Whenever I’m in an old bookstore I usually glance quickly through the old paperbacks to see if there are any fantasy or sci-fi novels I might be interested in. I also keep an eye out for vintage gamebooks.
Gamebooks were my introduction to the world of Roleplaying Games, and I was a big fan of both Choose Your Own Adventures and the Fighting Fantasy series. I guess I still am as I buy a “new” book from one series or the other every month or two.
While Dungeons & Dragons and …

Experienced D&D players quickly learn that it makes sense to concentrate their attacks on one enemy at a time until they are removed from the game, thus reducing the number of attack rolls being made against them. A logical strategy for D&D, but rather “gamey” and lacking in verisimilitude.

We’ve previously discussed using the more streamlined attribute system from classic D&D and Swords & Wizardry and how the lower bonuses and penalties to dice rolls can both streamline the game and encourage more character description. That was followed with a system to allow players to select a character’s attributes.
The only drawback to both diceless character creation and having a single tier for exceptional abilities is that all Fighters and Dwarfs will tend to be the same amount of “strong”, and all Wizards the same amount of “intelligent”. This doesn’t …

Rolling 3 six-sided dice to determine a D&D character’s starting ability scores is an iconic part of the game, and certainly part of the fun for a lot of players. Still, some people do find the randomness of character creation can interfere with their enjoyment of the game if they had a particular character concept in mind that they were hoping to play.

When it comes to character names in fantasy literature, movies and RPGs I’ve always preferred them to be genuine real-world names, or at least based on the rules for making real world names (eg. Tolkien’s characters in The Lord of the Rings). I find “fantasy names” that are random syllables jammed together, and possibly sprinkled with liberal amounts of apostrophies for good measure, pull me out of the fantasy world. They break the 4th wall. They ruin the immersion.
I’d rather have characters with names like Roland or Cedric than something …