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If a traditional party of 4 (Cleric, Fighter, MU, Thief) were to kill their way to 2nd level, preying upon only that weakest of traditional D&D monsters, the lowly Kobold, how many deaths would they have on their collective conscience by the time they all hit 2nd level?  The answer in 5e, is 100, even (cool, huh?), but I wondered how that compared to other eds:



So, I know I'm a notorious 4venger and all, but this one is just out of curiousity, and it led to some surprises.  

For one thing, I couldn't find the 0D&D 'collector set' I received as a gift in 1989 - big surprise there, but if anyone wants to do the same for that, it might be fun.  

For another, going through the numbers for 1e, I was forced to consider treasure types, because 1e gave exp for collecting money, 1 per...

Let's start by paraphrasing Winston Churchill: hitpoints are the worst possible system for tracking health except all others that have been tried.

Hitpoints are terrible for verisimilitude and an awful reflection of reality. They’re also not particularly good at emulating cinematic combat.

This old argument has come up again and again (and again and again), most recently resurfacing on various message boards due to the continued warlord debates and the option of martial healing. This seems like a topical discussion to write about.

Are Hitpoints Fatigue or Health?

Yes.

And no. Here’s an amusing flowchart on the topic.

Jumping right into the debate, are hitpoints a measure of energy, fatigue, luck, and skill? No. No amount of skill can stop a fire from burning you, or acid

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With the design of 5th edition still underway, I wanted to rant a little about the ability (or rather the current inability) to add PC classes to monsters. Being able to make an orc into an orc fighter is pretty vital to my enjoyment of the game, mostly because making a classed creature equates with the DM’s ability to make NPC opponents.

This is a topic with some baggage, which needs to be discussed and acknowledged: past attempts have led to preconceived assumptions of what mixing classes and monsters means.

What Has Come Before

Almost no monsters had classes in the first couple editions. You had monsters and you had PCs and the rules were sketchy when you tried to make an encounter with say human fighters or an evil necromancer. You could add classes to some humanoid monsters,

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Ah, fantasy and reality. Escapism and prison. Imagination and socialization. Newbie and Pro....?

I love fantasy as much as the next person, but being chained to reality really sucks. I have played my fair share of adventures as a PC, but not enough to make me a pro seasoned player. SOooooo, I am still a newbie.

It's been years since I last played, but this past summer I decided to take on a more prominent role, Dungeon Master. With my new family we began a group and I started to break everyone in with an AD&D Starter Set. A little something I bought back in the mid '90's while I was in highschool which never saw a group. Before finishing up the three included adventures, we decided to search for a more current edition to advance our need for fantasy and fun. So after finishing the 2e starter...

Let’s talk about the upcoming changes to the Forgotten Realms. This isn’t really a topical subject, being some time after the announcement at GenCon and some time before the novels and adventures are released. I had planned it earlier but kept delaying this piece to write other blogs. Oops.

If you hadn’t heard, the forthcoming revamp of the Realms was revealed at the GenCon Keynote address and mentioned in a couple panels on the Realms. They’re doing an event called “the Sundering” which is designed to both transition the Realms to 5e but also bring the Forgotten Realms back to basics.

Yeah... I’m experiencing a little déjà vu here.

The Nuking the Realms

For 4e, the Forgotten Realms was altered via a trilogy of modules published

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The is the first part on my new series on world building. In the introduction, I discussed Top-Down and Bottom-Up design, as well as some of the pros and cons of each.

Today I’m going to discuss “The Hook”.

Chapters

Below a links to the previous chapters in this series 

Introduction

Part 1: The Hook

Part 1.5: Factors

Part 2: Conflict

Part 3: Geography

Part 4: Races

Part 5: Nations

Part 6: Room for monsters

Part 7: Deities

Part 8: Cities

Part 9: Factions

Part 10: History

Part 11: Economics

Part 12: Culture

Part 13: Starting Zone

Part 14: Player's Guide

The Hook

Every new campaign world needs a “hook”: a concept or theme on which to base the world and differentiate

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This is the start of a new series discussing world building and the creation of campaign settings.

With 4th Edition winding down and many new campaigns looming on the horizon, ready to start when 5th Edition officially launches (or there's enough playtesting material) I imagine many DMs are thinking about where they'll set their campaign, what world they want to play in, and the nuances of creating their own campaign setting.

This blog series is designed to offer advice and suggestions on the art of world building. Each blog will discuss an element of design, and I’ll also demonstrate the advice by loosely designing a brand new world just for this blog.

Chapters

Below is a list of chapters (to be edited into links when I continue this series)

Introduction

Part 1: The Hook

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A term I keep hearing around the interwebs and on the message boards is "DM May I?" It's based around rules lite systems where there is less baked in PC options, and player must ask if they can do something. This is seen as a bad thing because of the risk of rigid DMs who won't let players do anything and will shoot down ideas. This is also because some players don't want to have to ask if they can do something – or have to think of actions – they just want to act.

I’ve also heard this referred to as “mother may I?” A term that seems deliberately inflammatory, designed to provoke a negative emotional reaction and thus establish without argument that the style is bad. So I’m sticking to “DM”.

No two gaming groups play D&D exactly alike. There

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