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Honestly, it's just the picture. If we're playing a game that requires scaling, it's easy to say "You want that white dragon to be the end boss? Okay, well, it's ancient, so it's a lot tougher than you might expect."

Villains are an important part of every RPG campaign. The expectation is that the Game Master will devise some sort of compelling Big Bad which will wow the players and drive them to adventure. While this can be the case, the Game Master can take some steps to have players help with the heavy...

While I do seem to review a lot of OSR stuff here, there's plenty of stuff that I read and don't write up. A lot of OSR stuff is guilty of brushing off design flaws with nostalgia. There's always going to be a little bit of nostalgia in these things but some layer on a thick coating of nostalgia...

That's correct. If you love OSE or Shadowdark and want just the setting bits for one of those games, that's the one you want.

One of the main hallmarks of OSR design is minimalist design. These games want to call back to that feeling of cracking open an ancient boxed set, rolling up a few characters and getting players into a fantasy world without a lot of worrying about rules, optimization or ten page character...

I reviewed the Super Skrull one here and the Murderworld one here. I also liked th Kang campaign but it is admittedly a bit sprawling compared to these.

I try to give the summary line before spoiler on adventure reviews. Sometimes it's smoother than others.

One of the theoretical advantages of tie-in media is being able to coordinate releases across multiple mediums. Shadows of the Empire for Star Wars is a famous example, releasing books, soundtracks, video games, comics and even a sourcebook for the classic West End Games Star Wars Roleplaying...

As soon as the players hear that detail about the dog I imagine they decide to start a cupcake business instead of heading into certain death.

One of the main ways that most RPG players classify their games is "gritty versus cinematic". Gritty games tend to feature rules where the hit points are low, the dice are cruel and the game rewards clever execution over trusting in character abilities. Cinematic games lean into genre emulation...

Correct. There's a faded battle image on the end papers and not, say, d20 Weird Things At The Bottom Of A Dragon Hoard. Slappers only, sir.

It's somewhere within the 10-100% range (helpful, I know!) There are several ability and spell descriptions that remain unchanged from the 14 Handbook. Though I will never understand why they didn't call this the 50th Anniversary edition. Much less awkward and works with the chapter opener art...

I would assume that clicking on a clearly marked review makes it pretty obvious that it's my opinion.

If you're talking about mixing and matching with old classes, you have to be mindful because abilities get shifted around. If you're talking about running with all 2024 classes in, say, Curse of Strahd, it could work, though I assume that the Monster Manual will have its own set of edits...

That's my terminology, not theirs. It's a lot easier to type than "Dude Who Hits One Target Hard" and "Dude Who Moves Other Dudes On The Map" Although there are a couple bits of 4e that have more obviously returned. Welcome back, Blooded condition! I guess this makes me... sunglasses A Flass...

After three years of prognosticating, hand wringing and trash talking, the next version of the Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook is here. The ruleset formerly known as #OneD&D has arrived as 2024 Player’s Handbook and although it’s set for a general release on September 17th, the displacer...