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Haven't heard that name in forever and a day! Priam Agrivar kinda was an eye-opener as to how a paladin should act. Gone was the rigid, unbending crusader. Here was someone that was fallible but driven to do good. More concerned with living up to his own code himself than trying to force his...

I dunno, I think that there is a difference between someone doing an action in the game with intention behind it, and someone doing it because they just want to throw down and roll some dice. But also, if they're knowingly engaging in something to create friction within the gaming group (and to...

I remember when Vampire the Masquerade came out. Even before then, really, because we got one of the preview booklets and immediately thought "what's this?!" I was already devouring Anne Rice's books, had read Dracula multiple times. I wouldn't say I was a Goth back then, but I was definitely on...

It's not so much the tricks that I care about - I'm going to use the same strategies and dirty tricks (plus some of my own devising). What I am talking about specifically are the rulings. Sometimes players will push for certain interpretations, shall we say, based on the rule of cool. And a lot...

My take is to tell the player that if we're going to go down that route for them, the enemies are also going to be able to use it. I find that, with some exceptions, knowing that they'll be on the receiving end of whatever crackpot maneuver they've come up with as well helps them reconsider...

As I've gotten older, I've learned not to underestimate the appeal of the social outside-the-game elements. That being said, completely divesting yourself of the game until you hear the words "roll initiative" boggles my mind.

Specifically the "El Banco del Random House" deal. In order to have lasted, they would've had to end that business practice. And seeing that they followed that to the end, I don't see them doing so. But if they had, would people be so attached to the fiction, minus the game? I don't know the...

While I understand if a player enjoys combat the most, I do not understand the sort of person that just sits there waiting until combat starts, not engaging with anything. Gaming is a not insignificant commitment of time, and you're purposefully idling during anything that's not Your One Thing.

To this day, I am still discovering TSR fiction and choose-your-own-adventure books I never have heard of before. Just reading that article, I did. TSR published so many. One wonders what would've happened had TSR focused solely on fiction, as was proposed at one point during the 2e era? Would...

Nor here. I was running at a gaming cafe, and while they expected people to spend money on snacks, for every person that made sure to buy something, there were two that just showed up.

I finished reading Chuck Tingle's Lucky Day. Though there certainly are throughlines with his Tinglers, it's very much a different style. The book is all about how random chance can be horrific, or it can be freeing. Plenty of gore, too. I re-read Stephen King's Cycle of the Werewolf, for the...

That's something new in my experience - when the game I was running switched from free to charging for it, the people that didn't want to pay stopped coming, but the people left were rock-solid in their attendance.

I've been trying to incorporate this video's advice, where you dip in and out the narrative elements, stop to describe the scene (especially after a player takes a long time on their turn), in between the tactical combat rounds: I kinda feel like the bonus action was a design mistake.

In my experience, in the beginning, attendance can swing wildly. Sometimes just two people will show up, sometimes 11. Eventually, things will reach equilibrium. But one lesson I wish I had learned is that no matter how much you want everyone who shows up to get a seat at the table, set a...

Really wish I had done more with the historical settings. I tried a couple times to get a Vikings campaign going. Loved the take on rune magic.

Now I want to come up with a way to trap my PCs in a roundabout. But seriously, yes, it's important to have a rich diet of potential inspiration.

That's the perfect summation of Kingdoms of Kalamar. When I first read it, my first impression was that nothing was happening. Then I realized that the entire setting was perched on the edge. There was no metaplot at work, just meaty hook after hook, waiting for the PCs to come along and change...

Absolutely. The way I look at it, even if the mechanics are completely different, you never know what's going to inspire you. Everything I consume gets funneled into my imagination, potentially broadens and/or deepens the ideas I can come up with.

Yes to all these. When the series was at its best, it had characters that evolved, that had multiple notes, coming to life amidst a sweeping backdrop of events and places.

Reviewing products in the house organ magazine had to be a fraught thing. Not only were you reviewing the products of the people signing your paychecks, but there's every chance of bumping into the person who wrote the thing you reviewed.