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    • mmarandaBissel shared an article.

      April 2 at 3:16pm
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      1 person likes this external article.
      I've always been a bit 'meh' about Sahuagin. They don't seem to have anything that makes them disctinctive enough. This description does nothing to change this. In my games I preferred using weresharks in their place.
      The Bullywug description seems lame. So, they're exactly like goblins except making larger leaps?
      I liked the 4e approach a lot more. Alternatively, join them with the Grippli to create something entirely new, i.e. a standard, intelligent (psionic?) frog-like race and...


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      April 7, 2013 12:59 PM PDT
      I think what these descriptions lack is any sense of the culture or identity of these intelligent races. There is a very good article on this here, if it helps:
      www.thoughtcrimegames.net/gameable-cultu...
      I think if we want to use these creatures as more than just cannon fodder, we need to have some sense of their motives. Evil beings do not characterise themselves...


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      April 14, 2013 3:08 AM PDT
    • mmarandaBissel shared an article.

      February 20 at 10:11am
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      1 person likes this external article.
      PA: Table-top, video games
      #1: Unpredictable, Humourous, Resourceful, Compulsive, Good-natured
      #2: Surreal, Exaggerated, awe-inspiring


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      April 10, 2013 10:57 AM PDT
      Primary Access: tabletop roleplaying game
      Assignment #1: adventurous, imaginative, cooperative, entertaining, creative
      Assignment #2: deep, enticing and intricate


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      May 21, 2013 4:51 PM PDT
    • mmarandaBissel shared an article.

      November 27, 2012 at 11:28am
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      Personally my biggest peeve with the treatment of faeries in 4e is the idea that faeries are necessarily wild. This is certainly true of some of them, but not all. Some faeries are rather civilized, albeit in a somewhat alien fashion.
      Personally I also think that trying to have each kind of fey be a specific category or kind is something of a mistake. Sure there are identifiable kinds of faerie, like satyrs or pixies or whatever. However, sometimes a faerie is just a faerie, with it's own...


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      December 14, 2012 11:44 AM PST
      MORE FEYWILD!!!!
      i personally enjoy the Feywild as a "wild"plane. Although i think it needs more "wild". Tiny Fey are completely neccesary but not Wild enough.
      One last thing OWLBEARS FOR EVER!!!!!


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      January 2, 2013 11:10 AM PST
    • mmarandaBissel shared an article.

      October 10, 2012 at 3:08pm
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      For me Goblins should be like the ones depicted as in the Magic the Gathering universe.
      For the little ones, The Goblin Marauder, Goblin War Strike or Goblin Psychopath by Pete Venters, maybe like The Goblin Brawler by Heather Hudson or The Goblin Warchief by Tim Hildebrandt,
      One of my favorites is the painting art for the "Goblin Elite Infantry" by Robert Bliss. They look mean and badass! Long pointy ears with long and sharp nose; guess this model would fill the Hobgoblin, just add...


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      November 20, 2012 3:16 PM PST
      I know this is several months old now, but I wanted to drop in saying the picture in the end is pretty great, but I'd prefer the bugbear to be fatter.
      1 person likes this discussion post.
      February 7, 2013 2:11 PM PST
    • mmarandaBissel shared an article.

      August 8, 2012 at 9:58am
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      they are looking like to fight with a big, strong and hurtful group. they are looking like a green cavemen with structure of a dwarf and a cruel orc face.
      the goblins that i know look more like to run away immidietly.
      to sum up, i like this goblins, but they are looking like an half green caveorc half green cavedwarf.


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      December 7, 2012 10:45 AM PST
      Not really a fan of the goblin at the top. Seems a little too thick and stocky through the trunk. His eyes are dull, and the face reminds me more of a sleepy orc (savage, but tired and dull). The eyes should be sharper, more clever. The sloping forehead is good, but the wide underbitten jaw screams orc. I'd rather see a pointy chin, and a face broadest at the temples. Almost elfin, just ugly.
      On the positives, I like the overall proportions. The almost monkey-like arms read well to...


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      April 23, 2013 12:47 PM PDT
    • mmarandaBissel added a comment to WotC_Trevor's blog post on the DnD Next group.

      Tone and Edition
      A few years ago, I woke up and realized what I thought was fantasy...
      April 27, 2012 at 2:47pm
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      2 people like this blog post.
      I'm a big believer in "Getting to Yes." Present the options, all the options, to the players, and see what they latch onto. Then build a game around what they are playing. If they want to play a Tiefling, don't screw them over for wanting to play the Tiefling. Build a story that will accommodate that choice. If the player WANTS to have risks involved with the racial choice (because those risks could be a roleplaying MINE, like having to wear robes to disguise a devilish appearance), that's...

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      September 27, 2012 7:22 AM PDT
      My campaign is quasi-historical, so I'm constantly saying no to races I haven't already distorted history to accommodate. I don't care one way or another about the frequency designations, because it should vary greatly from setting to setting.
      March 19, 2013 8:27 AM PDT
    • GMChris voted in the poll, "Simulating Combat".

      April 13, 2012 at 2:04pm
      3 people like this poll.
    • GMChris voted in the poll, "Morale".

      April 13, 2012 at 10:32am
      1 person likes this poll.
    • mmarandaBissel shared an article.

      March 7, 2012 at 2:22pm
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      11, if your going to change something, change it all the way around and not just alter it a tad. So my thought is go all out.
      July 17, 2012 11:57 PM PDT
      I agree with making it look less 'game-like' and more sophisticated. Number 7 would be my favorite, but to be honest, none of them really do it for me. In fact, neither do the previously published ones. The various logos for the Forgotten Realms have been much better in my opinion.
      I guess the original (Advanced) Dungeons and Dragons (brown/white boxes through the 1st ed) worked because it definitely looked like a game for adults, not kids. In many cases (again, the current Forgotten Realms...


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      August 13, 2012 8:38 PM PDT
    • mmarandaBissel added a comment to WotC_GregB's blog post on the DnD Next group.

      Deadly Dice
      In this week’s Legends & Lore, Mike discussed a save or die mechanic....
      March 7, 2012 at 10:22am
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      As someone who has been playing DnD and running DnD campaigns for nearly two decades: players should never die. Player character death creates frustration, both in the affected player (if he/she did not see it coming) as well as in the other players ("what are we going to do now") but also for the DM. Game over usually means game over for everyone at the table. Death should never be a punishment for reckless behaviour of players. Talk things out before it gets out of hand. A worse penalty for...

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      June 2, 2012 4:02 AM PDT
      My characters die all the time ...
      ... and I love it.
      It makes the characters who do survive all the more memorable. When one of my characters reaches high level, it's an accomplishment.
      For a while, we tried this whole "nobody dies unless sdoing something foolish" approach. Reaching high level was no longer an accomplishment. It felt a lot like graduation:
      Player 1: "I made it to 20th level."
      Player 2: "Who doesn't?"
      So, we eventually went back a few steps to the...


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      June 14, 2012 3:45 AM PDT
    • jskell27 voted in the poll, "Death in D&D".

      March 7, 2012 at 10:15am
      2 people like this poll.
    • jskell27 voted in the poll, "What’s the best way to reflect your control over how competent your character is with a skill? (Choose one.)".

      March 2, 2012 at 2:11pm
    • jskell27 voted in the poll, "How many skills would you prefer to see on a skill list? (Choose one.)".

      March 2, 2012 at 2:11pm
      1 person likes this poll.
    • jskell27 voted in the poll, "Hit Points".

      March 1, 2012 at 12:11pm
      2 people like this poll.
    • mmarandaBissel added a comment to WotC_GregB's blog post on the DnD Next group.

      Hit Points
      In various D&D editions, player character durability evolved with the game as...
      March 1, 2012 at 12:11pm
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      Just wanted to say that I really, really, really like marcos9999's ideas here.
      July 17, 2012 2:31 PM PDT
      I agree with marcos9999 that the idea of hit points is lunacy especially considering its origin, but I do think Gygax and Arneson did it in the best possible way: characters started with the same HP (D6) as an attack could cause (D6). The blog post talks about the trouble of being stuck with 1 HP: 1 HP nothing! Every character was tromping around with enough health to maybe survive one sword blow - 1 was definitely worse but you weren't exactly sitting pretty anywhere else, either. The tactics...

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      July 18, 2012 9:11 PM PDT
    • Koga305 voted in the poll, "Should big numbers be a hallmark of high-level play? ".

      February 24, 2012 at 10:12am
    • Koga305 voted in the poll, "How much complexity should exist in high-level play?".

      February 24, 2012 at 10:12am
    • mmarandaBissel added a comment to WotC_GregB's blog post on the DnD Next group.

      Kings and Castles
      Remember when you hit that certain level when a whole bunch of cool stuff...
      February 23, 2012 at 10:44am
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      Totally agree w/Katalia369. Make it an option. It should -not- be automatic, and it should not be impossible or discouraged. It depends on what the group decides they want from the experience, and the D&D experience, IMVHO, isn't necessarily about magically attracting followers and receiving permission to build a stronghold at a set level -although if a player wants to hire people, or commission some kind of HQ, well, that should be possible and yeah, there should be rules somewhere for it,...

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      May 6, 2012 3:32 AM PDT
      Personally I like to run (I am almost always the DM in our campaigns) sandbox games. In other words, no set adventures, just engaging characters in a detailed world and I let my players decide what direction they want to take their characters. This means that I would like to have this option as my players tend to go for "conquering the world" type of ambition. For that you need armies, castles, followers, etc (I used a HEAVILY modified version of Birthright rules to do this, but I truly miss a...

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      May 24, 2012 8:07 AM PDT
    • mhbjarkistef voted in the poll, "Holdings and followers, if used at all, should be a backdrop for the characters’ further adventures.".

      February 23, 2012 at 10:39am
    • mhbjarkistef voted in the poll, "A DM should decide whether holdings and followers belong in the game.".

      February 23, 2012 at 10:38am

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    About Me

      About Me: I need something clever here. Crap not this... You fill it in yourself and see how clever I is.

      I do occasionally blog and twitter
      TV Shows: Deadliest Catch, Mythbusters, History Chanel Docus about Rome, Rome, Babylon 5, Farscape.
      Books, Comics and Graphic Novels: Golden Age of Sci-Fi
      Authors

      Fritz Leiber (Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser Lankhmar)
      Alfred Bester (Tiger, Tiger)
      James Blish (Beep / The Quincux of Time)
      Theodore Sturgeon (Shottle Bop)
      C. M. Kornbluth (Marching Morons)
      Clark Ashton Smith (Zothique)
      Lester Del Ray (Nerves)
      R.E. Howward (Solomon Kane)
      H.P. Lovecraft (Cthulhu)
      E.E. Doc Smith (Lensman Cycle)


      Other Author's of Note George R. R. Martin (Tuff Voyaging)
      Morgan Llywelyn (Lion of Ireland)
      Lawrence Watt-Evans (Lure of the Basilisk)
      David Gerrold (Chess With a Dragon)
      Roger Zelazny (Unicorn Variations)
      Lord Dunsany (Creation Mythos)
      Music: All over the place from folk (America and Irish) with Mary Lou Lord & the Fables, to ProgRock Genesis & Pink Floyd, to Atmospheric NIN & God is an Astronaut, to Punk Dropkick Murphies & Ramones and Rock (modern and classic).
      Wizard Book Lines:
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      Other D&D
      My Games:
      Dungeons & Dragons
      Guillotine
      RoboRally
      Star Wars Roleplaying Games
      Other Games I Play: Hackmaster (BASIC), Traveler, OD&D, AD&D 2nd Ed. (have first and use the books), Candyman & Cutthroat Cavers (Smirk & Dagger), Dominion, and softball

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