Recent content by Willie the Duck

I think you could have avoided a lot of this by titling your thread "Would it be beneficial for D&D 'influencers' to actively acknowledge other games?" or "I wish D&D 'influencers' acknowledged other games more frequently." Framing the discussion in terms of need-tos/shoulds naturally leans the...

Mind you, the existence of the wargames (and Braunsteins, FKS, etc.) that inspired D&D in the first place suggests that people find tracking funds and properties and the like can be a form of entertainment. However, knowing that most D&D players (particularly after a certain point) weren't...

The Deck of Many Things.

Oh look, an inter-edition comparison thread is morphing into whether 4e was the best or worst or what it really was. Bet this one will finally resolve the matter. Anyway, some of my takes: Barbarian -- I think I'm going to say 3e*. Mind you, 'the guy who rages' is a specific subset of...

Re: Wesely, the Brontes, Free Kriegsspiel, every child since forever -- We do this every time we discuss the pre-LBB era. And kind of like Gary vs. Dave, it always seems like there's a tension about who gets the right amount of credit. In this case whether someone gets to much or too little...

I am a strong proponent of what soviet mentions. If the fundamental thing a character is good at is gated behind a specific attribute, then all members of that character-type will have that stat very high*. If other game-central components like HP and vital saves also are gated by attributes...

It is an interesting choice, as the 90s cartoon was the one place* where they didn't include the stuff where Scott was the dick. Not sure why they wanted to bring it into the animated world so long after it became immaterial elsewhere**. *arguably also the early 2000s movie trilogy, where he had...

I like the movie itself well enough. Between Joaquin Phoenix in the first movie and Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, the part that I'm not looking forward to is a whole new batch of internet memes. Apparently everyone identifies with the joker and they can use their most iconic lines to...

If you include folklore and myth, it's a pretty mixed bag (but generally not studious guy with books very often). Ancient societies like Egypt and Babylon a lot of magic is interwoven with priestly rites or with trafficking with demons or the like. The later seems very warlockish, but there's...

That space is full of ceiling, you can't teleport to it. They are (presumably) teleporting to as close to the ceiling as they can and grabbing it just like if they were climbing up to the ceiling on a ladder (or at least at the top of a jump to the ceiling, where they have no net downward...

I'd agree. There's less self-selection into the social categories of old, but there are real personality types. There are computer, math, and hard-science people that are shy or introverted*. I think that will always be the case because those qualities don't strongly inhibit the exploration of...

Uranium emits a lot more alpha and beta radiation than gamma. Water absorbs the first two handily. It also attenuates gamma better than you might think (super dense and high-atomic-number material like lead only provide 20-30% better protection-by-mass than less dense material like water and...

The answer is always talk to your DM. However, in this instance, there's no specific reason to think otherwise. They are transported to an area where a constant ongoing transit mode they have (they have an innate climb speed) is applicable, and thus would normally be able to use it. If not, and...

I don't think Charisma is the real concern. OP has never been convincing in all these improbable tales where their players are being so unreasonable and/or incompetent or the like.

The Clockwork Sorcerer is a sorcerer who gets around the rather limiting spells-known issue by getting free Absorb Elements, Shield, Enhanced Ability, Knock, Counterspell, Dispel Magic, Banishment, Polymorph, Animate Objects, and Telekinesis*. *or a similar list of generally useful...