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Category Archives: Editorials

A Wish for Better Art in D&D Next

Sunday, February 5, 2012

The art of Dungeons & Dragons has changed considerably over the years, and every edition has its staunch defenders. The question now is: What sort of art will grace the covers and pages of D&D Next? I will make no apologies for my own preferences. I started role-playing in the era of Moldvay’s Basic Set, [...]

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Original Cover Art of AD&D: Let It Be

Monday, January 30, 2012

Not that anyone has asked my opinion of what the covers of the new Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition reprints should look like, but if anyone were to ask, I would suggest that the publisher, Wizards of the Coast, should keep two goals in mind. The first is that you want to appeal to [...]

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Let the Dice Fall Where They May

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Dice in any game contribute suspense. Your strategy may appear flawless, but dice represent the fickle finger of Fate that tends to poke you in the eye just when victory is in sight. On the other hand, it can also point the way to safety just when you think all hope is lost. In a [...]

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Promoting Clarity in Fudge

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Fudge, to my knowledge, goes further than any other role-playing game to make the hobby understandable to newcomers in terms of reducing jargon. This, I maintain, is one of the greatest assets of Fudge, and it is a byproduct of one of its design goals, which includes “a character sheet you can understand without having [...]

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Fair Play Is Essential to Role-Playing

Saturday, February 5, 2011

There are two posts in 1d30 on the subject of cheating and GM impartiality in the role-playing hobby that are well worth any gamer’s attention. I think the health of the hobby and industry alike would benefit from a greater emphasis by gamers on playing fairly and honorably. How many role-playing fans have been siphoned [...]

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Fudge Points Are for Players

Monday, June 14, 2010

It is sometimes forgotten by those who are experimenting with the rules of Fudge that Fudge points are, in fact, designed to be used by players for the benefit of their own characters, and not by GMs for the benefit of non-player characters. As it states in Chapter 1, “Fudge Points are meta-game gifts that [...]

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A Rule Book for Each Player

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Have you ever noticed that board games come with one rule book, but they are typically designed for two to four players? Why? They come with more than one token — one for each player. Why not include more than one rule book — how about one for each player? What would be served by [...]

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Notes on Skills 2

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Exactly two years and a day ago, I posted my Notes on Skills, and quite coincidentally I have been thinking about skills in Fudge again. The most important thing to remember about skills is that they need to be self-explanatory, especially if you desire to comply with one of the major design principles of Fudge, [...]

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Separation Between Attributes and Skills

Monday, January 12, 2009

The topic of whether and/or how one ought to link attributes and skills is a perennial one in Fudge discussions. It’s understandable, too. Fudge doesn’t link them. Ironically, the deliberate separation between attributes and skills is one of its greatest innovations, yet it is the first thing that many want to change. This is an [...]

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Promoting Clarity in Gaming

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

To promote clarity in gaming is to promote gaming itself. If one wants to reach others, one attempts to communicate with them. Most game companies do not wish to exclude potential customers, but sometimes their adherence to old habits of convenience (such as the ridiculous overuse of acronyms and initialisms) is more an obstacle than [...]

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Deliberate Obfuscation in Gaming

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Sometimes a little issue reminds one of a bigger issue. In this case, the little issue is that of the occasional difficulty of interpreting a role-playing game’s attributes so I can include them in my List of Attributes by Game. Sometimes the only access I have to a game is its character sheet, which is [...]

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Yet Another D&D Edition

Friday, August 31, 2007

Most game companies want their prospective customers to know what they are offering with as little fuss as possible. Most game companies will go out of their way to provide a little information for free about a product that is no longer a secret. This is not the case with Wizards of the Coast. It [...]

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