Dear friends,. If I stop posting here on X, please feel free to get in touch through other social media, especially the "Methods & Madness" blog. Thank you.

I get angry at the news too, but before we go there, maybe consider:. - It might be rage bait designed to drive engagement. - It could also be propaganda meant to convince us that doing bad things actually pays off, or that the battle is already lost etc.

THAC0 has a few hidden perks. For example, instead of always increasing digits (+17 to against AC 31 like you'd seem in Pathfinder), numbers are always more manageable (THAC0 7, AC -3 means roll 1d20-3 and try to get at least 7). I like ascending but THAC0 is easy too.

Always a good reminder that in AD&D:. - You get zounds of magic items and negative AC by level 10 or so. - Ridiculous names are expected. I'm a fan of neither, but neither is mandatory I guess!.

There was a time when I was a big fan of the GURPS idea that "you can play ANYTHING" with it. Nowadays I think a more modular approach is superior - something like Savage Worlds, with a lean (well, too lean IMO) core and a few genre/setting companions.

In D&D, letting PCs recover only a few HP a day forces them to meaningfully interact with the calendar, to awesome effect. Simply having a cleric in the party ruins that.

I find it odd when RPGs name numbers and repeat them constantly. Like: “You need a HARD [20] check for the first door, EASY [10] for the second.”. Or: “He’s got GOOD [+4] Strength, FAIR [+1] Vigor.”. C. Falkenstein gets a pass, maybe—there’s a reason there.

Wow.

Could the LG blink dogs from D&D have been inspired by the hounds of tindalos coming "from out of nowhere"?. We know their enemy, the displacer beast, is directly inspire by the coeurl.

Chainmail remains a trove of great ideas for D&D. In today’s post, we’re talking about magic!. See bio/comments.

Weird idea. Maybe in old school D&D you just roll 1d20 to fight mightier foes. For lesser foes, roll your HD against theirs, and let them take the difference in damage. So Conan can kill a bear or gorilla bare-handed much faster, or fight multiple people at once.

In Chainmail's Spell Complexity table, what happens if the caster rolls lower than the minimum to have the spell negated? What is worse than negated?. I am thinking mishap or spell is lost for the day but can't find it.

Today in the blog: Black Amazon of Mars by Leigh Brackett (short review)

I agree that fighters should have the best saves - Conan is stronger against spells than a sorcerer. Fort/Reflex/Will kinda works, but my favorite method for OS D&D is just letting everyone roll 1d20+level and try to get 20. This improves thieves as they level up faster. 2/2.

Old school D&D saves don't always make sense to me. I'm not saying they don't WORK in the game; I'm talking about setting/fiction. E.g., thieves really suck at avoiding dragon breath, and IIRC some classes are good at one save then become bad at it as they level, etc. 1/2.

Having only "level appropriate" encounters is a huge missed opportunity. It is interesting and fun to see how PCs react to monsters they cannot hope to defeat. Same when they're able to easily defeat or bully monsters that once scared them. Also makes the world more "real".

Second, you can change quantities in different environments. Terrain and habitat type influence the group size and social behavior of animals. For example, you could have bigger prides in the plains and solitary animals in the mountains. 3/3.

First, you can just describe six wolves to your PCs and they might avoid them or throw them food etc. You can seldom just avoid the need to look at the stats if you already have that 2d4 NA. 2/x.

If you ever make a random encounter table for your game, you should not have an "wolf" entry, but instead "2d4 wolves". It is much more useful. 1/x.