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Foxit for PDFs, The Guide (an extrinsic outliner) for notes, OpenOffice.org Calc for combat tracking, Firefox for the web. Occasionally PowerCrunch if I need a calculator. DiceTool for dice if needed. Skype rarely if someone needs to webcam in.

Let's see, last month: Card games: Gin Rummy, Race for the Galaxy Board games: Risk, Carcassone, (I missed boardgame night at my gaming club). Video Games: Sands of Destruction, Final Fantasy XIII, Resonance of Fate, Infinite Space, Bioshock 2, Toy Soldiers, Rocketmen: Axis of Evil, Mass...

The Unisystem comments are second hand, Ars Magica is fairly robust. Magi are the most powerful, Consori are the middle, and Grogs are the bottom. It specifically recommends a troupe style of plat with each PC running a Magus, a Consor, and a Grog or three. There's not really much to fiddle...

Sure you can. Ars Magica or the Buffy/Angel games, for example.

That was intentional. ;) Threaten and Tire are great ways for a 'non-combatant' to take down NPCs. :)

If you have access to it, GURPS IOU is a good resource. You WILL need to tone it down, but it should have some ideas to steal for a lighter one-shot.

Facing in personal combat only works when the time scale is short enough. 1 or two seconds. Note that this isn't necessarily a turn length, some game with tick initiative system can work. It's also important for anything fast or ungainly enough to have a turning radius or in combat involving...

OneNote alike: BasKet Note Pads Visio alike: Dia - GNOME Live! CAD Program: CADEMIA - Das Open Source CAD System GIMP (think Photoshop): GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program PCGen should run on Linux, and last I looked it was implementing PF support. RP Tools (MapTool, DiceTool, various...

Considering some of the design commentary regarding the needs of Living Spycraft in regards to Spycraft 2.0 and then in regards to Fantasy Craft, yeah. A lot. The same with rules for every situation. A game designed to be run with a table of strangers needs consistency and predictability.

Never, but that has far more to due with the players choice of characters and their characters personalities and goals. In other words, no one wanted to be a monarch or pursued stories that would lead to it, so it's never come up.

MMy understanding is the system is iffy, and you can get a lot of the setting by watching/reading the work from the same world. (The Lodoss series', Legend of Crystania, Rune Soldier Louie). I'm not sure what system to suggest though, BECMI D&D at the least.

I've run Burnt Offerings in FC with a party including both a Medicine focused Keeper (skill monkey, like an Expert on steroids) and a Craft and Haggle focused Courtier (social manipulator). Both are typically non-combatant classes, and these played to type. I needed to beef the converted NPCs up...

The OP said the only two types of people who don't like the sort of balance 4e employs are min/maxers who must be better then other players or those who want to make crappy characters who he will have to carry. Munchkins or Slackers.

Depends on the game I'm running, but typically the Rule of Cool and dramatic logic reign.

Pretty much all of them, because they're all combatants. You find enough flexibility in them for you. That doesn't make those of us who don't wrongbad people. Ah, tautology. Because this is D&D you must go into dungeons and fight dragons. If you want to do otherwise, you're playing the game...

I wasn't suggesting cramming 4e into any hole. If you don't want what 4e offers, look at other games. I was responding to the implication by the OP that if you don't like 4e's style of balance, you're either a bad person or ignorant. Lots of people like 4e and don't mind it's playstyle or...

And far too often, anyone that doesn't find 4e's way of balancing acceptable or desirable get's vilified to one degree or another. The OP is a case in point. Yes, but for many 4e goes way too far in the other direction. It's form of balance says everyone must be great in combat, and that...

Why I don't use D&D as by d20 based fantasy game, and not the point. This whole '4e can handle anything, here's how' bit is missing the point. Why does balance have to be a straight jacket? Why does Mr Know It All have to wait until level 12 (or whatever) to actually be Mr Know It All? The...

Missing the point. Why does a class have to be starkly limited in combat role. Why do classes even need combat roles? Why does everyone have to be a combatant? Gygax wrote a thief, not a rogue. Also, why do we need to slavishly follow design decisions over thirty years old? Ah, the old 'just...

I never said suck. In Fantasy Craft Keepers and Courtiers have half level BABs, while most classes have 3/4 level BAB. Coutiers aren't helpless, but without specific consideration in building them (and probably multiclassing into the Gallant expert class) they are not combatants. They kick ass...