in question, and remains inflexible thereafter. For example, a follower of the sun goddess might have their 1/day powers reset at dawn.

Detailed! I appreciate it! I'm looking forward to hearing more from your players, as well. Doubtless! I developed a deep respect for the amount of thought you've put into it by going down the path "Well, those weight-for-abilities can't all be right - let's play with some of them..." which...

8 ideas Neat backstory; I like it! In a generic sense, "Complete this quest..." works, and that point, any reasonable cleric quest can work. And that opens up a LOT of fertile ground. "Please go to [such-and-such] [village/town/city]. I suspect that there is something untoward going on...

This is entertaining: I've been working on a rather unique 'first session' format which addresses character generation. The supposition is that the characters are all of the same (general) age and from the same town: the session includes a number of childhood 'incidents' - short vignettes of...

First off - yeah, that's pretty much how we all started. Go to! Don't be afraid to make something up; also don't be afraid to say 'Hey, y'know, I think we messed that up last session, and I'm not going to repeat it. Here's what we ruled 'on the fly' last session: *recap*, and here's how I'm...

Or you could write an odd 'critical / fumble' combination house rule: 'If you roll a '1' while trying to confirm a critical the result is as follows: apply normal damage to your target, and then roll again to hit one other randomly chosen adjacent creature.' Sometimes it helps (say, when...

I'm very excited at the many possibilities this system provides, both for 'classless' gaming and as a tool for GMs to evaluate prestige classes and 3rd-party / non-core classes before deciding whether or not to include them in a campaign. Beautiful work! I'd appreciate hearing more commentary...

Faced with a similar situation, my group apprehended a neutral character who was a 'bad guy' in one of our early adventures; when we took her back to 'face justice', she was found guilty and sentenced to death, whereupon one of the party members decided to try and redeem her, and brokered a deal...

Linear progression vs Exponential progression There is, in fact. Consider a fighter's primary gains: BAB, Hit points, and Feats. These all progress linearly through the levels, so a 10th-level fighter has about double the gains that a 5th-level fighter does. (2 attacks instead of 1, +10...

My group is very heavy on the playing-of-a-role aspect of the game, and very light on the game-mechanics-of-combat aspect of the game. The group includes role-players who are good enough at separating "I the player" from "The character" that the characters act as though combat could be lethal...

This is definitely a per-group-of-players variable, and I've seen it run the gamut. I DM'ed a group with little-to-no railroading, and the group really meandered: it didn't feel like they had any idea what to do without a forced hook to follow, and eventually somebody would get bored, start...

Re: A Sip Through Time Clearly you, in your depth of research and preparation for this campaign, purchased four books on meadmaking and the Expanded Psionics Handbook. ;) Besides, isn't 'The Compleat Meadmaker' one of those 2e books with all sorts of neat fluff about the Meadmaker class?

As noted above, all different. d9 + 2 generates an equal, 1 in 9 chance of rolling each of the numbers you're looking for. The distribution curve is a flat line. d4 + d6 + 1 generates a flat-capped distribution curve; 3: 1 in 24 4: 2 in 24 5: 3 in 24 6: 4 in 24 7: 4 in 24 8: 4 in 24 9: 3 in 24...

So, Wulf, So, Wulf, when are you going to publish 'Wulf Ratbane's Complete Guide to Magic in the d20 System'? This is, of course, exactly what I as a DM want: I'm working towards starting a low-magic campaign, and want to 'build out' a magic system for it; I've already bought Grim Tales and...