Recent content by Retreater

I liked it. My wife (who came in with Fury Road) has loved both films and is turning into a big fan. I thought it could've used more than 1 good chase scene, being a Mad Max movie. Mostly just people on dirt bikes.

I've trashed most of it recently. I thought there was no use dwelling on it. As I accumulate more, I'll share it.

Old me (as new DM circa 1990-2000): Yes. I would track the AC and HP of heroes behind the screen. I would roll behind the screen. I would let all damage be done for dramatic purpose - to get the heroes get damaged "just enough." Everything was fudged. The only deaths that would happen would be...

I'd have to learn 5e. I've really struggled with running the system in a balanced way. Most of the encounters just didn't work. I think it's largely the encounters per day assumption built into the game.

You can flank or otherwise help give a bonus to an ally. You have more than 1 option of an attack you can do. You won't drop in a single hit. Everybody has basically the same number of actions they can try. (Like, people hate not having Bonus actions in 5e when other people can make extra moves...

My group struggled with the dividing by 4, comparing wounds to Toughness and Armor Piercing, hitting and not causing damage, remembering to track the Wounds in the death spiral. We tried it for about 2 months (playing Holler), and most players didn't get it. It was also very slow - strange, I...

Right. I just don't want to run into a Ship of Theseus situation where I have pages of houserules that confuse everyone. In that case, why not just play another game? For example, I know with B/X they'd want separate race/class, higher power level, greater tactical depth, unified d20 mechanics...

I mean ... I'm looking into the new systems to decide one I like well enough to pick to try to teach them.

It might be. I have Hero Quest. And this dungeon crawling/RPG hybrid called Dungeon Universalis.

Re: Shadowdark ... I have Old School Essentials and Swords & Wizardry. I've been hesitant to consider B/X-style retroclones. My group is resistant about dungeon survival games where starting characters can have 3 HP, +0 to hit, one 1st level spell, and can get one-shot by a single goblin...

For fantasy games... Dragonbane Castles & Crusades I'd like to consider some different genres as well for more of a palette cleanse. I have Call of Cthulhu (which I would probably run with Pulp Cthulhu overlay) Would like to find a streamlined sci-fi game to consider. (Maybe Esper Genesis? I...

I've got it. It just seems that the games I'm running are too complex to be able to take advantage of the tips. So it's a desperate need for me to streamline and run an easier game - or to take a more complete break.

Genealogy is fascinating. My career in libraries started in a genealogical research department. Now my job is basically curating the physical and digital collections of the entire library. So I guess when I say one of my hobbies is collecting vinyl - my job is basically collecting hundreds of...

A very underappreciated console, IMO. I didn't get one until years after the fact (I went in the PS2 direction). There are some great arcade ports on Dreamcast. Record of Lodoss War is also a good RPG for the time.

The market certainly got wild for video games. My favorite system to collect for is the Dreamcast. (It's not even that old compared to other systems.)