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Leveling up and progress is necessary only if you start at first/low level, where a primary concern is getting up to the Levels That Don't Suck[1]. If you start at high level, progression can be very-slow-to-non-existent. In my experience, combat is optional in theory but required for a good...

Technically it's wands of cure light wounds (I run 3.5e) but in previous editions, and in my TFT based game that uses healing potions as pretty much the sole source of magic healing, I gave them out with a free hand. I don't fight the player desire/insistence on being at full hp at the start...

An alternative interpretation of the term "medieval aliens" is where the native extraterrestrials are medieval with starfaring humans visiting their planet. GURPS (of course) did at least one gaming supplement: GURPS Planet Krishna, based on stories by L Sprague de Camp.

I remember reading the short-story version in Analog and liking it - in part because it lacked a 1340s storyline. It was just the future timeline where "Aliens crash-landed in 1340s Germany, died and were buried there, and we're just now (re)discovering this." When the expanded novelized version...

When running D&D, I prefer the Tolkien species only as PCs - including the furry-footed versions of halflings. In a non-D&D game, I'll willing to deviate from that. In my Etan game, run under a homebrew based heavily on The Fantasy Trip, the 'humankin' (PC) races are humans, elves, half-elves...

I probably ought to check it out, if only to see how the SJG crew did things and to add it to my long bookshelf of GURPS supplements. The reason I haven't already done so is that I became disenchanted with GURPS well before Dungeon Fantasy came out. I go back a long way with GURPS and with TFT...

I'd have to put down a "definite maybe" as an answer for Tolkien, Conan, and other fantasy & science fiction influencing my style of gaming. It did give me a push toward the Simulationist corner of the old USENET threefold, but didn't push me toward the Narrativist corner the way it might have...

Whether I want to play/run "D&D-ish fantasy" depends on what counts as "D&D-ish." Fantasy, yes. D&D-ish, maybe. Some points of personal preference pushing me away from "standard" D&D: 1. Spellcasters with much-less-powerful spells that they can cast more frequently. One of my very early...

My snap ruling would be that if the wizard could see both monsters, then the wizard could target both monsters. Was your take that the wall between the two doors - and (more importantly) partly between the wizard and monsters provided concealment/cover that prevented targeting? If there was...

A touch, I do confess. Although it would be a better touch if you could give examples of common, in practice, hands-free-on-the-belt use of these angle-headed flashlights, as opposed to you-can-use-this-on-your-belt Good Idea Fairy marketing claims.

I can't say what the biggest group is, but the way I run things, and have seen other GMs run things, is to assume a basic "everyman" ability in everything that a PC is not noted as being particularly good at (or in a few cases, particularly bad at). So a PC can attempt to set up a trap using his...

And look at how flashlights are used today. Flashlights are sold with provisions to wear them on your belt, and "flashlight holsters" are a big thing, with a web search revealing lots of people trying to sell them to you. But they're not intended to hold a flashlight that's turned on while on...

Well, our mileage obviously varies here.

The trouble I have with DR in my 3.5e game is that it's difficult-to-impossible to set a DR/[special weapon material] score at a level where lacking a weapon of [special material] becomes a handicap & a challenge instead of something that sidelines a player, or worse renders the entire party SOL...

This presumes that players picking a favored weapon and sticking with it is a flaw and that it's desirable to nudge them into changing it up. My view is "The player has no incentive to switch from using his preferred, iconic weapon? OK, how is this a problem?" It just doesn't annoy me when...

My thoughts My own druthers lean toward crunchy rules. In particular I want crunch that supports fluff descriptions and distinctions between characters. (And hat-tip to Theory of Games, above, rules that support genre and genre conventions.) Some complications are more inherently appealing to...

Yeah, my notes run long too.

You asked for it... The maps are in Coreldraw X3, and I'm not uploading them.

GAZ 1: The Grand Duchy of Karameikos, for B/X. Honorable mentions to GAZ 5: The Elves of Alfheim and GAZ 6: The Dwarves of Rockhome. Also an honorable mention to Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue for 2e.

Not a selfie, but I do have an obligatory internet cat photo: