Thaevrizhax's Lair

 After ranting and raving for ...the past five posts... I figured it was about time I actually put forward some ideas rather than criticizing others. Starting with an ability score generation method:  I have heard the sentiment of the ideal character being one with low, medium, and high stats, not just one of the three.  I myself, agreeing with this sentiment, have devised the following:    Start with six scores: 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 Add 1d6 to each, Roll 1d6 to assign: 1: Str, 2: Dex, 3: Con, 4: Int, 5: Wis, 6: Cha Reroll or roll different dice as the ‘open’ stats are filled.  (So, starting with [12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2], you would add 1d6 [14, 11, 14, 8, 8, 3], roll 1d6[1 being Str, 2 being Dex, 3 being Con...] to determine the placement of the first number [I rolled a 4, so Int becomes a 14] rolling 1d5 [1d6-reroll-6] to determine the placement of the second number [with the order now being Str, Dex, Con, Wis, Cha; I rolled a 3 so Con is now a...

There is a certain mindset which I believe I have noticed in a few old-school DMs.  An idea is present within their minds that anything the player characters obtain is just another means to attack the characters. Did you hire a henchman? Well, now he may or may not betray you. Did you build a stronghold? Well, now it might just get attacked. Did you get treasure from the dungeon?  Well, now it might be stolen in the night, or while you're away from your stronghold. Is this a problem? No. But, if you choose to run the game like this, your players will stop going to get treasure, stop hiring henchmen and stop building strongholds. How can you be so sure?  Because that is exactly what happened.  Here is how I think things went: The old-school DMs ran their games, and then in the 90s the players coming into the hobby, with the majority being power-gamers , saw the weaknesses of treasure, strongholds and henchmen for what they were, and simply stopped using them.  Co...