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Besides Madness at Gardmore Abbey, there's The Slaying Stone and Reavers of Harkenwold. The Chaos Scar adventures published in the Dragon were good for short one-session games. And even though it was very uneven, I liked the Scales of War adventure path. They may be difficult to track down...

Yes, the early monster books suffered from bad math that made for boring fights. The revised versions in Monster Vault and Threats to the Nentir Vale are much better. I'd probably start with the first couple of PHBs for classes. Admittedly, some of the PHB classes (particularly paladin and...

In literature, maybe, but isekai manga and anime are still massively popular.

I'd say that anyone who thinks Vance and Leiber are mundane low fantasy really hasn't read much of Vance (check out the Rhialto the Marvellous stories, for one) or Leiber.

48. The world of the Dragon Empire, the default setting for 13th Age.

Who says a halfling can't be modeled more on Bullroarer Took than the stereotypical burglar?

We used them all interchangeably; my local group was one of those that went from Holmes Basic to B/X to AD&D, bypassing BECMI entirely.

Unlikely. I've skipped 5E entirely, and it doesn't look like 5.5/6E is going to do much to change my problems with the game.

"If the players disagree with you, have them hit by lightning bolts, reduce their Charisma, or have them attacked by an invisible ethereal mummy" -- as suggested in the 1E DMG.

Tier 4 - Masters of the World Fingolfin (Tolkien) Ecthelion (Tolkien) Gil-Galad (Tolkien) Glorfindel (Tolkien) Erekose (Moorcock) John Carter, Warlord of Barsoom (Burroughs) Icarium (Erikson) Elric of Melnibone (Moorcock) Culain Lord of the Lance (Gemmell) Cohen the Barbarian (Pratchett) Kane...

In play? Rarely. But I have let players redo their characters between sessions -- switching classes, reassigning skills, etc. -- especially in cases where the player is new to the system and is still getting the hang of how it works. Of course, this doesn't mean unlimited redos, but I don't see...

Tier 4 - Masters of the World Fingolfin (Tolkien) Ecthelion (Tolkien) Gil-Galad (Tolkien) Glorfindel (Tolkien) John Carter, Warlord of Barsoom (Burroughs) Icarium (Erikson) Tier 3 - Masters of the Realm Hurin (Tolkien) Conan (Howard) Corwin of Amber (Zelazny) Aragorn (Tolkien) Drizzt Do'Urden...

Yeah. I see way too many D&D fans who apparently think the fantasy genre stopped in 1989. As for Moorcock being lesser known today ... while I yield to no one in Moorcock fandom (I've been Lord Shark online for 36 years now, ever since reading "White Stars" in Legends from the End of Time)...

For another example of Law as evil from Moorcock's work, see the Singularity and the Original Insect from the"Second Ether" trilogy (Blood, Fabulous Harbours, and The War Amongst the Angels).

For one example, 1E thieves' ability to read spell scrolls (with a chance of reversed effect) is derived from The Eyes of the Overworld. Cugel steals Iucounu's spellbook and casts some spells by reading directly from it, but then has a spell backfire when he mispronounces a word.

My first non-D&D fantasy RPG? Probably RuneQuest (the 2E boxed set). These days, if I wanted to run fantasy, I'd probably reach for 13th Age, Beyond the Wall, TOR, or Fellowship. Maybe PF2E, although I'd need more experience with it to be certain.

In AD&D 1E and 2E, a trident does 3d4, although only against large enemies.

Search for the Emperor's Treasure was one of Tom Wham's best games, along with King of the Tabletop. It was reprinted in the Best of the Dragon Games boxed set. Unfortunately, the reprint version replaced the original Darlene Pekul-drawn map with Catan-style rearrangeable hexes, which weren't...

Holmes Basic: 1979 AD&D 1E: 1980-1989 AD&D 2E: 1989-2000 D&D 3E: 2000-about 2004? I don't really remember when I stopped playing 3E, I just drifted away. D&D 4E: 2008-2014 Pathfinder 1E: 2011-present 13th Age: 2013-2016

Honestly, if you armed a fighter with a spear, polearm, or flail, you could get pretty controllery with tripping, slowing, and forced movement.