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That, and every item you add to such a list, which is supposed to affect the entire game (or else why even bother?), has consequences. Assuming we are going to have "ability scores" at all, then having only 1 is definitely too few, and there rapidly comes a point somewhere after 6-10 where it...

Having finally got up on this excellent topic, a comment: When a group mixes scene-framing and resource management, the "game" seems to settle down over time. Changing elements (players, system, adventure, character choices, etc.) tends to unsettle it for a time. I typically run a pretty...

Assuming the six ability scores are scared cows (and I think they should be), then "force of personality" is always what Charisma has been. Gygax and company were aware of what the word means, which I'm sure is why they made such an odd choice. If they had meant "looks" or simply "personality"...

The one place that I've deviated from the playtest as written, since the first couple of releases, is that I use group initiative exclusively. It does need some playtesting, if only to make sure that they don't introduce things into the main rules that make it unnecessarily hard to do. Mainly...

I like the extended rest, slower variant where hit dice come back on an extended rest, but hit points do not. I like this slightly slower version for a few reasons: 1. When everything is going great, and the party has ready access to resources, and a warm, secure place to rest--this becomes...

Well, what they are doing in Next with the number and manner of spell scaling should help a lot. As I understand it, the core thing that drives "quadratic wizard" is that they get more and more spells--and the low level spells get better even as they high level spells get added. Take magic...

I think that is probably where they are going--skill dice in even when what kicks them off is not necessarily "skills". In fact, I think having that option is a big part of what drove them to skill dice in the first place--though I do think the mechanic has other good features beyond that basic...

I think they might produce a pretty decent game out of this effort. But I don't think WotC has it in them to square the circle that is the irrational nature of the D&D fan base considered as a whole. Maybe no one can, but I'm not even sure that WotC can fake it--at least not while under the...

I do like them for precisely the same reason. The scaling is built in. This is how they will get around some problems in the traditional scaling.

One of the very nice, but mostly unheralded aspects of building a game of varying complexity, but meant to scale from simple to more complex: Sometimes a novice DM needs the more complex rules to give some hint as to the general drift of how things go, but can then use the less complex rules...

Pre 3E: No screwy differences in mechanics just because it was something thrown together that might work. (I can do screwy house rules myself, thank you. :) ) If there is a design reason for the screwy differences, then knock yourself out. This applies equally to Basic and AD&D lines. AD&D...

Usually, the mistakes in D&D when it comes to this kind of thing is doing rough rules of thumb that work in lower levels, and then applying them blindly. For example, if you want to let a fighter pick up a utility spell in the AD&D progression at low levels, you might be ok with a 5th level...

I like to tinker with rules, and had not in a awhile. So I've got no problem dealing with gaps in the play test, as such. Really, my main reservations at the moment are more from dealing with the inevitable consequences of read-only documents that are changing on a schedule not in sync with my...

Like the Arcana Evolved system, this version manages to get most of the advantages of a "spell point" system while curbing the biggest abuse that always arise in such systems over wide ranges of power: gross imbalance by pouring all spell points into the lower or upper end of the range...

It's narrow because it tries to put everything in a little compartment to fit class advancement. You went and met this grandmaster of sneaking up on things. So he gives you this one niche edge after you jump through some hoops. It's too pat. It is very flexible within its narrow confines. I...

Grandmaster training and boons might very well be part of a such a system, but as presented in 4E, those are too narrow. There is an inherent limit on what can be accomplished outside the class system in D&D, lest the system be moved too far from what makes it D&D. Classes and levels are as...

I think people that read rules with preconceived ideas of how they are supposed to work--especially if those preconceived ideas are essentially, "it should work just like the other set of different rules"--are unlikely to have much success with any system that has something radically new in it...

I think they should drop the label of "prestige class" or "paragon path" or "kit" or any prior term--as if it has the baggage it does in fact have--and then build something new that meets the design goals. Preferably, this should be done either as part of or after the design of a functional...

I want something in the excluded middle. I want to play the full range of the main D&D styles easily, and many of the more niche styles with a little bit of thought and perhaps tweaking. But mainly, I want the designers to really come to grips with the simple fact that if you design stuff in...

Within the limitations of traditional D&D, maybe so. There could, however, be a practical difference between magic granted via another being and then "channeled" by the caster versus magic that is invoke through one's on (carefully applied) power versus magic that pulls power from a neutral...