I’ve been thinking a lot recently about system complexity and player agency during a game as I have struggled to find a game I think both my daughters and I can enjoy fully as a game as well as an experience together. Player Agency When people talk about pre-4E fighters one of the things that …
Continuing with my discussion of art in DnD, this week I am taking a look at art for monsters and not just any old enemies but rather the sorts of epic threats that have been handled so poorly by DnD in the past (4E included). Epic Threats Epic threats need to be just that, epic. …
As you likely know Mike Mearl’s brought up the dreaded save or die mechanic on the Legends & Lore column this week. This article gives the thoughts of @paulbaalham and @obsidiancrane about this matter. Save or have no fun? The classic argument against save or die is that save or die effects are not fun. …
Last week when I posted about art that I liked Rich Green asked about landscapes and it is a fair question that deserves a longer response. In visual media such as computer games and movies the environment is a critical element. For fantasy computer games and movies the environment needs to be designed from the …
I recently ventured into the DnDNext area of the WotC community and there found a thread advocating essentially for more art by Wayne A Reynolds. Now I’m not an artist, but the truth is I don’t particularly like Mr Reynolds’ art style, the “dungeon punk” thing just doesn’t float my boat, and then there are …
Ability Scores and Crunch Ability scores are a rather arbitrary way of establishing a range of bonus and penalty around a median set of values. Essentially they are a way of using 3d6 to establish a bell curve of ability from a certain negative value to a corresponding positive value. That derived value has been …
A few days ago, Monte Cook posted two short paragraphs and a poll to his page on the Wizards of the Coast community. Those few words stirred up a lot of conversation about race in Dungeons & Dragons in the comments and on Twitter over the weekend. For me (Draco), it brings up a long …