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As the author of the first draft of the throwing shield (which grew out of things I wrote for d20 Spectaculars and never saw use until now), I have to say I love the illustration for it. I foresee much use of it in my own games.

I'm pretty sure your reputation for being misguided is secure. :D What Owen's actually talking about is the section on crafting rules, which came about as the result of an exchange we had in Rob Schwalb's Live Journal. :) Which, by the way, is I think the first time I ever got even a small...

Well, given how an entire section of this book came to pass, I suppose taking good ideas from the internet is just an APG tradition at this point. :D

I think you'll find in 4e it's a lot harder to get "free" power boosts, even with items. This is one way to make sure people don't hoard all their 1-shots to blow in a "big" encounter, making it easier for DMs to judge power level of a party with lots of 1-shots. It also allows characters with...

Having gotten a sneak peak at SOME of the thngs Ari's put in here, I can definitely say -I'll- be getting one. But I am, of course, biased in favor of the book.

Poor Ari took the brunt on this, because he got a post out first. By the time I knew I was allowed to say anything, I had already seen some of the reactions to his post. Folks, we (paid rpg game designers) all do this all the time. You look at what you are allowed to talk about, pick a few...

While I may regret stepping into this: I'm trying to give an overall impression of my opinion of the game. That overall impressions is positive. I have no -overall- negative opinions. There are specific elements I like more and those I like less. I can only comment on specific elements if...

This is one of the rare occasions when I think game design logic applies to a real world situation. At Wizards, I was taught that two rules should be the same, or be different. Having two rules that are -almost- exactly the same, but have just a few differences, but use the same name, or some...

There's ALWAYS a catch. I knew not everyone would want to hear what I had to say. And not everyone will agree with it once they get the books. And some people will feel that because I can;t say everything, it's worse than my saying nothing. from a practical point of view, Wizards has given me...

Hey folks. Mostly I had planned on keeping my 4e thoughts on my blog, so anyone who actually cared could come read them, and anyone who didn’t wouldn’t have to scan through them. But, since it got posted here, i thought I’d make an appearance. I posted a follow-up there already, and that covers...

I am not aware of anything I would describe as d20 Modern Saga. Of course, it could be progressing without me. And, for that matter, if I was working on it I wouldn't be able to talk about it. I do hope for a d20 Modern reboot at some point, but I'm not aware of any news on that front.

Getting hurt, well, hurts no doubt about it. I presume you haven't found second wind to be particularly useful? My groups generally use it between fights. Also, since you only benefit from First Aid once per 24 hours, my groups have seen First Aid as step one, and Surgery as step two if someone...

Sadly, after I write my part in these things I often have no more idea when they'll be out than anyone else. I do know that Star Wars books can be delayed by thigns that aren't an issue for most RPGs. According to the Wizards' website, the online adventure path Dawn of Defiance should release...

I use SAGA to run my pulp Masked Alliance 1930s mystery men/super heroes game. I allow a few feats from Mutatns and masterminds, and allow talents to buy M&M powers if there doesn't seem to be a better way to buy them, and is working fine. I find Black Bat, Captain Lightning, Crime Hunter, the...

For my own games, I add the 1.5-meter step back in from D&D rules. My players and I prefer that.

We didn't design it to work in straight D&D, and in my opinion it's over-powered. I've done it for a few games and allowed it in a few, but it almost always ends up creating problems. If you have house rules that already ramp-up PC power levels (extra feats, higher ability scores, hero points...

I played a single encounter of D&D with Mr. Gygax, at Gen Con, sometime in the late 90s prior to my going to work for Wizards. The party was attacked by, and largely decimated, by big wolves. He didn't tell us if they were dire wolves, worgs, evil druids, or just timber wolves with attitude, but...

I've made some surprisingly effective scout/fighter builds using Spring Attack. Both skirmish and Spring Attack have the same basic flaw -- they limit you to one attack a round. Using both actually helps offset that limitation. I'd ditch Weapon Focus in favor of taking Spring Attack now. You're...

For being an Origins Award judge, I got Ptolus, Hollow earth Expedition, Zorcerer of Zo, Price of Courage, Dragons of Autumn, RuneQuest, a slew of Dungeon Crawl Classics, and lots more stuff... all for the price of hours and hours of reading and comparing apples to oranges.... Hard to figure...

You wear the cheese. The cheese does not wear you.