Category: Hot Buttons
| April 6, 2012 | Posted by John Arcadian |
Ok, I’ve been contemplating this one for a while, and I don’t think it is actually too controversial, but I can see where it might open a can of worms. I don’t mean anything here disrespectfully, and I open any and all constructive feedback. The other day I was reading gaming blogs and articles that were filtered into my feed reader. I came across this article by Jon Schindehette about revamping the logo for D&D next. Being a person who is sometimes familiar with design…
| March 5, 2012 | Posted by Walt Ciechanowski |
Back in ye olden times when dice were marked with crayon, notebooks were spiral-bound, and the bombs were going to drop any minute now, what a player character purchased in town was often more important than anything else on her character sheet. Various tools and gear were used in creative ways while we pillaged our way through dungeons, from our 10′ poles locating pit traps to our 50′ of rope we needed to get out of said pit traps (I have a sneaking suspicion the…
| March 2, 2012 | Posted by John Arcadian |
I’ve come across this phenomenon a few times as a Game Master, and it has always presented a new and interesting challenge in how to resolve it. I recently came across it again, so I figured I would write it up as a hot button and see what our Gnome Stew community has to say about it. Picture this scenario: Player: Ok. I’ve got my character all set. He is a badass who used to work for the mafia. He left in a blaze of…
| August 15, 2011 | Posted by Walt Ciechanowski |
I’ve seen it a thousand times. Two PCs are facing a problem and some variation of the following exchange occurs: GM (looking at Player 1): What do you do? Player 1: I’m going to do X. Player 2 (glancing at Player 1′s character sheet): X? Are you kidding. You have Y, why wouldn’t you use that? Player 1: Fine, I’ll use Y then. This is a classic example of a player using OPC (other player’s character (sheet)). Sometimes, OPC is used to help teach a…
| June 23, 2011 | Posted by Walt Ciechanowski |
Should players expect that all scenes/encounters be defeatable? I don’t play D&D and its derivitaves all that often but when I do I notice that players tend to approach every encounter with an expectation that their character sheets have enough on them to get through it. If a monster or monsters confront the characters, the question is often not “should we face this or flee” but rather “how many rounds will it take us to defeat it?” That’s not to say that balanced encounters aren’t…
| January 11, 2011 | Posted by John Arcadian |
Have you ever had this happen at a game? “I roll to see if I know anything about ancient ankthyrian architecture and where they might have hidden a secret door. Crap, didn’t get it. Let me just try that again…” or how about? “Ok, I know I’ve rolled 8 times to try to force the door, but the 9th time is the charm!” or what about this golden oldie? “Ok, we want to avoid a fight. I’ll try to talk them down since I am…
| December 6, 2010 | Posted by Walt Ciechanowski |
Some of my current freelancing projects involve All for One: Regime Diabolique, which uses the Ubiquity rules system (pioneered in Hollow Earth Expedition). Under this system, you roll a number of dice and count the “evens” as successes. It doesn’t matter what dice you roll; indeed, you could even use coins or playing cards if you wanted to. At first, my players thought it was pretty sweet that they got to choose their favorite dice and just count evens. However, when I picked up a set…
