I often use Midjourney for NPC character images for my personal (private) game amongst five or six friends, but I would avoid trying to build a brand using it, even for free supplements. The brand becomes “AI generated,” which anyone can do.
One reason people buy books is for cool, imaginative art made by actual human beings.
Always endless drama in the RPG community. Her name was spelled Jaquays, by the way.
The Rules Lawyer pretty convincingly argues this is actually 9th edition (and later amended that to 10th edition based on a user comment).
It’s apropos that you talk about software meant for academia. Nothing says academia like asking for help creating a comprehensive taxonomic classification system for your gaming hobby, haha
It was a good movie, well-executed and funny, made by people who understood the material. It deserved to perform well.
Now Wizards will have to squeeze D&D even more to make Hasbro’s unrealistic revenue goals: a bad scenario. I don’t buy books by Wizards anymore, but the further enshitification of D&D should concern everyone who has a stake in the hobby, as D&D is the standard bearer and it’s unlikely Wizards or Hasbro will ever relinquish the brand.
Elected worker representatives should have rotating seats on the board of directors for any company, pass it on.
But does it play on Safari for iPhone??
No, no it does not. (“Divide error. Null pointer assignment.”)
Ultima VII is one of my absolute favorite games of all time. A deep plot and an open world, where you can bake bread from scratch or climb a set of boxes you stack.
It helped kick off my love of RPGs, along with Shining Force II (for JRPGs) and text adventure games generally like Zork. Through Ultima, I found D&D and the world of other CRPGs like Baldur’s Gate and others. But Ultima VII is still among the best.
Later in life I ended up buying every single Ultima game and playing through many of the early ones. It’s fascinating seeing how the series evolved and constantly pushed the envelope in terms of technology, interactivity, and story. Just a couple weeks ago I finally bought a copy of Ultima I to complete the collection.
I agree. I think both should be completely redesigned from the ground up, but they’re not interested in doing that in 6E.
Everyone should have a clear specialization with a little overlap. A class should be the best at a thing and adequate at something else.
Yes, OK, two sessions, maybe three since wizards level slower. In AD&D your GM should be awarding for good ideas, role play, encouragement of other players, etc. though, as well as enemies slain. And it’s common to be a little generous with XP in those first sessions.
There was a reason wizards carried daggers and slings as well in early levels.
I just get tired of magic users complaining that they need to do equal damage to fighters from the beginning at range and also be able to warp reality in higher levels.
Exactly, the single session where wizards are level 1 in an inaugural battle that likely lasts 2-3 rounds
Good video. There are a lot of players out there who have never GM’d but definitely know everything about it and feel free to share their wisdom.
This is just another tool in the GM’s tool belt. For clues, important NPCs, and even important locations, this is perfectly fine to employ when needed. For encounters, well, planning a session can take a lot of time and it’s a waste if you throw it away. I agree with his conclusions.
The bigger problem is ruining the pacing of the game by making the players do the equivalent of a pixel hunt. Better to put whatever they’re looking for in a place that makes sense to maintain the flow of the game.
Zooming out further, I also occasionally funnel players through narrative chokepoints in order to set up the remainder of an arc or campaign. In Mass Effect you always need to encounter the Prothean artifact and the villain, but then you can solve problems any number of ways before your options constrict again for the endgame. A judicious amount of railroading is not a bad thing, provided you don’t tell players how their character acts or feels. The reality is an aimless game is a boring game, and a little bit of drama or foreshadowing via a limited number of scripted story events can greatly enhance the arc or campaign.
Bottom line, every tool has its use.
I homebrew everything these days, but back when I ran off-the-shelf adventures, I customized and arranged large parts of them as well. I didn’t do it to catch cheaters, but it would be very good for that.
Anyway, I just told players not to read outside sources and be careful about what you search for. I said if you come across outside information once, I’ll chalk it up to an accident, but if it happens repeatedly, I’ll remove you from the group. I didn’t feel the need to explain or justify that.
I had one case of someone searching a name to figure out the spelling, and they ended up spoiling themselves for a major character reveal. They were a good player and they regretted spoiling it for them themselves, and it never happened again.