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That's a really good question, and an answer needs to it needs to be nailed down before you can meaningfully think about CR. To me, a serious challenge is an encounter where the players have to consistently make very good decisions to overcome the challenge.

If all of my players have read an adventure I won't run it. If just some have read parts, I might run it but make extensive changes. My biggest concern is that as a player, playing an adventure I've read or played before is pretty boring.

Baloney. I have a sold science & tech background - three engineering degrees, research, and professional experience . The only major points I see that are flat out impossible by current science are psionics and jump drive. The ones about planet age and size may be incorrect, but they're...

You have the opposite of my most common challenge. In my longest running game, when someone asked the party who their leader was, at least half of the 8 (usually) players would respond in character "I am!" The relevant PCs were a high priest, a politically powerful mage, a cavalier, and a...

Hard SF is in the eye of the beholder. A lot of the things on your list look to me like they would be possible without breaking our current understanding of science.

Interesting idea. Mechanically, it seems equivalent to adding some hit points and reinstating the 0 hp = dead-dead rule. Still, I can see how it would add some drama and tension. If I were to do it, I would add a rule that each round at 0 hp a PC must make a CON or WIS check (whichever is...

I expect Tony will end up with a pile of XP because he gave the exactly right answer on the very first reply. That said, it doesn't hurt to ask after the game. The DM will probably say "this is how they work in my campaign," but there's also a chance he just made a mistake and if so should...

Li Shenron makes some excellent, well argued points about the difficulties of pets. I like his solution of making them independent NPCs, but that still has the issue the pet adding substantially to the DM's workload. (Besides that, it's a really good solution) My preferred solution is to just...

Agreed. Some players have more fun when they believe that their enemies are smart and might kill them if they are captured. A contrived escape would remove more fun from the game than having their characters killed. Usually when folks argue "my way is better than your way because it's more...

As with others, I can usually find a way to captured PCs alive if that's what I want to do. One reason to keep them alive is simple arrogance. They're sure that the PCs are not a threat, especially without their gear. Historically (kind of) drow have been high enough level that this might...

Traveller is the perfect system for emulating Andre Norton's sf adventure books. More of a 1950's-1960's sf vibe then 70's. This is great for me because that's my favorite SF. While it's not quite generic SF, it's closer than anything else I can think of, in the same way that LotR is generic...

To put a bit of a twist on it, you could make one or two of the opponents ghoulish wild animals, say a crocodile or a wolf rather than a ghoul humanoid. If the players ask about it, you can just tell them it's "ghouls gone wild." (rimshot)

I've DMed a couple of games with kender PCs. They worked just fine. The kender provided frequent comedy relief and once or twice a bit of party drama, but in the end they were there to help their friends and helped a lot more than they hurt. So for me it's a simple yes, they are appropriate PCs.

Wilderness Guide and Manual of the Planes for me. Each fleshed out a different mode of adventure. I especially liked some bit of the WG that added verisimilitude, like the random weather table. People have adventures in real life with just natural wilderness obstacles - D&D ought to be able...

The one I'm most familiar with is Amber, based on Roger Zelazny's books. These are frequently called "storytelling games" to distinguish them from traditional RPGs, so that might be useful for you as a search term. Be aware thought that it's a touchy term in conversations: there are folks...

Within the letter of the rules and supporting material (items, spells) it's probably not possible. Within the spirit of the rules, I agree with the above comment on incapacitation and strength rolls. If you want an alternative, how about the dragon got his jaws enchanted as per the 1E Sword of...

If it becomes an issue, I'd go with something very similar to delericho except when there are 2+ PCs with proficiency. It seems to me that there would be a lot of overlap in knowledge between PCs with the same knowledge proficiencies, so I'd say just do one roll by the character with the...

Someone mentioned the 1E ranger and that sparked a memory. Back in 1E the ranger's biggest edge was tracking. It was an often critical skill, and the ranger was the only one who could do it. With subsequent editions opening abilities to more classes, the classes that had a showcase skill like...

I dunno about "humorous," but here are the first couple of ideas that occurred to me They return to find ... 1) A dead adolescent bear with human bite marks on its throat and a spoon in its mouth. The bear came over to eat him, but he spat the spoon into it's mouth and it started to choke to...

Not a huge fan of "mystic" for a psi class. To me the term "mystic" evokes Professor Trelawney from the Harry Potter books, which is definitely not my idea of a psi user. It's only saving grace is that it's leagues better than "psion" and "psionicist" in terms of fantasy flavor.