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If you're going for a scenario where the world has been recently depopulated, then Europe after the black death is a great foundation. One of the really interesting things (IMHO) about Europe at this time is that the black death led to a radical reshaping of social mobility. The differing loss...

The primary factor of success in football is physical strength and speed. If you can't create an advantage in physical ability, then secondary factors like strategy, tactics and "pattern recognition" come into play. But they only come into play if you are evenly matched physically (which is...

In case anyone reads along and sees Joe's response just below my post and thinks we are disagreeing, I'd like to make it clear that we are in complete agreement. I like the idea of fluff where characters advance into some specialty, maybe tied to an organization that they choose. That...

100% agreed. I like the way the fluff of prestige classes adds richness to the world a lot, and dislike the proliferation of various mechanics and min/max options even more.

I don't really care for active (dice-rolling) monster knowledge checks where you just disclose the name of the creature for two reasons. One, I dislike the randomness. If you know this creature, then you know. If you don't, you don't. Two, I dislike the metagaming that can come along with it. I...

I was using the term ethics more colloquially in the sense of applied ethics and legal ethics rather than the broader academic definition used in your philosophy class. The question about killing a prisoner is partly about whether or not its moral to kill someone, but it's also about who is...

I find this example interesting because it's an ethics problem as much as a moral problem. Execution has a dimension of "good" and "evil" to it, but the difference between execution and murder is an ethical argument more than a moral argument.

For those that already have a preorder in at Amazon, you should consider canceling and reordering with the HOLIDAY30 promo today which will give you an additional 30% off the price. I just did the same, and I'm now paying about $21 for the DMG (but waiting until the week of the 9th to get it)...

I think you are working with a weird definition of downtime. Downtime isn't "anything that doesn't take place on an adventure." Downtime is meant to quickly handle some common PC activities that the players and DM don't handle interactively in-game or in-character. If you want there to be...

You are disappointed that Downtime is not a game in itself? Downtime, by definition, is meant to handle the activities that you DON'T want to be handled in game. It's also meant to handle activities that the characters do individually, so that you can just skip ahead to the part where they are...

IIRC, someone else used that term (hacker's guide) in an interview and he responded by saying that was a source of inspiration for the team. I think it's fair to say the DMG has many of the DM tools that Mearls said would be there.

The one thing I really want is a good character generator. The pathguy one is good enough for checking math, but I'd like to see something designed for ease of use and better print output. The main benefit is making it fast to try a build, try and alt build, and generate an NPC quickly. While...

Or it could just be that each is trying to provide the best experience possible on their platform. Cross-platform, least common denominator style development doesn't work very well in practice. The trend today is to build native apps for each platform that run faster, "fit in" and take advantage...

This comment reminds me of an observation about video game design. The various Mario games were held up as an example of design where new powers are introduced to the player just as they are required to solve new challenges presented by the level design. The fun in the game progression comes...

Don't forget the Rangers sworn to defend Queens Park

Anyone else getting an error that the file is corrupt? EDIT NVM. For some reason the Adobe Air application installer wasn't working when I double-clicked the app file. When I launched the installer first it worked fine.

Of course it's fair to disagree or have different visions. I picked Dex as defense because that affects your AC for PCs. I was thinking of building on that and explaining Dex as the natural defenses and then other "armor" like walls add additional bonuses. Then take the "Heavy Wall Mastery" feat...

I think it might be a good idea to provide a link to some of the WotC sessions on YouTube for the Lost Mines run through. I would guess it would be a far bigger help (early on) to see what DMing looks like instead of reading about it...

I love the idea. I'm trying to think of how I would assign the stats… Strength = Military (# of trained, armed, able-bodied adults?) Dexterity = Defenses (natural or man made) Constitution = Growth, Population (less sure on this one) Intelligence = Economy Wisdom = Education Charisma =...

I guess I'm trying to introduce a kind of fun into the campaign that relies on making choices and living with the consequences. I wouldn't use re-rolling as a stick to punish the player (I still want their character to be the star of the show), but I do want them to accept that their choice has...