So, didn't notice anyone sharing this. If I am reading it correctly, not only will the new edition be available in Creative Commons, but WOTC are looking to release the older editions as such. They are just concerned with ensuring the new release goes first, then will hopefully release old editions in 2025. Take all that with a grain of salt.

https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1717-2024-core-rulebooks-to-expand-the-srd

I bought _Victorious_ a while back just to support TLG.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/169398/Victorious-the-Role-Playing-Game

I can't say it's that good of a game, honestly. Amazing Adventures does Victorian pulp better if you like the SIEGE engine, and if you don't then there are a lot of other games you're better off playing. Then again, I am not even a fan of steampunk stuff, so whatever.

Quote from: D3magogu3 on Today at 08:54:00 AMHi, I am new around these parts. I hope entering here and posting sth  w/o a big introduction is okay. Rowan Rook and Decard entered a new low and call to violence in their newest "output". Violence against "Nazis" w/o defining what and who that is - openly advising people to do violence against former friends or even next of kin. The game is called "Eat the Reich" and is supposed to be a fun romp about hunting Wehrmacht bigwigs in Paris in the 40ies, but alas, after a few pages, this disclaimer comes:

I've seen the kind of people who take this sort of stuff seriously. You'd have to be a moron to consider them any sort of legitimate threat.

Quote from: Crazy_Blue_Haired_Chick on Today at 04:37:34 PM

It was inevitable...

At the root of just about every major problem, you will find a smug, entitled, white woman...

What got to -15 if you don't mind me asking?   Heavily armored monsters like dragons/earth elementals/golems only or even player characters?   Did you have the option in BECMI to boost it further or was it dependent on a random roll on a level up upgrade table?

It was inevitable...

B/X uses a skill system where each skill is associated with an ability, and you roll it or under on a d20.

Works pretty well in practice. And while it might seem weird that it's so ability score biased, you can think of it as being a base 50% chance for an average person (10) modified by 5% either way for good or bad abilities.

Classic D&D was quite varied.  BECMI D&D had ACs that ranged from 9 to at least -15

Quote from: tenbones on Today at 10:33:21 AM

Quote from: jhkim on May 06, 2024, 06:05:47 PMI feel like it's less generic to have separate and redundant mechanics for "racial abilities" and "character abilities". For example, SWADE has "Size -1" as a racial trait and then has a separate listing for "Small" as a character trait. Worse, "Big" is a negative racial trait (Size +1) that works differently than the "Brawny" character Edge (Size +1).

To me, it makes more sense to have traits, then one can apply those traits equally whether they are because of race, cyberware, magic, superscience, etc.

Packages of traits could represent a species, a race, a cultural background, a membership (i.e. Order of Hermes or space marine), a profession/class, etc.

But that *is* how it works.

Quote from: tenbones on Today at 10:33:21 AMPackages of traits *do* represent these things you want. It just matters where you place them and how you define them.

What am I missing?

I'll get more specific. In SWADE, pages 18-20 have 46 traits specifically for races, and each companion book adds many more racial traits. Racial traits are special rules that only apply to races. If someone is eight and a half feet tall because of being a typical ogre (say), they'll have the racial trait and will refer to page 19 for the "Size+1" trait rules. Conversely, if someone is eight and a half feet tall from being a huge human, though, they don't use those rules - they instead use "Brawny" on page 38 to represent their greater size. Similarly, a non-human character could be fast because of their race and refer to the "Pace+2" race rule on page 19, or a human character could be "Fleet Footed" and use the rules on page 39 (that gives +2 Pace).

Each has a different cost listing, and different text. The traits sometimes have different mechanics. For example, a race can be "Big" for a -2 cost, but this trait can't apply to an individual character with gigantism.

It would be cleaner to not have pages of rules that are only used for races, but instead have general rules that can be used for those traits regardless of whether it is because of race, condition, magic, environment, etc.

Quote from: Ratman_tf on Today at 09:26:18 AM

Quote from: jhkim on May 06, 2024, 09:38:44 PMThe current spate of superhero movies since 2008 is annoying, but it's quite parallel to the dominance of westerns for many decades.

One very notable difference is that the vast majority of current Superhero movies come from one studio and one IP. Marvel/Disney. With DC/Warner Bros being a very distant second.

There was at least a little more breadth in the genere of westerns made in the 50's.

Don't forget that a genre being popular is one thing, and the complaint was that they're producing almost nothing but reboots, sequels, prequels, re-imaginings of older IP.

Following the market has always happened, but at least we got different Private Eyes, procedural police stories, etc.

Procedurals: NCIS, CSI, Dr House, Dexter
Sci-Fi: Star Trek, Galactica, Stargate, Star Wars

Sure, we did get some near copies but those were usually from smaller studios, Turkey, etc.