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My pet peeve is the Ninja psionic half-golem warforged type character who has a tissue thin background to justify blatant powergaming. Don't get me wrong; I like powergaming to the max myself, but it has to end in a credible character. Not a freaking fantasy version of 'Seven of Nine'.

I found an interesting post on 'The Alexandrian' the other day, that I think speaks to the point of this thread. The Alexandrian (see 'Opening your gaming table') Basically, he writes that a roleplaying game can be liken to a game of baseball; when he started with megadungeon-type games...

I am not impressed with Kobold Quarterly but I warn you that trying to make a print version of a magazine will mean a significant outlay (we are talking $3000-6000 just for ~500 mags, depending on the page count) and with it comes a significant risk that you would never sell enough to break...

Thanks for the replies so far. But to be clear, I ain't talking about AoOs, as the rules for those are quite clear in that you have to threaten a square to make an AoO and in the situation I describe above, the monsters without reach don't threaten the PC, and so can't make AoOs. I am talking...

Hi Empirate, I agree with you, from a real-world point of view, but I was wondering if anyone has an official ruling from WoTC on this matter, given that it must have been a common question, given all the spiked chain fighter builds that were once in vogue.

Hi All, I have had a situation come up in a 3.5 game where the rules as written are not clear. A PC is using various reach weapons to trip and disarm at 10 ft (2 squares). My question is; if the foes he is attempting to trip/disarm don't have reach (i.e. don't threaten him) can they attempt...

I don't believe that WoTC's designers woke up one day and thought 'Let's smash D&D and disenfranchise all the old fans.' However, I do think 4E was designed with the following (invalid) assumptions and that these assumptions and starting points were fuelled by corporate anc commercial concerns...

Chaochou, Thanks for getting the point I was trying to illustrate; background is stuff the player can use to make the PC seem more real. It is not an essay about what has happened in their previous life, but merely the sort of notes that an actor might compile when trying to get inside the head...

Bluenose; I am sure that AD&D to v3.0 was a big shift (I was out of the hobby at the time, and so missed most of it). However, there is one fundamental difference between that shift and the v3.5 to v4.0 change; in both AD&D and v3.5, ALL playstyles were possible (I am not saying 3.5 actively...

Bluenose; the key phrase in what you just said is 'about half of people who play D&D use a homebrew'. So about half don't; it is many of them who have left D&D both because of the slaughtering sacred cows and because of the changes to the crunch. I personally got off the D&D bandwagon at 4E...

Before I can answer your question Stalker0, I would need to know more about your players. If you have a group of inveterate power gamers who are experts at building druids/clerics/wizards then you might have a problem with magic versus martial builds, but in my recent E6 game I saw no such...

The Shaman, I think we largely agree but your earlier comments suggest that you don't see the value of understanding how your character's internal world works; all the actions of an intelligent being arise from from what they think, feel, believe and have experienced. If you don't know these...

The Shaman, I agree that a 'shared imaginative space' is exactly what makes an RPG so brilliant. But I don't agree with the idea that this 'shared space' extends to my character. I mean, as a player, I would take great exception to other players telling me how to play my PC and I wouldn't...

I entirely disagree with Janx; why should every PC be inexperienced? I once played a very old swordsman, inspired by Druss the Legend from David Gemmell's books, who was very experienced. He was just first level because he had not adventured for many years. Similarly, a friend once played a...

Hi Profilaes, Of course in an ideal world character background should help BOTH players and DMs to make the game better and to bring their character into the game. However, the idea around here amongst most people seems to be that background is SOLELY to make plot hooks for the DM and I was...

I would liken playing an RPG to performing during live improvised theatre, where the plot/story is not written at all and emerges from the interactions between the players on the stage. When I was studying Comedia del Arte for 'O'level Drama, we learned one thing; you cannot create an...

D&D 4e IS flaming out. Matt Sprang, head of Mongoose, is a very clever RPG businessman. He apparently has a way of working out the actual sales figures of his competitors from various sources (I am referring to a cryptic reference he made in his book 'I am Mongoose, so can you'). Matt has...

Scouting is dangerous and so we never solo scout; we always have at least 2 party members (Rogue and Ranger), and then it is viable, provided the rest of the party is reasonably close. You just have to have a good exit strategy; I usually have a level or two of wizard for my Rogues, so it's...

Oh and I forgot to echo what someone else said; the best secrets games are ones where the DM plays a double bluff. Every PCs has the same or related secret (they are all changelings or all agents of some power) but don't know it. That way, when the secret is blown open it is all OK in the end.

I recently DMed a game where all the players had characters with secrets and often have played or DMed games like this. A number of observations; 1) Many players are not sufficiently mature (even 30 and 40 somethings) to properly separate character and player knowledge and so you have to pass...