Choosing a rubric for awarding XP is key, as it shapes how the game is played more than any other aspect.

As I see it, XP can be used as a reward in several different ways:

• XP can be rewarded for completing goals (like Belief Artha in BW, or resolving a Mission in Reign)
• XP may be awarded for overcoming obstacles on the path to a goal (standard D&D)
• XP ( Read more... )

 So, i have this crazy idea to take the stuff I've been talking about, and the stuff Rob Donoghue has been talking about, and see if i can mix them with Pathfinder, and the card-based approach to D&D... easily and fully.

This old post on Campaign Mastery has some interesting background material. It's obvious that Pathfinder has filled the "AD&D ( Read more... )

Earlier I mentioned my problem with D&D's skill system. Thinking about it, however, i'm certain there are several other aspects of the D&D system which bother me.

To me, D&D is the game of fantasy adventure, drawing on Tolkien, yes, but also Leiber, Howard, and Moorcock. It seems like the mix is something like one part High Fantasy, one part Sword ( Read more... )

There are lots of different approaches toward making sure a campaign reflects its setting. A few ideas:

Method 1

• provide Cultural Traits to emphasize cultural and racial differences between characters
• use Background Traits or Professional Classes to display a character's prior life experience
• focus on Classes with rich customization options or lots ( Read more... )

Thinking about design features:

• Fantasy Heartbreaker
• Inspired a bit by Avatar (the cartoon not the movie, err, either of the movies! ;) ), as well as Thief With No Shadow by Emily Gee
• Stats are sliders which move up and down in response to actual play events
• The world is characterized by the 4 elements - elemental peoples & critters, in various ( Read more... )

 PCs are Runemarked:

• marked with a rune from birth
• blessed with superior potential (an extra background trait?)
• thought to be marked by the gods
• sent to live & train with the monks of the "Order of the Runemarked" upon coming of age (for the character's people), or upon discovery of their rune
• trained in esoteric disciplines by the Order, or encouraged ( Read more... )

 I have finally discovered the true source of one of my biggest problems GMing (and perhaps playing) D&D, thanks to the always wonderful Alexandrian.

According to his analysis the 5th level d20 character represents the peak of human achievement!

I can work with this.

The implications are fascinating; the whole world must be the heroes's playground ( Read more... )

The simple fact that the questions raised by this article on the excellent Campaign Mastery site have no straight-forward, staring you in the face answer just underlines for me how entirely flawed the D&D skill system really is.

It's a good article, with a lot of math thrown around and a number of approaches to the problem (and its sub-problems, ( Read more... )

John's Wicked Chili

Ingredients

2 pounds lean ground beef
1 (46 fluid ounce) can tomato juice
1 (29 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15 ounce) can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cups minced onion
1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1/4 cup brown sugar or honey (or both!)
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ( Read more... )

 "I find Cherryh kind of a hard read in general, but well worth the attempt. It took me five tries to get past the first few chapters of the Faded Sun trilogy. She is so far on the cynical end of the scale that it becomes hard to actually find characters to sympathize with. I think she's a very important author because of that. JMS (Babylon 5 ( Read more... )