I was just wondering why the prices on D20 titles are still so high, particularly in PDF format?  I don't know about everyone else but I refuse to pay the current prices and will wait until they're down in the $5 range.  The D20/3.5 song has been sung so why not lower the prices already?  Is it a deterent to keep 3.5 fans from obtaining what they'd rather have or is it that 3.5 is still popular enough to hurt 4E sales?  I really don't care about the polly-tiks.  I just want the books, preferably in PDF.

I'm really looking forward to the New Year.  I have to admit that my mind reels at all the things going on in just my little corner of reality.  Before I go on to talk about some of those things, I would be very much remiss not to mention the one overriding thought that seems to clarify everything, to make everything else seem rather less significant.  I'm talking about my wife.  My good wife as a matter of fact.  Please feel free to tune out or skip ahead now if sentiment or sap isn't your thing.  It's late and I can't sleep.  I'm feeling reflective.  I also didn't get to spend much time with her tonight which always bothers me. 

I love her and nothing I do next year will matter as much as spending time with her.  I seldom get to talk about her these days and she's probably the one thing I'm always excited about, more than anything else.  She knits.  She bakes cookies and paints them turquoise.  She games, plays the rogue and the monk equally well, paints miniatures.  Loves corned beef and is a good cook, no matter what she says.  She's good at whatever she sets her mind to, which I recently mentioned to her.  We've been married for two years now, so the most exciting thing about 2009 is her.  Marrying her is the most brilliant thing I've done.  It's really that simple. 

Okay, sorry if you skipped ahead.  I was going to theorize about next year's role-playing game systems, role-playing game software and tools and maybe a little about the direction my chosen programming languages, but it doesn't seem all that important now. 

Suffice it to say that we'll be sticking with D&D 3.5 and D20 for our games.  I might pickup the Pathfinder RPG if it's compelling enough, but I'm sick of changing horses.&am ... Read More »

I spent some time today (about two hours) analyzing the entire "grapple" process and it seems to me that the trouble with the rules isn't that they are too complex.  The real trouble is, and this is the problem with the vast majority of D&D, is that they are grossly verbose.  It seems to me that the rules are just packed with too much text.  Previous editions of D&D used more tables to elucidate the rules or provide for quick reference.  I've taken a page from that book here.

Anyway, fellow gamers, we're not dummies.  The details of grappling are just buried in too much branching conditional text.  Being a programmer myself, I attempted to provide a more programmatic version or summary of the rules for quick reference in our games.  Below are the results of this quest from our house rules.

Finally, The good thing about the original grapple rules is that they are a good simulation of what could actually happen in a real hand-to-hand fight.  They even cover the rather dramatic case of turning an enemy's weapon against him and stabbing him with it.  By the way I prefer the term "wrestling" since grappling can refer to the use of a hook like device for scaling walls.

So here goes...

P.S. These rules will look better in Internet Explorer than in Firefox since I used Word 2007 to create the original document.  Please don't sue me.

Purpose:< ... Read More »

I looked at Gleemax when it first came out and found the navigation poor and site garish. It's also rather puerile. You can also forget finding whatever you might be looking for. Gleemax seems to be intended to waste your time with it's meandering shopping mall layout. The only think missing is the lumbering grocery store music designed to slow you down so you'll buy more crap.

Gleemax: The Future of Lame

I really loved the comment in the blog about the site's title. It reminds me of the equally lame chewing gum commercials. Yeah I don't think Wizards of the Coast is going to maximize my glee either, especially since, as also mentioned in the blog, I'm not in their target demographic. Gleemax is not just a joke - it's a cruel joke considering that for $9.95/month you actually get nothing but nonsense meant in part to replace thirty years of excellent Dungeon and Dragon magazines.

Can you hear the sound of cash registers? I wonder how many dupes will buy another rehash of D&D? What I find really laughable is the use of the word 'medieval' in the product description. There's nothing medieval about D&D any more and there hasn't been for quite some time. Previous editions made at least some effort to represent real-world historical weapons and armor. That has gone out way out the window. I would also object to the $104.95 price tag were I one of the apparently unsuspecting victims. Can you say ka-ching? Brilliant marketing though since Wizards of the Coast has undoubtedly convinced thousands of gamers to pony up for a game they already own. Pick pockets perfected. Awesome.