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In my mind, the Traveler is like the Loki of Eberron (of Marvel and Norse extract). Change through Mischief. Change through Bitter Empowerment (sorcerer/warlock accidentally kills loved one to gain initial power). Change for change's sake (divinely support brazen d'Cannith efforts to...

sst187: My group has played through many of the options of 4e and then 4e Essentials. I would say your best bet is Essentials. Essentials will give you the complete experience. I wish WotC could have made 4e like Essentials from mid-2008 on. Moreover, if you're trying to minimize expense --...

It'd be more plausible to play an Essentials Wizard and choose normal wizard powers instead. Currently the Essentials characters have some elements that don't match with the normal progression of all earlier 4e classes. Essentials is a lot of fun, but its not as modular as the older system...

This article sort of merges the Fey Pact and Vestige Pact in my mind. Really makes a Lawful Good or Good warlock feel plausible. It looks awesome -- makes me want to play a hexblade. Most warlocks on paper seem like they should be at best capricious (fey) or at worst totally debauched (the...

Agree with pretty much all of Unknown at This Time's review. I also particularily enjoyed the new mechanics for solos -- the Instinctive XXXX powers of dragons. Basically they get an automatic extra partial turn at Initiative check 10+X. In the case of a solo dragon, it could be a free flyby...

I use my own combo rules inspired by the NPC and monster rules scattered throughout the two DMGs as well as the DMG2. Basically I give the CC's a good combo of recharges and PC-inspired powers. I also don't give CC's as many surges as the DMG2 rules indicate. I only bump up CC's (and give them...

Bottom up. Though the PCs are the center of attention, I can't stand running a campaign that simply scales with the PCs. That reflects my favoring of a 'sandbox' philosophy for DMing I suppose. C.I.D.

Some players never respond to even the most earnest attempts to build a better campaign. Luckily, in the last few years, I have found players that help me build a better story with their ideas and their input. The edition doesn't matter, IMO, but its a group effort for building the best game...

Wow .... I just sharded in my mind. That's an insane ... sentence. I put it into Google translate and got the following: Tram Conductor Uniform Jack Zipper What does this mean? Is this like a famous long phrase in Swedish? C.I.D.

In most cases, but sometimes the makeup of a gaming group makes that essentially a 'nuclear option' that can cause as many problems as it would supposedly solve. I thankfully no longer game with that sort of group, so its moot for my case. C.I.D.

No that's a good point. In most groups that wouldn't be an issue. My longest running 3.X group (2003-2007) unfortunately was riddled with rules lawyers and/or rather anal retentive players who always questioned the DM (and metagamed). I remember towards the end a 12th level 3.5 session devolving...

Your description of your campaign world reminds me slightly of the Dark heresy/Warhammer 40,000k campaign setting. The Emperor in that setting is himself inspired by the God Emperor Leto Attreides II from the Dune series. I remember in that series Leto bred a vanguard imperial military elite...

This idea reminded me of that old adage -- "The sun never sets on the British Empire." Random aside. I like the idea btw. (Being glib): In the real world there are places where the sun stays high in the sky well into the night by government decreee --- People's Republic of China (or as Lou...

Ah 'simulation' in the classroom is quite different than D&D in the classroom. I work in the military-industrial complex (tm) and have been to several seminars -- while being paid and on the job -- that had each person take on the actual role of a specific person or position in order to deal...

I like and play 4e rather exclusively nowadays (though I think Star Wars SAGA is the best system bar none). Anyway, I have experienced grind issues, including several multi-hour slugfests. The reason they last that long is usually due to several encounter areas being alerted to the presence of...

I love the sentiments in this thread. I was exposed initially to BECMI by a child psychologist when I was 8(ish) (late 1980's). I got sent there by my parents because I was hyperactive (heh). Anyway, it was a great experience. My parents probably regret that now, since they never much liked...

Actually in multiple places in the DMG2, WotC gives suggestions for altering monsters for the sole purpose of making the game more playeable. They often suggest not overloading the number of soldiers and brutes for instance. There are also ideas give for making more interesting monsters -- but...

I enjoyed my near-decade using 3.X, but it was the only edition of D&D that I've played that made winging it near impossible in many situations. It could only be done if you completely disregarded the intended guidelines, especially for monsters and classed NPCs. The big thing I remember that...

The best published sources for examples of skill challenges are the DMG2 and the Revenge of the Giants, IMO. DMG2 has a great deal of background and rules discussion about making skill challenges. It also has a lot of exemplar challenges. Revenge of the Giants just has a lot of complex and...

Okay this might not be the most appropriate thread for this, but I'll try to twist this into an Emperor's Fancy idea. --- So a slow festering slaad plague infects a number of people throughout the campaign region. Birthed slaad don't appear as fast as normal 4e or 3.5e dictates. One can't abide...