Author Archives: Law

On The Dungeon Master Experience

Chris Perkin’s penultimate article came down last week, which bothers me. As soon as I find an article on Wizard’s site that’s worth reading, it goes away. It’s like Leverage all over again. I was going to link to his … Continue reading

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Arbitrary Attack Bonuses in 4E

Somebody asked about the correct values for the arbitrary attack bonus that accompanies racial attack powers, item powers, and so forth. I put this together to see exactly how they stack up: This chart assumes the following: A character gets … Continue reading

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Underpowered: Duergar (4E)

Generally I’m not the kind of person who ranks things by power level. I tend to leave that to the experts. But I do talk with people and I see a lot of gameplay. One of the big benefits of … Continue reading

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On the Story of 5th Edition

Two articles appeared on Wizard’s website this week, both part of ongoing series: This week’s Legends & Lore by Mike Mearls, and this week’s The Dungeon Master Experience by Chris Perkins. They offer very different sides of D&D, as Mearls … Continue reading

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Pre-Campaign Survey

I mentioned a campaign survey once that I used for my campaigns, but I never actually published it. You can find it here. The idea is that players fill out the survey by indicating where they want the campaign to … Continue reading

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Underpowered: Bullywug (4E)

D&D has lots of options, and it’s fairly obvious that they’re not all equally powerful. I’ve ranted about this, but over time I’ve also been doing something about it. Rarely, it’s a house rule to limit to power of a … Continue reading

Posted in Gaming Systems, Underpowered | Tagged | 2 Comments

Live GameScreen

I have to give props to Live GameScreen, and not just because I invented it. It’s the tool I’ve been using at the table for almost three years now, and along with MapTool (for online gaming) it’s the only software … Continue reading

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System Depth and Published Material

When a player is building a character, I generally go through the same steps with them every time, or suggest that they go through the steps on their own if they’re sufficiently well-versed in the system: Decide what character they … Continue reading

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Marathon Sessions (or, Sleep Is for the Boring)

Note: One of the problems with having a post backlog that I go through is that sometimes I talk about issues that aren’t as topical by the time the post goes live. Trust me, three weeks ago House of Cards … Continue reading

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Schrödinger’s Gun in Games (or, That Robot Ducky is a Doombot!)

When I was younger and thus poorer, I liked to make gifts for people rather than purchase them. One year I came home from college for a weekend that coincided with my cousin’s first or second birthday party, and I … Continue reading

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