The time that is given

After re-reading my previous post, I had another one of those mini-epiphanies: Fourth Edition Dungeons and Dragons can never play like older editions of Dungeons and Dragons because they’ve added a layer of rules in order to give players options during certain situations.

Let me explain, older games, and I’m talking second edition and older (I wouldn’t include the Player’s Options books near the end of 2e btw.), had only a few things listed in the rules that a PC could do in any given situation. And the further you go back in the rules, the fewer things you’re going to find. Now, I’m a UX designer by trade (User Experience) and I’m a HUGE fan of simple. If you can hit the mark with a simple solution without adding extra layers of complexity then you’ve done your job. Continue Reading »

We had another Tuesday night fourth edition session last night with the “regular” group and I came to a conclusion: I’m not a huge fan of the way Wes runs his game. Now… This isn’t to say that I’m not enjoying myself or that Wes isn’t necessarily a good DM, rather it’s that I find that I have a few stylistic differences with the guy.

Instead of writing a long diatribe about the game in general, I think I’d like to list those things that I think Wes does well and those things that I think I would do differently. Continue Reading »

OK, for those of you who have played a role playing game where there’s an incremental or numerical value representing intelligence you’ll follow this short discourse quite easily. For those who haven’t, well go out and pick up a game of Dungeons and Dragons.

How many times have you ever come up with this great idea or retort or question and then paused as you glanced at your character sheet…”Oh whoa…my intelligence score is pretty damned low. I wouldn’t think of that.” and begrudgingly dropped the idea?  I certainly know that I have. Which brings into question the idea of a numerical score for intelligence. Continue Reading »

In my last post I spoke a bit about the structure of a game that I would like to run. For simplicity’s sake I’m going to call this Dungeons and Dragons, but it’s quite likely that I’m going to be using the Castles and Crusades rule set from Troll Lord Games. (Link) Why? Well, in a nutshell, it’s a set of rules that encompasses a lot of things that I like about “new school” (additive AC for instance) with the open ended feeling of the old school genre. Continue Reading »

Now, how to begin this…how to start? Hmmm. How about with something current; My gaming group and 4th Edition.

A little history, if you’ll allow me, might help to illuminate the motivation behind the post. Simply put, I’ve been playing RPGs (Role Playing Games) since the late 1970’s. Dungeons and Dragons is my game of choice, and that’s a long long time to spend with a hobby. Long enough to become pretty well acquainted. I get the game. I mean, I “get it”. Or at least, I thought I did. Continue Reading »