Shrine of the Nephilim

A long time ago, dungeon crawls were multi-session, multi-day trips. If the dungeon was serious, it was a major undertaking. You would go in, push as far as you figured was safe, then retreat back to your camp or to civilization to recover before you went in again. And if the dungeon was a multiple level dungeon, with two or three or even four floors, it might take you weeks to get through it, if not months . It was almost never a one-and-done. This was one reason for henchmen / hirelings. You needed someone to look after the camp at the surface. They handled your horses, your supplies, your tents and food. You took a bit of ratio with you down into the dungeon, because you never know what might happen, but all your other stuff was kept on the surface, where it was (relatively) safe. What, you thought the paladin would be riding her horse down in the dungeon? The reason for this was simple: healing didn't come cheap. A cleric only has so many spells in a day, potions are hard to fi...

 D&D has definitely changed. For the better? For the worse? I can't say. I can say, however, that it is an entirely different beast than it was in the 80s. Someone had suggested, with the choices you now make in character creation, how you build the character you want to play, people are more invested in their characters. You have backstory, you have a feeling of who the character is - they're not disposable heroes. And thus, you don't want to see all that work go to waste by having them die. I don't believe this. I made characters with personality, backstory, a vessel for me to explore with, since the early days of gaming. Maybe not to the extent I do now, but it was there, with each hand-crafted six+ page character sheet. Death was always on the table. The first TPK I faced had my favourite character as one of the victims. That hit hard. I didn't like it. But I accept that it was a part of the game. If you don't want your character to die, you either plan ...

Welcome to 2024. We've moved!  If you've followed us on our old Blogger, welcome to the new site.  If you've new here, this is where we discuss everything gaming -- game theory, world building, mechanics and setting, rules, and other related topics.  We have, you see, opinions . So tonight's topic is Saving Throws . Or to be a bit more general, 'rolls a player can make to avoid the consequences of an action or event in the game'. Dungeons and Dragons first introduced the concept, and other games have since followed suit - the idea that the character can escape at least some harm by making a roll to 'resist the effect'. Over the decades, saving throws have become more plentiful, and the damage from failing them has generally been reduced. We think Saving Throws can have a place at the table, but we also think they've become too prolific. Our view of this is relatively simple:  "not everything can be (or should be) avoidable". For instance? ...