I hate coming up with NPC names; I have trouble doing it without the names sounding forced, which tends to break the mood. When I try, I come with names like Jandor Ravenwing and Eldar Strombridge or some such. Names like this serve their purpose, but I feel pretty cheesy saying them. When I trying […]
Opportunity Actions: Character Optimization vs. Storytelling… Is This Really a Fight?
In a recent post over at Temporary Hit Points, SarahDarkmagic, sort of in passing mentions the conflict between Storytellers and Optimizers in character design. This gets me thinking. Why is there such a difference between storytelling and character optimization? The First Problem: The Argument Let’s start by defining the conflict. Optimizers want to get the […]
A Mini Conundrum for WotC
So we were chatting on Twitter this morning about miniatures from Wizards of the Coast. Once again the conversation of “Why can’t WotC produce awesome theme packs of monsters, rather than random boosters?” came up. The reason is simple: they’d roll snake eyes on that gamble. The fact is, Wizards isn’t really making enough money […]
The Die of Fate, or, Character and Campaign Defining Items
I wasn’t the best DM when I first started in the 4e world. Part of it was our setup, 5 friends in Syracuse, NY with a laptop hooked to someone’s big screen TV, me in Pittsburgh, PA in my computer room, Gametable or MapTools providing the game table and a Teamspeak server providing voice. I […]