Search results

But I don't accept that as given: See below. The assumptions I'm making are: 1. The median income for characters of Nth level is N-squared gp per day. That applies to NPCs and NPC-class NPCs as well as to PCs and retired PCs. I drop the conceit that "1 gp is big money! Enough for an average 1st...

It depends on what standards one considers 'reasonable.' There's a tricky non-intuitive difference between "wealth" and "income" and I figure "rich" for a fifth level character to be accumulated wealth of close to half a million gold pieces, or close to two million for a tenth level character...

An assumption here is that the PC failed to bribe the guard because the guard wasn't corrupt. But that's not the only way to interpret a poor result on a bribery skill check. Maybe the PC misjudged how corruptible the guard was and offered a bribe that was turned down Maybe the PC misjudged...

Another fine line is between magic that's expensive enough to rule out common mundane use and magic that's cheap enough to completely displace the mundane. An illustrative ;) example would be light sources. At what point does it become "pound wise and penny-foolish" to keep buying torches or...

That's a point of difference between us. For me, a major reason to have fantastic elements is to cater to the escapist fantasy of a more glamorous world, one with less of the grit and "dung age realism" that I find depressing. Also, as an aesthetic preference, I want to avoid the feel of a...

I believe this is a false dichotomy. A fantasy world can be weirdly different from the real world and yet still feel like a real place. That said, I prefer to build settings and worlds where magic and the supernatural is something baked in, rather than bolted on. And despite - or because - of...

I play out every combat. The only reason I wouldn't would be if the players say or otherwise make it clear that they want to just handwave the foregone conclusion. That's been very very very rare - I only have a vague memory of it ever happening even once. On the flip side, if I decided not to...

I didn't like the 3.0 version of Haste, but I don't like the 3.5 version either. As noted, the ability to cast two spells in a round is a huge deal, and something I'll discourage, put stoppers on various tricks to allow it, and even blanket-ban (with the possible exception of Time Stop, but even...

Now there's a twisted thought: What strange ways are used by the cultures in your game world to execute criminals? Now I have a world that features the bad guys performing human sacrifices - and executions resemble those sacrifices too closely for either psychological or magical comfort. (You...

I tend to do more and more-exotic world-building for the settings of my read-only fiction than for the settings I run games in. In my game worlds, for example, there will usually be a single moon that's Luna-like in apparent size, brightness, and periodicity, and calendars will be either the...

Underrated: Text. I see lots of geeking out over movies, TV, comic books, and even audiobooks, but give me printed words to read.

For most things I find a binary success mechanic to be perfectly adequate. Either you pick the lock open, or you don't. You find the hidden compartment when searching the desk or you don't. Your assessment as to whether the border guard is open to a bribe is either correct or it isn't. Your jump...

It's a fair cop, guv. Yeah, it's attar of roses or rose otto, but not otto of roses.

And if creating undead requires black onyx gems, why aren't black onyx gems contraband - and why aren't there search & destroy campaigns against them? In my games I normally rule that substitutes and synthetics are available for that sort of magical use. In any case I prefer to move away from...

The poor readability was the chief thing I ranted about.

The aesthetics can be distinguished from the rules. 3.5e is my personal edition preference and while I like the mechanics, I hate the aesthetics of the rulebooks. I've even ranted about those aesthetics back in the day.

I voted "No thanks." In theory I might enjoy a game with psi if the setting was right and the psionic rules were carefully crafted. In practice psionics is even worse than magic in terms of "everyone who is anyone must have psi powers, or at least must invest heavily in defenses vs psionics."...

Transcript? I prefer text over practically any podcast/talking head/audiobook.

The Fantasy Trip, or rather my homebrew based heavily on The Fantasy Trip, with fatigue-St costs for spells. One point I particularly like is that the St cost to cast a spell isn't rigidly fixed to the Intelligence-stat requirement to learn it. One point I particularly dislike in the stock TFT...

I'd say that I want magic to feel magical too - but my mileage significantly varies when it comes to what makes magic feel magical. Magic that's very common and even ubiquitous does feel magical to me. It gives me that "We're not in Kansas anymore!" sense of wonder. Rare magic doesn't; it...