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His writing style was as much influenced by the works in appendix N as the rules of the game. The, largely, pulp writing in that bibliography was pretty florid as most of the writers were paid by the word and they tended to write as many words as they could get paid for.

I would go further and say monster creation guidelines are an explicit invitation to the DM to be a game designer. As such there is a world of difference between adjusting a monster to better fit a game design concept and fudging a die roll or ignoring character death from hit point loss in...

Fair enough and you are right. If you want no variance then using hp/level values for the same type of monster works and 4e did this a little bit with monster roles and hp/level. I like the variability of using HD to generate hp for monsters. I guess I'd like to see a couple of things in...

Overall, I prefer 4e monster design to any previous version, but this I agree with. Five times or four times the hp of a normal creature of the same level can really end up feeling long and wonky in a lot of cases. Gary Gygax writing on this board (and others) said one of his changes for his...

And I think this is the heart of the marketing disconnect at WoTC. I don't believe that Wizards considers themselves to be a publishing company. I believe they consider themselves to be a toy and game manufacturer and as such a lot closer to their parent company in business model than not. I...

Well, I didn't watch this video so I can still read your posts with an american accent, as they should be. I did watch all the episodes for The Perturbed Dragon last night and enjoyed them. I'm pretty sure I've gamed with a Malach and Dee (?).

I think you over estimate the amount of the total player base ignores XP if you think it is a lot. But, like your estimate, that is also just an opinion, so no available facts, etc. So that aside, xp is certainly a core mechanic. Baked in at every turn and expected to be used. You can handwave...

There is going to be, and I would argue there has to be, a baseline mode of play. A foundation, if you will, upon which the modularity we are expecting in Next to rest. In this quote and a couple others you seem to be advocating for things that are certain to be in the baseline to be inherently...

I totally agree with you on the multi-classing mechanic:). But then the multi-classing rules in 3.x are a big reason why I stopped playing 3.5 after a couple of months.

I'll try again without cheap jokes. ;) Too me, it makes sense that the only guy who carries lockpicks is the guy who knows how to use them. The causal relationship "feels" right. I bought them because I know how to use them and I expect to use them on this adventure. I don't think the...

That had a lot more to do with the fallout and lawsuits over IP ownership when Gary Gygax was forced out of TSR then fan preference at the time. But you're right, they are both big, sprawling high fantasy worlds. I prefer Greyhawk because there was a noted lack of Mary Sue wizards and canon...

Seems like its setting the abstraction point for skills in the wrong place. If being able to buy a dog were able to grant skill in animal handling rich men wouldn't strap dogs to the top of their cars.

The following is anecdotal so take it for what its worth. In my D&D group (4e for the last 3 years now) I split DMing duties with another member. We each run a seperate campaign. I use a long standing campaign world of my own creation that I have used, with modifications, since AD&D 2e was...

Chaochou, I agree with on the subjectiveness of dissociated mechanics and have posted so previously. But, maybe this misses an aspect of game design. D&D for at least the last two editions, and arguably for both editions of AD&D, has a default fictional world that the mechanics are hung on...

I think you are largely correct that we could all be more aware that most statements on internet message boards should just be read as "I think x". The problem in this thread was early on there were certain posts that read in essence, "That is an ugly shirt and that's why so many people don't...

This, particularly the last sentence, is a big part of the disconnect between your assertion of objective dissasociation and several other posters counter-argument that dissasociation is personally subjective. Your explanation for why a Paladin can have dailies is built on post-hoc...

That's how I read it and that interpretation leaves Advantage/Disadvantage in play when situationally appropriate.

1e Clerics and Druids had a significant number of spells on their lists that were exclusive to each as did the Illusionist and Magic-User. How 4e did subclassing is hardly pertinent to my post. Whether I will be dissapointed in my hope of Next. Well, I suspect you may be right but nothing in...

They would have been on the right track if they had started from that concept and developed a class that embodied it. Instead, they started from a desire for a spontaneous arcane caster and rationalised some fluff for it. I might have really liked the class if had been designed from the...

I think you are being a little disingenuous here. Each of the "sub-classes" were presented with a full write up. Being a subclass did not mean the two classes shared even the most basic of class definers. Rangers had d8 hit dice for example and started with 2 of them. They most certainly didn't...