Search results

What he said, at least for D&D. I've always found Greyhawk to be the best mix of sword-and-sorcery "salty" with high fantasy "sweet". The fact that it's inherently designed to be a setting in which dungeons make sense (after a fashion) make it work well for a campaign, as well. I also enjoy...

The Temple on the Elemental Borderlands A small temple on the frontier is the PCs' home base for forays into the elemental planes to defeat the forces of Elemental Chaos threatening civilization... What made the Mad Hermit mad? One word: Tharizdun. -The Gneech ("Bree yark!")

Neat! But why doesn't it show up in the Monsters by CR page? I'd have used it already if it did! -The Gneech :cool:

In order to make the beholder more viable as a "solo," I gave it an interrupt at the beginning of each enemy's turn; other than that it's a pretty straightforward port. I'd be interested in anyone's thoughts on it ... I'm wondering if it may be overpowered. Beholder (Eye Tyrant) CR 13 (XP...

This probably points to one of the central philosophical differences between the two, I suspect. In REH, you're worthy to be king because you're awesome; in JRRT, you're worthy to be king because it's the last thing in the world you want to be. Can you imagine Sam as king of Gondor? It'd be...

Random thought: probably the closest JRRT "sociopolitical" analogue to Conan (being an outsider barbarian) would be either a Dunlending or one of the Woses. So I could see a mental exercise where Ghan-Buri-Ghan lops off Denethor's head and names himself King of Gondor -- and how would the M-E...

Wrap them in a titanium shell and you've got Daleks. -The Gneech "EX-TER-MI-NATE!"

I don't know that you'll find a slave, homeless person, or person brought up from the gutter in JRRT at all ... the concepts don't really work in the context of M-E, especially in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Eriador was devastated by a plague, leaving the land largely depopulated ... there...

At the end of his life, REH was starting to move away from fantasy and horror and towards westerns and contemporary adventure tales; I've heard from REH scholars that those later pieces were some of his best work, but as they're nowhere near as famous as Conan, Solomon Kane, etc., they don't get...

Standard 10'x10'. :) -The Gneech :cool:

I always enjoy a good analysis of REH and/or JRRT (and HPL for that matter), but I do have a couple of objections to raise... I don't know where you get this last line. Who in the world could possibly be more trustworthy than Sam Gamgee? And who, by the end of the story, is more respected and...

I know this doesn't directly answer your question, but as a GM my general policy is to make a "PC-level" version of a weirdie critter and let the player play that, instead of trying to directly use the Bestiary version. So for a centaur, I might go with: It's not feasible for all creature...

Actually, it's not a good/evil axis. The actual theme behind REH's work is that civilization can't last, not that it's evil ... I don't think there's anything in there that's held up as "good." The best you can hope for is to enjoy what fleeting time you have before your flame is snuffed out...

Speaking as someone who went off to Pathfinder, I can only say that I don't feel I can "rely" on WotC for more than a product or two at a time ... they seem to lurch around from idea to idea without any discernible plan. And gaming, for a hardcore fan anyway, is a long-term investment. I've been...

Please do! :) Make note that this is a work in progress, so any "in play" feedback would be welcome. -The Gneech :cool:

I updated the initial post with a new link, including one to a larger, printable version. (I've been working on updating my website, so the PDF plan got delayed.) re: damage, the values I picked were based on the Pathfinder monster creation tables ... you'd have to ask the folks at Paizo where...

Boo for April Fools articles. The Dungeon Tiles for iPad concept is brilliant and deserves to be a real thing! -The Gneech :cool:

I like the new look for trolls and troglodytes, and I like that cyclopses are mentioned at all (but as fey, what the--?); beyond that, I'm not particularly keen. -The Gneech :cool:

Well, Pathfinder is designed to be "backwards compatible" so I would expect it to work for 3.5. That said, PfRPG is a bit more generous will skills all around, so you might want to keep the listed DCs for "specialists" and for everyone else knock the CR down a couple of notches. And yes, a...

Well, in that case, I wouldn't understand either. :) Especially if we're retrofitting "sandbox" from videogames back to tabletop RPGs. In just about every videogame I've ever seen, the world "spawns" in predetermined ways, instead of just running along and amusing itself until you get there...