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The point buy options aren't all balanced, and indeed intentionally so. However, the optimum assignment is not entirely obvious - it will generally depend on the character's class(es) and other factors. Point buy is better than the standard array - because most characters have a strong...

I was in a place called "The Newsroom" on Leith Street yesterday which was surprisingly pleasant - despite being the last weekend before Christmas it was surprisingly calm. The other place we usually end up is the Guildford Arms. (Sorry - I don't have much experience with pubs or restaurants in...

Swear vociferously. Then play the character. (I haven't been with a group that rolls stats in a long time. I don't think I'd play with a DM who tried to insist on it, and given the choice I would strongly tend to go for point buy/standard array. However, I have run games for players who prefer...

No gaming at all - no running games, no playing games, no prepping a campaign, no new products bought (but see below), no books read. I've posted maybe a dozen times here, but for the most part I'm out, for a while at least (no idea how long "a while" is). While I didn't buy any new products, I...

Isn't the correct answer to that "both"? :)

It's the "adding stuff" that I like to see - I'm not bothered if it's then later ignored or contradicted by primary sources. If nothing else, shows like Star Trek and Doctor Who reality ignore, change, and discard bits of their own established continuity, so it's too much to ask that they honour...

A good licensed game will construct the mechanics to suit the setting (rather than just shoe-horning the setting into an existing set of mechanics). I generally found that running Star Wars d6 or Firefly felt like those respective universes, in a way that other games tended not to. (In...

Very little. What I lack is time. So the thing I need from publishers, I guess, is materials (notably adventure materials) that I can use without modification and without needing much preparation. Those campaign-in-a-book adventures that WotC and Paizo produce are great... except that they...

Sadly, I think this is probably correct.

Are they? Or is that what they want you to believe?

I'm increasingly getting the feeling that the next Bond hasn't been born yet.

It sounds like a fun campaign. It sounds like an even more fun campaign to run with two groups concurrently. I'd suggest running it for characters of low enough level that magical travel isn't an issue, or at least doesn't totally trivialize the challenge. I'd also suggest it's best run with a...

If you're talking strictly about maps, the main things seem to be multiple entrances, multiple possible paths as often as possible, loops and branches, and multiple links between levels. Oh, and secret areas (though ideally these should be nice-to-have areas, not must-find ones). I do also like...

There are distilleries in most places, though a lot of them are much of a muchness. Possibly of interest is the Clydeside Distillery in Glasgow - it has the distinction of being both the newest (I think) and also built into older buildings on the river, so you can see something of Glasgow's...

Whereabouts in Scotland? It's a fairly big place. :D

The absolute best potatoes I've had are roasted, so that would be my vote. However, I agree with this:

I've done both theatre of the mind and carefully drawn grids. On balance, I vastly prefer TotM except where the system strongly rewards tactical grid-based combat (as in later 3e and, especially 4e).

In general, apply each where the fun lies. In the case of traps, I'd suggest building in things like tells and other clues for the players... but if you find you have a group that just hates that stuff, default to rolling the dice. (But I'd suggest going with one or the other - if the group...

Right now? AD&D 1st Edition - it's the only major version of the game that I've never run. For the most part, though, I'd be happy with more or less any reasonably-crunchy game (or edition of D&D). I'd probably default to 5e or one of the near-clones, due to recent familiarity, but am not...

I'm afraid I can't see how to construct a setting that both matches those criteria and is different enough from the existing settings for me to be interested in using it.