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Something to remember is that medieval Europe behaved as if magic and miracles were real. People really believed in griffins and dragons and manticores, and expected to run into them if they traveled to the wrong places. As long as magic is hard to learn, it will remain esoteric. It might not...

This is precisely how I treat XP in my current campaign, and I have had zero complaints. It's especially good for our group, because we often run games where one or two of the PCs are off doing something alone, while the other players take the roles of NPCs or monsters. I doubt the players would...

The 4th Level aristocrat would probably have the benefit of experience, family contacts, and social inertia on his side. Just being able to swing a sword is not enough to make people follow you. You might be personally powerful, but individuals cannot stand against an entire society. Remember...

I assume you mean the world that medieval people thought they lived in, rather than the actual medieval world. Here are some suggestions make the game run like medieval legends: No player characters races other than human. Half-elves maybe (if they hid their ears). You could have PCs that are...

We use the idea that cheese is an intoxicant to Halflings. Especially aged or blue cheeses, like Stilton. There's a legend that eating certain cheeses, especially English Stilton, before bed will give you weird and vivid dreams. There's the real-world basis. The guy who plays the Halfling rogue...

I almost never try to motivate the PCs by appealing to a sense of duty or altruism (since they tend to have neither). Instead, they tend to do things for the obvious rewards: money, sex, magic, status and fame. They want to be the first ones to save the village, because this way they get the...

I recently DMed a session that consisted completely of the PCs' hallucinations after a night of smoking hashish & opium, and eating hash-laced candies and psychoactive mushrooms. Drugs and drug use have always seemed to figure prominently in my campaign worlds. PCs smoke hashish in brothels...

The main continent of my current campaign is occupied by a single, but loosely held-together, human empire. The Imperial Religion promotes the worship of 12 Gods, one originally drawn from each of the Realms within the Empire. Each god is both the patron of a particular Realm, and the patron of...

I especially liked the DM's side remark about not knowing what Gygax was thinking...

I know. I had a collection of them when I was a kid. Actually, if new action figures were done McFarlane-style, it would be kinda cool. Especially a Gelatinous Cube with corpses and treasure inside! I still generally pessimistic about 4th Edition, however. Although I do like that they're...

At least the new Quickling isn't a tree with boobs...

As I remember it, Gygax explicitly wrote against making 20s automatic hits.

OD&D and BECMI D&D were rule guidelines to be used by DM in creating their own fantasy adventure games. Any part of the rules could be tinkered with, and whole new systems substituted for the ones given, all without fear of "breaking" the game. There was no campaign world integrated into the...

That's TERRIBLE advice. NEVER stop worshiping Satan! I say, if you're spending too much time on D&D, get a competing vice to waste your time on. Internet Porn, for instance. PCP might be a bad choice, on the other hand.

Somebody should have told the ancient Celts that before they went into battle NAKED and covered with body paint. It was a technique to undermine an enemy's fighting effectiveness by shock and distraction. Much like the constantly moving red tassel on a Chinese sword.

On these boards a few months back, somebody asked Gygax himself what he considered the essence of D&D to be. He replied: "Absolute authority of the DM, rules lawyers given the boot Rule books seldom used by a competant DM Action and adventure in play Swords & sorcery, not comic book...

Not if you're playing on-line! Also, DDI subscriptions could conceivably cut into the money available for pizza... The most damning anti-4th edition arguement: it means less pizza! To stay on topic, the total lack of pizza is what keeps me away from WOW!

No game not called D&D will ever sell as well as any game called D&D. Rules light or rules heavy has nothing to do with it. When D&D was a lighter game (in its original version), it sold. Now that D&D is a heavier game, it sells. It's the name that sells the game. D&D IS roleplaying to everyone...

That's straight out of the 1st Edition MM, where Succubi could Gate in Type VI Demons (one of which was named Balor). I actually sprung that trap on my players once in a 1st Edition game. The Type VI arrived riding on a Black Dragon, and really ruined their day. It doesn't take a lot of thought...

I take the position that classes should not be designed simply to "fill out the grid". I believe character classes should be as archetypal as possible, rather than created to exploit game rules. The reason for this is that character classes are essentially a convenience, speeding character...