RPGnet Newsletter #42
February 16, 2016New Columns

Just one new Column last week: Christopher Cecil's latest Fuzzy Thinking"Monsters Are People Too!"

New Reviews

Making up for the light week on Columns, RPGnet posted a bunch of new Reviews last week:

Threads You Might Have Missed

It's a discussion as old as time (by which I mean it dates back to around 2000), but the question of "What Broke 3E" (referring to Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition) can still spark a lively debate. While much of this thread is replowing old ground, it's worth sorting through for the nuggets of good game design advice, and some potential fixes for all types of games with balance problems similar to 3E.

Speaking of game design, the handling of what in RPG parlance is called "initiative" - the order that characters in the fictional world get to act - is an important one. Check out "Favorite initiative systems?" for some insight into what other RPGnetters find to be effective and fun. Initiative systems tend to be somewhat more portable from game-to-game than some other subsystems, so you may find something that you can steal for yourself from a system that you otherwise don't know or like.

One more game design thread for this week: "What can card-based mechanics do that dice-based mechanics can't?" Yr. humble editor came away from this thread with a new appreciation for card-based mechanics and some ideas bubbling about how to incorporate them into otherwise dice-based games, and you may, too.

The sword-swinger is a fun archetype, but can often seem limited to settings where modern or futuristic ranged weapons don't exist. For some tips from other RPGnetters on how to keep that skillset viable in a wider range of game settings, check out "Swords vs. Blasters, how to make them relevant?".

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That's all for this week.

  • Iustum
    Newsletter Editor




언제나처럼 재밌어 보이는 제목의 기사가 있어도 영어라 못 읽는다~