At a certain level, probably high Heroic and certainly in Paragon and Epic tiers players might have twenty four possible choices on their turn including at-wills, encounter powers, daily powers, utilities, and items. This high number of choices mixed in with the already tactical nature of combat in 4e often leads to analysis paralysis. Players simply can’t figure out what the right move might be.
The Dungeon Master Guys, Episode 6
What NOT to do with your campaign wiki, using horror in your D&D games, and we answer your DM questions.
Designing is Redesigning
Progress is only made through mistakes. However, recognizing those mistakes and fixing them are not always easy.
The D&D Essentials DM Kit: An Editorial Review
In which Phil writes a review that veers into murky editorial waters when he realizes that the D&D Essentials Dungeon Master’s kit is not exactly what he expected. Follow is arguments and his interesting conspiracy theories… is Chatty due for a medication adjustment? Have a look!
The Architect DM: The Inverse Office Dungeon
I’d like to share an experiment with you, it’s something I’ve done to a minor extent and I believe it might be helpful to other people out there as well. Let’s say you find yourself in the situation where you need to design a dungeon and can’t think of how to do it, whether it’s a spur-of-the-moment situation or you’re just stumped while planning for next week’s game, you need a dungeon and can’t seem to figure out what to do.
Gamma World Actual Play: “Pax Extraterrestria” at DC Game Day
I picked up Gamma World last Thursday. I hadn’t intended to run it so soon, especially with DC Game Day over the weekend… and then fate intervened. My sunday morning game of Old School Hack was canceled on Saturday since the DM had something come up, and so I stepped up. None of the other players minded the switch, so life in Gamma Terra was on.
Chatty’s New York Trip Highlights, Part 1: NYCC and D&D
In which Chatty DM Phil starts telling you ALL about is New York Nerd trip. Well not all of it… just the crunchy parts. Enjoy!
Review: “Gamma World” RPG
What is the Gamma World RPG? In a nutshell, it’s a standalone post-apocalyptic RPG that uses, almost whole cloth, the 4e D&D rules, with the main differences being in the characters. Instead of having your Elven Fighter or Human Wizard, you play a Half-Yeti Half-Android with a giant nose or a Pyrokinetic Rat Swam hefting a plasma sword. I feel like you could either already be sold on the game or totally turned off, but I’ll continue on.
Do the Evolution
What if we imagine the original D&D game as the evolutionary link between wargaming and modern roleplaying games of all sorts? Every derivative game has some part of the original, signs of its ancestry. Like with organisms, variations from the original are introduced in the process of creating a game. Further, more game “offspring” tend to be produced than the gaming environment can support. Traits that ensure survival in a given environment become more common in descendants.
Teaching RPGs, a Quick Retrospective
I’m off to New York City in a few hours to attend Comic Con 2010. One of my main activities over there will be to participate in the “Learn to Play D&D” experience at the Wizards of the Coast booth using the newly released Red Box.
Since I’m going to teach D&D to new (or returning) players, I thought it would be appropriate to do a little retrospective of the posts I wrote on the subject and those I found on the net.
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