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I think they are different things, but both justified in their own way. The revision thing was much worse, because they made minor changes that forced many DMs to buy the new handbooks once their places started buying 3.5 products. And it was obviously deliberately planned (Monte Cook wrote a...

I do it for certain campaigns. Personally I love background and theme music in my games. Just try to read your players so you know when the music is too much or they aren't down with it. There are a few options to use here. I usually use my computer and make playlists based on the kind of...

I lowered my spending on game products a couple of years ago. Mostly I just buy core rule books now. Just the bare minimum I need to run a system, nothing more. Have been spending it on food.

I think PHB sales are always pretty big compared to other material. I would pay attention to the PHB II sales figures.

I do think the New Coke thing is an appropriate analogy. That seems to be how many 3E fans are reacting. But I have always wondered about the taste tests for New Coke. Whenever I tried it, it tasted pretty bland and nondescript to me. I can't imagine people actually selected it over Old...

You guys watched the movie "Gamers"; didn't you?

I think 3E created a lot of divisions between gamers, since it placed so much weight on rules mastery. But in my opinion, they made a mistake by releasing an edition that catered to 3Es critics; and neglected its champions. Just from a marketing stand point. I believe they fragmented their own...

I thought it was good. There some mechanics that bothered me though. Should have just kept the focus on Skills and keep things simple. But otherwise, I loved it. I own the core book, and it is a great resource if you like modern games. The problem might be the market. Most people I know who play...

Diesel is cool, but you can still see the nerd lurking beneath the human growth hormone and his box office numbers just aren't there. I think Colbert is cool too, but 1) he "officially" hung up his dice, and 2) he seems to be more popular with the "smart" people

Well, I tried to find some actual market research on the subject, but apparently market research papers are like 1000 dollars a pop. So I decided to go with the gut. I always felt like they heyday for Role Playing Games, in terms of mainstream popularity, was the early 80s. It was everywhere...

D&D tends to scale upward in power levels a lot (in every edition), and this makes it hard not to make DCs for things like skills scale up as well to keep things interesting. If you want DCs that are more static, the best bet is a game where power level ranges are more narrow, and advancement is...

I would go with 3E in this case. It has a solid sized skill list, and the ranks allow for plenty of variation between members of the party. Also because enemies are essentially created the same way as PCs, it is easy to come up with a super cool villain in this scenario. In a game of 4E with...

I want some d14s, d16s and d18s. The gap between the d20 and the 12 is very annoying.

I like to pick names that are fairly consistent with the setting. If we are in an oriental adventure, I will pick something with an asian ring. And if some guy names his character Roy Jones, it will kind of bother me. That said, I agree with you there is nothing wrong with Joe. Simple existing...

1) Every game has aspects missing to some players. For every player who says this part rocks, there is a player who wants less of it and more of something else. 2) This is entirely subjective. If the people who buy the supplement see it as an improvement, then for them it is. 3) This is also...

This has almost never been the mood in the games I have played in. Typically our players want a more cinematic style of play, and don't mind cut scenes (it really isn't boring if you know how to manage them). You are still working toward the same goal, but when it makes sense, you split up to...

I addressed this in earlier posts. The adventure should never hinge on a single skill check roll. If one bad roll means everything falls apart, then the GM is either going to have to fudge, or stop the adenture mid way through. You need to have creative consequences for failure. If you have a...

Options. It is fun to have more skills to choose from and be able to focus on specific skills rather than broad categories of skill. In my opinion 3E could have used more skills. The problem is, they need to break them into logical categories, and give out skill point pools, so you can put...

Just because spells exist that can take over the function of a skill, that doesn't mean your character will have access to the spell. It is also a waste of a spell slot for the day if you do have access and spend it instead of rolling a skill check. And it isn't limited to physical skills that...

1) None. All features are fair game when I make a setting. The only feature that would be hard to explain in my view is skepticism. Because you know the gods exist. Or at least see that their clerics have real power (perhaps though it could be explained as a arcane magic wrapped up fancy 'god...