Search results

"Pharming" is the use of bioengineered animals to produce useful products (like modifying E. coli to make insulin, or cows to produce spider-silk-rich milk). Classically, this shows up in fantasy tropes as creatures like geese that lay golden eggs. I would not use animal-created alchemical items...

This is only a problem if you want your mount to also attack as part of a charge (which might not be an unreasonable thing to want). This gets into the gray areas of the mount rules. Arguably, the character can charge (as a full round action), attacking with a lance, while mounted (using the...

The best way to think about the RAW, I think, is to imagine the higher ground bonus as a "position" bonus. Size bonuses/penalties are already written into the rules under the size entries. That way there's no double-dipping when the orges start swinging their warclubs from the trees.

I would think that "official" class-based codes of honor would chafe just the same way to anti-alignment players that alignments do. Any imposing of "this is how you have to play your character" smacks of heavy handedness to them. For cleric good/evil issues and DR good/evil issues, the...

Rule 0a: If the players' plan is more complicated than kick in the door, kill the monsters, take their loot, you've made your players think too hard.

Shadowrun 4th Edition is getting a sort of watered down Deadlands style dice mechanic involving a fixed TN of 5 (roll Nd6 where N is skill+attribute). Each die is a lottery ticket for success, with harder actions requiring more successes ("hits"). Some have pointed out that this is basically the...

Whizzy-- this is why they invented (public) house rules. Impaired drunken brawl? -1 or -2 to hit, +1 to AC (limbered up a bit, aye? It helps folks like me dance, so....), and some form of pain tolerance (maybe acting normally until -2 hp). Looking for a drinking contest? Set subdual damage...

Or learn to love the One True Starwars (d6) and get lots of free stuff at http://rebelroleplayersalliance.org/

Loot. Call me cold and calculating, but it's all about loot, the search for loot, and the tantilizing grasping for loot that inevitably slips through your fingers. Loot is what keeps people coming back for more. The cooler the loot, or the harder to get, the better.

http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=9315 The full fan reaction. In all of its flamewar glory. The summary: * The ork does look like Rosie * Dual weilding ARs would be cool * Sheep pants are the new tres chic * Huh huh, freckles on the elf. Hawt. * Apparently Japanocentric...

In a medieval fantasy world, you couldn't go wrong with the job: Magical Test Subject. I mean, wizards don't invent Magic Missile or Evard's Black Tentacles overnight. They've got to try out the spell and they need.....subjects. "Sit here and hold still. I'm not going to waste this spell slot...

Keep in mind that it is a _forge_ and not a factory. Eberron economics is still very pre-industrial. That is to say, craft-workers still dominate over factories. Creation forges do not stamp Warforged out of sheet metal and send them on down the line like so many tin lizzies. Speed of plot...

Some groups have been known to roll two dice and keep the higher of the two (all in front of the group). This is nice because sometimes your barbarian is just destined to roll snake-eyes and that's the way it is.

I have had great fun with a wizard PC who went out of his way not to look like a wizard. As a tough son of a gun who spent most of his time in front of a forge (+14 in craft(blacksmithing) and counting!), we went a very long time avoiding cloaks, wands, and pointed hats. It's fun reminding the...

It's interesting. Back in college, I used to be a fan of the longer the better. We would have epic gaming sessions that would go on for hours and hours, even close to days sometimes. Now, out in the real world, I find that after about 4 hours my mind starts wandering. The younguns in a group I...

Can't go wrong with a warren/casbah/old-town/shuq. Just take one of your "large building" spaces and describe it as a mess of alley ways, shanties, covered markets, housing, etc., from which strange smells, boistrous sounds, and few souls eminate. Maybe it is a ghetto for refuges from the war...

So a wand of Grease is a stick of butter? I could see that leading to some humorous interactions. About grease being flammable. You have to be careful with this rule. It's important as a DM not to gimp spellcasters who have chosen to have a particular spell on hand. There's no reason in the...

Gotta go with "Ghost Dog: Way of the Samauri" and "Johnny Mnemonic" for my cyberpunk games. Way deep down inside, there's a little bit of Gandalf in all of my D&D wizards.

There's always A3 (I know, 'bama, not Georgia, but anyhow). Self-styled country-house fusion. It's good music by any southern esteem.

In a magitechnological world, I think most "beat cops" would try to steer clear of magical threats and call in for back up which is better trained and equiped for the supernatural. That being said, a spare clip of silver bullets is never a bad idea. I like the "Star Wars cantina" approach to...