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While there are definitely major blunders, some aspects could also be positive. The Dragonlance books, much though I may decry the quality of the original trilogy, were a major success, and paved the way for Williams-era TSR pivoting to fiction and becoming the leading fantasy publisher in the...

Yup. You CAN make polymorph-type spells work and be balanced, but it requires a fair bit of complexity and setting numerous hard limits.

Indeed. Sam has come in for a ton of well-earned plaudits, especially in the wake of the movies, as perhaps the greatest hero of the story. He not only tried to carry on the quest by himself but was able to willingly give up the ring! But I think the movies undersell Frodo's quiet heroism...

Fair point that 3E at least expected you to acquire a protection item (amulet or ring) to give you a flat across the board enhancement bonus to all saves. So by 14th you'd probably have a +3 item, anyway, so the disparity would still be 10 points, but the floor would be higher. But 5E keeps...

The Battlesystem boxed set was expensive? That's interesting. I have the 1E set, and it's definitely less fancy than many of the big boxed sets they released during the Williams regime. It does have a glossy full color booklet with photos of miniatures, as I recall, and HUNDREDS of cardboard...

Along the lines of Braunsteins, though, back in the 90s I did used to LARP. And one of the distinguishing features of LARP games was usually that there was a huge number of players to a small fraction of that number of staff/referees and NPCs. Say, 20-50 players for a Vampire: The Masquerade...

There was also the whole Birthright campaign setting which was designed to center on rulership and domain play even from low levels, but was never popular at all. I loved the aesthetics and the details it gave of the campaign world, but it seems like the audience was never there for this style...

I'm a few years older. Started with BECMI then rapidly jumped to AD&D, played AD&D a lot in the early to mid 90s. I had a break from it when I got into LARPing and then wargaming, probably '97ish to around 2002. Then got back in with 3E when some of my (5-odd years older) wargaming buddies...

I was going to mention. I picked this up but still haven't read it, as I understand it's very autobiographical and a bit short on good history. But that a big part of why I bothered buying it is that I heard Ewalt managed to get Williams to talk to him, shortly before the more serious...

Yeah, this is a tough one. There are at least two or three big and otherwise well-respected creators who aren't usually LOUD about it, but who turned out to be proudly transphobic or otherwise bigoted reactionaries. And while there are certainly sub-sets of the scene which are proudly and...

3E, for the record. When I first got into it 4E was new, but the scene had been around for several years. Dragonsfoot.org forum custom was to refer to 3E and 3.5 as TETSNBN (The Edition That Shall Not Be Named) and then 4E subsequently as YAETSNBN. We know the scene first started getting...

NG/LE combo, baby!

Good post. I watched a video essay recently on flaws in Samwise (for example his love for Frodo contains an element of jealousy, and overprotectiveness taken to the level of suspicion) and in a moment when Gollum was nearly redeemed. It centered on his internal struggle after being "betrayed"...

I was down with Covid from Saturday evening the 19th through Friday the 25th, but managed to get outside and get some sun and a little walking late in it. This Saturday the 26th I got back to the gym for what was supposed to be a light session, but wound up doing some elliptical, machine chest...

Casting in OD&D, B/X and AD&D precludes moving in the same round, although magic items can usually be used while moving. In playing a lot of OSR in the last several years that's presented a lot of interesting tactical limitations. Making it a full-round action so allowing a 5' step in 3.x is...

I still liked season 2, but Rome is a damn fine answer. And always deserves to be talked about more. Heroes is probably THE answer, though.

Most of those folks aren't carrying every day, though. I know lots of folks who own, but only a fraction of them EDC. It's more common for folks who are into them to have a collection at home, for home defense, target shooting, hunting, etc. Carrying every day can be a significant pain...

How are you going to do Old Man Willow like that?! :LOL:

Had PT yesterday, and the gym last night. Also started doing my at home PT exercises in the morning, after breakfast. Gym was elliptical warmup, three sets of machine chest press with a drop set on the third to match the prior rep count, three sets of cable row, pushing for extra reps on the...

The first is fine, but in 1E only thief functions were restricted by heavier armor for multiclass characters. On that one you're thinking of 2E.