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To answer the original question: Castles & Crusades (ascending AC and saves linked to attributes were two things they wanted to do but either couldn't do for backwards compatibility or couldn't work out how to do) with a little less 1E/Gygaxian feel, a bit more polish, maybe not quite so unified...

I haven't read it since the initial release, but I have to agree. It's not like Lord Toede, which is off-center but feels like DL (given that Jeff Grubb was part of the original team, that's no surprise). Siege . . . is just . . . odd. Not necessarily bad, but odd. But then, that may be...

In fairness, that got leaked long before the Trolls wanted to announce it. On the main topic, I hope to see a strong family resemblance, but D&DN will probably not be quite so 1E in its aesthetic and philosophy. The CKG's ramblings on the importance of equipment left me cold, for example, and...

I want to be able to limit the paladin to Good, Lawful, or Lawful/Good alignment as an option--there are certain genres and game types where the 'shining knight' archetype fits better than the martial/divine champion of 'pick a god, any god'. I don't need it as the baseline, but I'd like it to...

I think it was in issue #264 (October 1999).

I've been seeing C&C echoes in it for a few weeks, actually, once the announcement was made and it became more obvious that last year's L&L columns were brainstorming for it. The possibility of a C&C-style baseline with more options and access to all of WotC's IP and resources sounds very good...

Well, not only is the environment different, but the state of information is different as well--a few playtesters took the announcement as meaning (at least for a while) that the NDA was lifted, so we were getting a lot of hints in those early days. The information flow is much more controlled...

Monte Cook started his career at Iron Crown Enterprises (publishers of the HERO System from the mid-80s to late 90s) and did some Champions work. The resemblances have been noted, and the 'creeping HEROization' of D&D was a phrase thrown around for a little while during 3E's midpoint. I'd...

I try to forget my contribution to Forum. ;) :blush: (#193, May 1993). I was 13, working out some issues with my local gaming group, and not entirely fair or accurate in doing so. I prefer to look back on my published articles. :)

Combat, Exploration, and Role-Playing--the three key pillars that cover about 90% of the game experience, and that they want to really get right and make sure all classes can participate in to some extent. (The other 10% is probably niche modules like crafting, mass combat, dominion...

WotC reversed that earlier this week. But it's about 15 minutes to launch and I don't see any signs of live streaming. Maybe we'll get a podcast recording later.

I own the Digest Version of the CKG, and assuming they use the same method, it's the exact same text and layout scaled down to the digest-sized pages. It's not unreadable, but it can be a bit of a strain. The eBook versions for Kindle and Nook are only $10, so if you have one of those, that...

Bear in mind that we don't have any real idea as to the parameters of the NDA yet. It may simply be to give WotC a few days to get their own information and spin out there and slow down the flood on the Internet, or to prevent full character sheets or the whole module from being reposted.

That post is two weeks old. WotC tweeted yesterday that the seminars would not in fact require NDAs.

I'm not entirely sure about that--some of the comments that have been made about 4E can be read that way, and WotC has never managed to launch a new edition without tearing down its immediate predecessor. (Although with a sample size of 2, it's tough to extrapolate. :) ) You, at least, can...

True, it didn't start with 2E--but 2E is when a) it became the standard instead of a shortcut/alternative to using the combat matrices, and b) TSR would have had the first real opportunity to change to the ascending AC approach or something different.

There is evidence for this. Back in the days when BD&D and AD&D were being produced simultaneously, it appeared that many newer players felt more comfortable with AD&D and its apparent 'rules for everything', while more experienced players were more comfortable with BD&D and its looser, more...

THAC0 was probably the best solution that could be adopted when you take into account all of TSR's design goals for 2nd Edition: 1. Streamline the game, and 2. Keep all the 1st Edition material as 'plug in and play' friendly as possible. The designers seriously considered moving to the...

I was actually thinking more of their run on DRAGON and what I heard about the DUNGEON APs--I was getting tired of "Demons! Demons! Demons!" by the end there. :)

Then why make it a distinct class called assassin? This was part of 2E's reasoning for dropping it, along with the tendency of immature players to take the "I'm a thief, therefore I should steal from other party members" school of thought to the extreme, which apparently turned a few people...