Author Archives: MssngrDeath

When a Player Misses a Session

Posted on 11 April, 2012 by MssngrDeath

Meteors. Zombie swarms. Conventions for Japanese cartoons. Jesus. There are probably a thousand things that can prevent a player from attending the session, and I’ve heard two-hundred thirty-eight of them. So when something explodes and a player can’t attend a … Continue reading →

Posted in Gaming Systems | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Designing for Parties Missing a Role (3rd Edition)

Posted on 30 March, 2012 by MssngrDeath

I’ve talked a few times about designing sessions for balanced parties and how hard it is. But some parties don’t have the luxury of being balanced. Sometimes, nobody wants to fill a certain role, or there just aren’t enough people … Continue reading →

Posted in DMing | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Designing for Parties Missing a Role (4th Edition)

Posted on 20 March, 2012 by MssngrDeath

I’ve talked a few times about designing sessions for balanced parties and how hard it is. But some parties don’t have the luxury of being balanced. Sometimes, nobody wants to fill a certain role, or there just aren’t enough people … Continue reading →

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4th Edition Themes (the Mechanic That Should Have Always Been)

Posted on 20 March, 2012 by MssngrDeath

Recently, I said this: The items are also neat, though I’m starting to be bothered by 4th Edition’s insistence on adding more and more item slots. First it was tattoos, then divine gifts, and now primordial shards and elemental gifts. … Continue reading →

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Denialist DMs

Posted on 13 March, 2012 by MssngrDeath

There’s another article that popped up on the Google Spotlight last week, How to completely, utterly destroy an employee’s work life. Again, it’s not a great article, but it reminded me to talk about denialist DMing. It’s hard to design … Continue reading →

Posted in DMing | 2 Comments

Heroes of the Elemental Chaos

Posted on 2 March, 2012 by MssngrDeath

I like Heroes of the Elemental Chaos. When I got Heroes of Shadow, I found that it was mostly just an expansion to the staggeringly limited Encounters line, in that it wasn’t good but it was the best there was. … Continue reading →

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CRs, and Why They Mean So Little

Posted on 26 February, 2012 by MssngrDeath

Last night in our 3.5E campaign, we fought an entomber, from Libris Mortis, the Book of Bad Latin (also undead). The entomber’s primary mechanic is, shock of shocks, entombing. Every time it connects with an attack, the target has to … Continue reading →

Posted in DMing, Gaming Systems | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Re: Why we pick bad leaders, and how to spot the good ones

Posted on 16 February, 2012 by MssngrDeath

A neat article pooped up in Google Spotlight this week : Why we pick bad leaders, and how to spot the good ones. It’s not the most well-written article I’ve read this week, and it doesn’t have any earth-shattering research … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, DMing | 2 Comments

Save or Die

Posted on 2 February, 2012 by MssngrDeath

A million years ago in my post on Law #0, I mentioned before that I don’t like save-or-die effects. In case you’re on dial-up and can only load one page per hour (thanks for picking this one, by the way), … Continue reading →

Posted in DMing, House Rules | 1 Comment

On “The Genius of D&D”

Posted on 27 January, 2012 by MssngrDeath

For reference, I did not miss that Monte Cook thinks how you were born (race) is more important than what effort you’ve put into life (ability scores). This somewhat upsets me and leads me to imagine that this is not … Continue reading →

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