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  1. M.L. Martin

    D&D 5E (2014) Should classes retain traditional alignment restrictions in 5E?

    I want to be able to limit the paladin to Good, Lawful, or Lawful/Good alignment as an option--there are certain genres and game types where the 'shining knight' archetype fits better than the martial/divine champion of 'pick a god, any god'. I don't need it as the baseline, but I'd like it to...
  2. M.L. Martin

    Was Thac0 really that bad?

    I think it was in issue #264 (October 1999).
  3. M.L. Martin

    Is anybody else seeing C&C here?

    I've been seeing C&C echoes in it for a few weeks, actually, once the announcement was made and it became more obvious that last year's L&L columns were brainstorming for it. The possibility of a C&C-style baseline with more options and access to all of WotC's IP and resources sounds very good...
  4. M.L. Martin

    D&D 5E (2014) What happens if 5E fails to unite the base?

    Well, not only is the environment different, but the state of information is different as well--a few playtesters took the announcement as meaning (at least for a while) that the NDA was lifted, so we were getting a lot of hints in those early days. The information flow is much more controlled...
  5. M.L. Martin

    'Right Out of the Box', 'Some Assembly Required' and 'Do It Yourself'

    Monte Cook started his career at Iron Crown Enterprises (publishers of the HERO System from the mid-80s to late 90s) and did some Champions work. The resemblances have been noted, and the 'creeping HEROization' of D&D was a phrase thrown around for a little while during 3E's midpoint. I'd...
  6. M.L. Martin

    Old Appearances in Dragon's Forum!

    I try to forget my contribution to Forum. ;) :blush: (#193, May 1993). I was 13, working out some issues with my local gaming group, and not entirely fair or accurate in doing so. I prefer to look back on my published articles. :)
  7. M.L. Martin

    DDXP Begins Today!

    Combat, Exploration, and Role-Playing--the three key pillars that cover about 90% of the game experience, and that they want to really get right and make sure all classes can participate in to some extent. (The other 10% is probably niche modules like crafting, mass combat, dominion...
  8. M.L. Martin

    DDXP Begins Today!

    WotC reversed that earlier this week. But it's about 15 minutes to launch and I don't see any signs of live streaming. Maybe we'll get a podcast recording later.
  9. M.L. Martin

    Castles & Crusades question

    I own the Digest Version of the CKG, and assuming they use the same method, it's the exact same text and layout scaled down to the digest-sized pages. It's not unreadable, but it can be a bit of a strain. The eBook versions for Kindle and Nook are only $10, so if you have one of those, that...
  10. M.L. Martin

    D&D XP News Blackout -- DEBUNKED

    Bear in mind that we don't have any real idea as to the parameters of the NDA yet. It may simply be to give WotC a few days to get their own information and spin out there and slow down the flood on the Internet, or to prevent full character sheets or the whole module from being reposted.
  11. M.L. Martin

    D&D XP News Blackout -- DEBUNKED

    That post is two weeks old. WotC tweeted yesterday that the seminars would not in fact require NDAs.
  12. M.L. Martin

    D&D 5E (2014) What happens if 5E fails to unite the base?

    I'm not entirely sure about that--some of the comments that have been made about 4E can be read that way, and WotC has never managed to launch a new edition without tearing down its immediate predecessor. (Although with a sample size of 2, it's tough to extrapolate. :) ) You, at least, can...
  13. M.L. Martin

    Was Thac0 really that bad?

    True, it didn't start with 2E--but 2E is when a) it became the standard instead of a shortcut/alternative to using the combat matrices, and b) TSR would have had the first real opportunity to change to the ascending AC approach or something different.
  14. M.L. Martin

    D&D 3.x 1e-3e vs. 4e: The inverted difficulty curve in D&D 5e design

    There is evidence for this. Back in the days when BD&D and AD&D were being produced simultaneously, it appeared that many newer players felt more comfortable with AD&D and its apparent 'rules for everything', while more experienced players were more comfortable with BD&D and its looser, more...
  15. M.L. Martin

    Was Thac0 really that bad?

    THAC0 was probably the best solution that could be adopted when you take into account all of TSR's design goals for 2nd Edition: 1. Streamline the game, and 2. Keep all the 1st Edition material as 'plug in and play' friendly as possible. The designers seriously considered moving to the...
  16. M.L. Martin

    D&D 5E (2014) I Hope I Hate 5e

    I was actually thinking more of their run on DRAGON and what I heard about the DUNGEON APs--I was getting tired of "Demons! Demons! Demons!" by the end there. :)
  17. M.L. Martin

    Monk or Assassin, Which do you Dislike?

    Then why make it a distinct class called assassin? This was part of 2E's reasoning for dropping it, along with the tendency of immature players to take the "I'm a thief, therefore I should steal from other party members" school of thought to the extreme, which apparently turned a few people...
  18. M.L. Martin

    D&D 5E (2014) I Hope I Hate 5e

    In my case, a hybrid of 1E tone and subsystems, Paizo preferences for monster choices, OSR playstyle advice and 3.5 magic, combat, monster design and system mastery will fill this niche quite nicely. :)
  19. M.L. Martin

    Monsters that have been degraded over time that need fixing

    *Shrug*. The "level-eating slap-fighter" model of the vampire was one of the things I was happiest to see gone in 4E. I don't mind them having the unarmed attack, but adding level drain to it . . . sorry, but it's the bite of the vampire that should be feared, not the punch or slap. :)
  20. M.L. Martin

    Is the D&D brand name really that important?

    The brand itself? It can be handed over to the OSR or 3.5E loyalists for all I care. :) The things I do care about enough to be interested are: 1. There's a lot of interesting creative material and lore developed for D&D, and a lot of it can only be leveraged by TSR/WotC/the rights holder...
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