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    • Evil_Reverend is now friends with Bronnzai and 4 other people.

      Monday at 6:26am
    • darkelf223 voted in the poll, "Feat Choice".

      May 2 at 10:17am
    • Avoiding Choice Traps
      A couple years ago, I started a new 4th Edition campaign for some friends. I...
      May 2 at 9:59am
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      Having a feat do work in all three categories seems like a bad idea. I like the idea at the end, feats for combat, mostly, Skills for non-combat scenarios generally. I'm not too picky -- but packing that much design into each feat seems dangerous and potentially lame.
      May 12, 2012 6:16 PM
      I don't know, actually. I'd say, a feat is a feat is a feat. And by that I mean, it depends on the kind of game the players want to run what's useful and what's useless. You can always give more powerful feats special prerequisites like a high enough class level or stat, or divide them into 2 or more feats that together achieve the desired effect...
      My line of reasoning is this: if you have feats exclusively dedicated to combat, and then something different for exploration, and then...


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      May 15, 2012 8:47 AM
    • Tone and Edition
      A few years ago, I woke up and realized what I thought was fantasy...
      April 27 at 2:15pm
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      2 people like this blog post.
      No, no, no. You're putting labels where there's no need for them, Evil_Reverend. Put all the races you want and manage to fit into the core product(s), starting from the core ones, who'll always be the core ones, and spreading out to dragonborn, tieflings, etc. Don't lump them together in arbitrary definitions of what should be common and what should be rare, they're not MtG cards. Just write in bold bright letters -these are some races you could use. All of them are absolutely optional. Your...

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      May 13, 2012 7:19 AM
      I'd like to answer the last question. No, this sort of thing does not keep me up at night!!
      I think we agonise far too much about what IS and ISN'T D&D. The ruleset should be able to accommodate all types of fantasy that people want to play. Just because it is published doesn't mean you have to use it or play it. I don't like the shardmind or the wilden, so they don't exist as character race options in my world. I do however, like the story elements that the 4E dragonborn and tiefling...


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      May 15, 2012 4:51 PM
    • Backgrounds and Themes: A Closer Look
      A little while ago, I pulled back the curtain so I could show you what we...
      April 20 at 7:49am
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      If skills are unhooked for classes and tied more closely to attributes as the devs have suggested, I think it could work quite well. Players will pay attention to their characters' personal strengths and weaknesses when planning out skills rather than being nearly locked in by career path. I'd love to see built-in support for the diplomatic fighter, the sneaky wizard, and practically anything else without needing supplemental materials.
      May 1, 2012 7:54 AM
      Yes! Do that. Don't have the class be the only thing that delivers flavour and crunch. Spread them out. Exactly like that. Very cool!
      Also give us options if we don't want to have another theme at 6th level etc. Like, "You can select another theme or simply x feats". Which the sys you're delineating already does, because themes and backgrounds are optional and we can just choose their fiddly bits ourselves, or build our own, right? (I dearly hope so! It should be like that if I read...


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      May 13, 2012 6:26 AM
    • kay007 voted in the poll, "Even more crazy or new stuff (elaborate in the comments)".

      April 20 at 5:34am
      1 person likes this poll.
    • kay007 voted in the poll, "Gain noncombat bonuses in the pursuit of evil or the protection of others ".

      April 20 at 5:34am
      1 person likes this poll.
    • kay007 voted in the poll, "Resist damage from evil foes ".

      April 20 at 5:34am
      1 person likes this poll.
    • kay007 voted in the poll, "Smite evil foes ".

      April 20 at 5:34am
      1 person likes this poll.
    • kay007 voted in the poll, "Protect his or her allies ".

      April 20 at 5:34am
      1 person likes this poll.
    • kay007 voted in the poll, "Be an expert at mounted combat ".

      April 20 at 5:33am
      1 person likes this poll.
    • Chris24601 voted in the poll, "Simulating Combat".

      April 13 at 5:26pm
      3 people like this poll.
    • strider13x voted in the poll, "Morale".

      April 13 at 5:24pm
      1 person likes this poll.
    • Run Away!
      When 3rd Edition hit the shelves, the morale rules disappeared. I can only...
      April 13 at 9:42am
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      1 person likes this blog post.
      I like the idea of having morale be a part of strategy, for instance rewarding more complex tactics than kill them with focus fire. It would be cool too if classes even had abilities based on this, for instance a dark psion could create an aura that lowers his enemy's morale, or a particularly brutal blow from a fighter might lower the enemy morale more than normal.
      The problem with this, though, is it could advantage or disadvantage certain characters depending on the enemies they face....


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      April 27, 2012 4:05 PM
      No, morale rules are not really needed. I would ignore them. If you wanna make them an optional system, do so, of course -but optional, so we can choose to discard it.
      Instead, tell players that people run away. All the time. Or surrender. Or ask for a parley. It's true. Make it clear for everyone. Teach the DMs that no one really wants to die, unless they're mindless automatons or they're crazy or there's some other reason. I -always- think about having the opponents run away. Give us...


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      May 12, 2012 5:01 AM
    • Beyond Class and Race
      I want to play a fighter. I want to play a dwarf. I want to kick the crap...
      April 6 at 10:47am
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      I'm looking forward to seeing these ideas in the play test. It's the type of customization and flexibility I've been looking for. Although, I am wondering if there will be race-specific backgrounds and themes as well. (Or perhaps these could be found in racial splatbooks.)
      May 4, 2012 3:37 PM
      Sounds great. Remember to emphasize that themes and backgrounds are just packets of skills and feats and thus you can just do without them and choose whatever the heck you like. If you wanna keep "races" simple (and I don't know why you should with -all- of them, but OK) you might also want to have "racial" backgrounds and themes.
      BTW, once in a while you could revolutionize some aspects of the game with a new rules module. Who wants to use it does, who doesn't leaves it alone. Better than...


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      May 12, 2012 2:42 AM
    • verglaze voted in the poll, "Raise Dead".

      March 30 at 12:18pm
      1 person likes this poll.
    • Bow_Seat voted in the poll, "Do you like Rob’s proposal?".

      March 28 at 11:38am
      1 person likes this poll.
    • Sneak Attack and Backstab
      Last time I talked about sneak attack, I asked whether people felt the whole...
      March 28 at 11:32am
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      I'm not sure whether I misread this, or many others did, but the way I read what you said, the players aren't trading an accuracy modifier of their own for the sneak attack, but rather offering the opportunity for the enemy to have advantage on you (and thus return a sneak attack).
      The way I read it, it was more giving the enemy an advantage because you dared to try to aim for a vital point that specifically. In this respect it might be worth the small trade-off. You lower your defenses...


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      May 4, 2012 2:35 AM
      No no no no. Combat maneuvers and weapon specialization are fighter stuff. You can make them accessible to any class if you want (and you should) but since you got classes, it makes sense that fighters pay less for them (like a feats special offer at the local mall, whatever). Widgets are good stuff for rogues, though, way to go.
      And you got it right when you said -everybody can sneak attack. That's exactly the point. Let me rephrase it though -everybody can hit vulnerable spots.
      ...


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      May 9, 2012 10:47 AM
    • verglaze voted in the poll, "Iconic Cleric Poll".

      March 15 at 12:58pm
    • verglaze voted in the poll, "Sneak Attack".

      March 8 at 12:56pm
      1 person likes this poll.

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    About Me

      About Me: I am a contract designer for Wizards of the Coast working from my office in Murfreesboro Tennessee. I've been exclusive with Wizards for several years now. Before that, I was a game designer and developer for Green Ronin Publishing, where I managed d20, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and A Song of Ice and Fire RPG. In addition, I've also contributed design to d20 game books for Fantasy Flight Games (Grimm and Midnight), AEG (World's Largest Dungeon), Goodman Games (Power Gamer's Strategy Guide), Paradigm Concepts (Witch Hunter), Black Industries (Dark Heresy), Necromancer Games, Kenzer & Co, and a few others.

      For more information, free mechanics, and a window into my head, be sure to check out www.robertjschwalb.com
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      TV Shows: British Crime Dramas are the best. Inspector Lewis, Foyle's War, etc.
      Books, Comics and Graphic Novels: Tad Williams, George RR Martin, Steven Erikson, Terry Pratchett
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Comments


    Hey thanks!

    Way back in 2nd edition, I ran Dragon Mountain as the capstone to my campaign. Bobby played Mourne, a half-drow from an Underdark city very similar to another famous drow city. Mourne came across a cursed magic item that nudged him closer to undeath each time he drew on its power. Mourne was full-blown undead by the time the PCs reach DM. He managed well against the vile kobolds, but was ultimately killed when caught in one of the many trapped rooms (the one with the boiling water iirc). Although the character died, he later became an important NPC in the next campaign when I substituted Mourne for Acererak in Return to Tomb of Horrors.

    Evil_Reverend
    May 24, 2010
    11:22 AM

    Great Shades of Darkness article!


    Care to provide more detail on this:

    Rob dedicates this article to Bobby
    Turman, who lost Mourne to kobolds in Dragon
    Mountain Reading a Power: many years ago.




    Thanks, David S.

    davidgiven
    May 24, 2010
    9:08 AM

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