Search results

I'm happy when my players come up with ambitious plans and big motivations as a part of character creation. If anything, it's the passive players that give me trouble because they give me nothing to hook them in and I have to work hard to give them some spotlight. Player plans never come into...

The first and most important thing I expect from the DMG is a clear description of the intended playstyle and the assumptions the game is based on. An answer to the question "Ok - so as a GM, what do I do in this game?". Something like the GM principles in Dungeon World. If 5e really supports...

Magic in fantasy books generally falls into one of two types: 1. In the first type, magical effects are well-defined and have clear limitations. It is possible for the reader to deduce what can be done by magic and how; main characters often solve problems by creative and surprising (but still...

I like the approach the OP described. Willpower reward for poor rolls is nice. It does not prevent failure, but it gives a PC who suffered a string of failures to come back with a great success against the odds, due to willpower points gained. Dungeon World uses a similar mechanism, with XP...

In most cases, I play such scenes at the table. My players are good enough that I don't have to worry about disruptive metagaming. I also try to keep solo scenes short, intense and interesting to spectators, so that other players don't get bored and don't phase away. During longer campaigns, we...

I remember the first game I created, together with my brother and our friends. Our RPG experience was then limited to Call of Cthulhu and WHRP 1st edition. We decided to create a fantasy game, more heroic in style and with more mechanical options. You can imagine how it went. I remember that...

What system do you use? What your sessions typically focus on? It's hard to give you much useful advice without having more context. But having run some romance plots (and having been in some as a player), I may give you some universal tips: 1. Track how much time you spend on the romance...

I like the general idea, but I don't like the execution. 1. The lists contain very few items that bring anything new to the table - most are things one gets just by listening to what the GM says and asking questions. If you don't make the skills worth using (especially with the attached cost)...

While I'm not a big fan of riddles in RPGs, I use them sometimes. A few ideas of how to incorporate them in game: 1. Riddle is a part of the security system. It's not there to stop intruders; it's there to slow them down. When adventurers find a lock of similar device, they either can open it...

I agree with the OP that free multiclassing defeats the purpose of a class-based system. Celebrim listed five possible reasons for using classes. IMO each of them is defeated by being able to multiclass freely.

I don't think that you need an epic spell for that. It doesn't force anybody to do anything and only spreads a simple piece of (true or false) information. I'd give it level 7 at most, and maybe even 5, depending on specifics (how many people it affects initially, how far and for how long it can...

Rules-light games can't offer an interesting play with rules-based tactics, nearly by definition. But you can also have fiction-based tactics (some people, eg. my wife, prefers it to rules-based tactics). And that's something that many modern games do very well. A few posters already suggested...

It can be done and I have done it. But it requires three things: 1. Honest conversation. You need to tell your group that you'd like to try another playstyle and make sure if they are interested in less combat focused play. Because if they are not, you won't succeed in changing their habits...

I don't have a single preference here. I like settings where magic is reasonably common, but narrow and specific. I like settings where everybody uses low-powered magic. I like settings where characters are highly magical and powerful. I like settings where magic is so risky or tainting that...

I see two approaches that may prevent the issues you mention. They can even be used together. 1. Use armor as DR, not AC. Then players can let their armor take care of many weak hits and only actively defend (spend HD) against dangerous attacks. If the DR values are scaled correctly, a heavy...

My first association when reading this term is something that already happened. A move from games that had incomplete, contradictory, overcomplicated or otherwise bad rules, but masked it with "rule zero", to games where RAW work. Authors that know that rules are important and design them with...

Why would anybody be entitled to anything? IMO, this way lie broken hearts and a lot of anger. Why not just wait until the game is released, see if we like it and buy it if we do?

Fighter with a lot of followers is fine. 4e fighter was a step in a good direction and in combat it played well - but still had no interesting out of combat role. You know... I'm one of the people more likely to criticize 4e for not going far enough than for going too far with its changes. :p...

While I fully agree with your first paragraph, I disagree with the second. The mechanics being only about deciding on success and failure is a very limited view and it is a source of many problems with D&D. There are many games where mechanics decide whether an intention was realized, not...

Mechanics-based tactics are in general something that prevents or disrupts immersion for me. Using map and miniatures, calculating modifiers, tracking details of how my abilities work. It's not a big problem, because I can have fun without immersion, too - and I don't tend to play D&D very...