Recent content by Bluenose

"That's just a Pangolin." Diogenes.

Is any edition of D&D good for political campaigns? At moss there are some subsystems outside the core rules that do a bit; and they don't always interact well with the main rules. I don't think 5e has anything along those lines.

It's not as if rain is great for conventional bows (crossbows, since they sometimes had a steel "string", are a different matter). And it's also an exaggeration to say black powder weapons "don't work in the rain", even matchlocks are usable although you'll get more misfires. From a military...

Considering that some of the advantages of early gunpowder weapons over bows/crossbows aren't even considered in D&D, I don't really see any reason to invent an entirely fictional disadvantage to make them even less desirable. Anyway, the one thing I think would be essential to any redesign of...

It's dehydrated. You have to add water to reconstitute it.

This is the basics of it. My FLGS participates and most of the companies I buy from are in the scheme. The website with the list of companies and stores is Bits and Mortar

One you've missed, and I've got a fair bit of material from there, is through the Bits and Mortar scheme. That of course isn't digital product alone so I'm not sure whether you want to count it but you it is one way I get digital material.

Chaosium, for all that I love their products, have in the past often over-promised and under-delivered when it comes to production schedules. While they've been doing better lately, having Mearls who is experienced in that area certainly can't hurt.

When: 1977 For: Traveller Why: D&D isn't a SF game and I wanted to play some SF. When did I come back? I never came back to D&D being my main game. I've played short, and even long, campaigns of D&D since, and I do pay attention to the system. I occasionally used to pick up sourcebooks if I...

It seems like a deliberate choice. Some things are done with spells, and there are plenty of people who will argue that anything but the most basic ability, if there's a spell that does it, should not be available by other means than magic. So there are people who will argue that because there's...

If we're assuming mundane equipment might be a problem, I think a Fighter with no weapons or armour might be just a teensy bit at a disadvantage too.

In D&D, making some one bleed is a magical effect. You can't break someone's arm with a heavy blow to the shield they're holding. You can't even move at the same time someone else is. Think even reality is too much for Fighters to have.

Achilles picks up a rock "that ten strong men of today could not lift" and throws it (at Hector iirc, certainly in a major fight). It seems like the sort of ability some high-level Fighters could have.

I think part of this is also that some people resent having to use a spell to make people afraid - that spell slot is a resource - and they don't want people getting something for free that their character has to use their most important resource to do. Getting rid of morale rules played a part...

But then you have to wonder if the other players are going to have to permanently accept playing the lackeys to the person playing the wizard, because otherwise the wizard players will be upset. "I could deal with this situation but I'm saving my spells for important tasks so the...