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To me, John seems to be playing a sidekick or henchman, not a hero. That's not intrinsically bad, if you design your encounters to be balanced for the number of effective PCs in the party. The key problem here might be that John manages to steal the spotlight, by painstakingly deliberating...

The danger in providing rules to make upper-level play feel different is that not every group wants to run a stronghold or become the head of a religion or whatnot. One way to make these rules clearly optional is to associate them with specific paragon paths or epic destinies (if you're running...

Will this series be available on IDW's iPad app? I've enjoyed catching up on some X-Men with the Marvel app, without having to find a place to keep more comics. (My parents' house still has three big boxes' worth.)

On the other hand, if someone comes in, states "I've decided that I hate comic books", and then describes how he just couldn't get into the copies of Maus and Persepolis his friends gave him, I wouldn't tell him, "Well, go play a video game instead." I would say that not all graphic novels have...

Could you elaborate on this point? The book claims that the game works for a range of 2-6 people including the GM, but I'm definitely concerned about whether the two players is a stretch. (We've been frustrated by some board games that claim to work for two but that must include special...

Agreed. These products are my default recommendations for beginning DMs or DMs otherwise looking for 1st-level adventures, not Chaos Scar or Scales of War or Keep on the Shadowfell. They're noticeably more open-ended, more concise, and have strong hooks.

Should I assume this applies to Mouse Guard, too? I'm reading through the Mouse Guard RPG book now, specifically with the aim of playing it solo with my wife.

So far, no one in my D&D Encounters group has used this rule, but our characters didn't start with backup weapons, and we haven't found any either. Once we do have backups, I think the ability to reroll will become quite valuable. I mean, are you really going to tell me that if you roll a...

I'd like to confirm: for you, it follows logically from the first quote that the character is temporarily shifting planes to the Feywild?

I'm a newish DM myself, so I definitely understand the appeal of running an existing module. One thing I've learned is that it's critical (at least for me) to take the module as a convenient starting point, not as a finished product to run as is. This attitude is important for two reasons...

Straw man? Isn't that when you misrepresent an opposing viewpoint in a simplistic and exaggerated way?

Good for you for trying to accommodate a friend's younger sibling! That said, it's critical you establish boundaries on appropriate behavior. First, decide how much leeway you will give this character. How much of the spotlight can one character hog and how frequently? What will be the...

Talk about abusing quotations. Baker never wrote the words you attribute to him. As I recall, he said that players benefit from the inclusion of "most or many" elements from the core game. I don't see a contradiction in acknowledging a tension between familiarity and innovation. I presume...

I think this concept is the essential ingredient. I would go so far as to say that the player is responsible for tracking ALL of the rules that result from his or her actions. For my next campaign, I might try the following house rules: (1) Monsters do not roll saving throws. Instead, players...

I personally would definitely purchase new editions of the first two Monster Manuals, if they included the new math, the new stat block format, AND the added story. Even if the first two of those three would show up in the Compendium for no extra charge. Alas, I can't imagine the market for...

I would love to see "save ends" and "end of next turn" unified. Something like: (1) All effects end at (the end of) the initiative count in which they started. (2) All effects require a saving throw to end in principle, but the DC varies Then "save ends" becomes "Save DC 10" and "end of next...

I don't follow. This article appears in the content calendar for yesterday, and it is linked directly from the D&D home page.

I look at it this way: DCs of 5/10/15 assume a baseline of a random character at level 1: with a +0 bonus, you have about a 50-50 shot on a moderate check. The original 15/20/25 DCs assume a baseline of an optimized character: with +4 ability score and +5 training, you have a 50-50 shot on a...

Yes, you are picking nits. I am unaware of any rule that the typography in the table of contents must match the typography at the head of a table (or stat block, in the case of D&D). The TOC also abbreviates for lack of space. Note that it combines all apes into one entry, as well as all...

The "Lolth the Spider Queen" stat block is simpler. She doesn't get a lot of attacks, but they're quite potent. She has Burning Webs, a 1/round minor-action attack that's a close burst 5, targets only enemies, immobilizes (save ends), and inflicts ongoing 30 acid damage after one failed save...