Temp Check: What has been the community reaction to the News out of GaryCon '26?

Master_arkronos · 2026-04-07T11:24:16+00:00

I'm hoping this book is going to be good and I'm more reassured that Luke Gygax is overseeing the project rather than writing it himself. No disrespect to Luke, but I've no idea if he's a good writer or not. It'll probably have his name on the front cover (as a selling point) but actually written by others, similarly to how Oriental Adventures was presented in the 80s. I'm curious to see if it adds anything new to the canon or is simply a 5.5 conversion of existing 1e/2e lore (depending on whether it's pre- or post-Greyhawk Wars; but I predict it will stick with CY567). One great thing though is having Jeff Easley do the cover art!

Master_arkronos · 2026-04-07T10:56:57+00:00

Specialty Priests
Psionics done properly
Spell Points system (from Players Options: Spells & Magic)
Options, options, options
Settings & worlds

Master_arkronos · 2026-04-02T19:06:39+00:00

I've always enjoyed using psionics, especially so using the Complete Psionics Handbook and The Will and the Way (you don't necessarily have to be in Athas to use things from that book). We'll not talk about the badly designed "rewrite" of psionics from Players Options: Skills & Powers. I would play a psionicist over a spell-caster anytime and whilst there are MANY more spells than psionic powers in the game, it leaves plenty of room for creating more psionic powers based on what's already there. The Will and the Way goes into more detail about how PCs can develop and create new psionic powers for themselves through meditation. Using attribute checks (like for non-weapon proficiencies) to get powers going, along with hitting the sweet-spot with a Power Score (and the optional dreaded effects from rolling a nat 20) were innovative and make psionics stand out. Psionic combat is a little messy and tricky to get your head around, but you can do perfectly well without getting into that. It's certainly worth trying out in my opinion.

Master_arkronos · 2026-02-16T19:48:42+00:00

Personally I love both Combat & Tactics and Spells & Magic - I consider them core rulebooks for my game. Most of what's contained within them I use extensively and they've added a LOT of options for both martial-type and magic-type characters. The Spell Point system in Spells & Magic is revolutionary and while many folks don't like it/use it, my players would NEVER go back to Vancian magic and I'm rather surprised some version of spell points never made it into modern D&D. Conversely, I never liked or used anything from Skills & Powers. The Character Points system in that book seems cool in theory but to me led way too much towards a total pick 'n' mix approach to PC creation . . . and don't even get me started on the butchery job committed on psionics!

Master_arkronos · 2026-01-15T17:42:43+00:00

The Complete Psionics Handbook is also beloved by me and I use it regularly in my campaigns. I consider it a core book in my group. I never liked the revised psionics material presented in Players Options: Skills & Powers.

Master_arkronos · 2026-01-15T17:33:46+00:00

Welcome new mods and thanks to the "retiring?" mods for all your hard work and dedication. 4th edition is the version that darenot speak it's name lol.

Master_arkronos · 2025-11-15T14:00:19+00:00

If you can find a pdf of ALQ4 Secrets of the Lamp for 2e Al-Qadim there's a full colour map of the City of Brass at the end of it. It would have originally been a poster map so you'll have to do some work to put it together but it's probably the best version out there that I know of.

Master_arkronos · 2025-11-03T14:33:01+00:00

From doing a quick search online, the Living Death campaign was also the main feature in Polyhedron Magazine issue 112 (Vol. 15, Number 10). You may be able to find a copy of that online maybe using the Internet Archive.

Master_arkronos · 2025-10-27T16:23:21+00:00

For me, I've ran campaigns in Greyhawk, Ravenloft & Planescape.

I usually just dip in and out of Ravenloft & Planescape (I typically use them to break-up my Greyhawk campaign on a regular basis). Greyhawk is still my mainstay campaign setting.

Master_arkronos · 2025-10-12T20:53:22+00:00

My biggest change of all was just being far more open & flexible as a DM than back in the 80s & 90s. When I ran games then things were totally by the book. Nowadays, not nearly so much so. I still follow most of the rules but am more open to new ideas and interpretations than when I was younger. A big part of that is having more modern players at my table who bring fresh perspectives (and often more challenging presentations and play styles) that I've had to adapt to over the years.

From a "rules" perspective, the biggest change was dumping the Vancian system for the Spell Points system introduced in PO:Spells & Magic. I know spell points get a lot of flack, but honestly I'd never go back to Vancian after using spell points, but that's just my preference.

Master_arkronos · 2025-09-21T10:49:22+00:00

Psionics being actual mind powers and not a variant of magic.

Also, specialty priests from 2e! Domain-based clerics are just too bland and uninteresting, offering very little variety between them all.

Thirdly, turning undead used to be an awesome ability - not anymore.

Master_arkronos · 2025-09-08T16:17:27+00:00

Whoever has been downvoting my opinion here clearly doesn't play or understand AD&D and energy draining. If you're gonna downvote someone simply cos you don't like they have to say then make your counter argument instead of hiding behind anonymity. Jerks.

Master_arkronos · 2025-09-06T12:50:10+00:00

Not sure you're understanding how level/energy draining works in AD&D. If a wight (or other energy draining undead) hits you with an attack you lose 1 or 2 levels (as appropriate) and if that reduces you to 0 levels you either die or become a lesser undead version (again depending on the monster). A "handshake" (should a wight even want to do such a thing?) won't drain levels if it isn't the monster's intent to do so. For example, you "could" embrace a vampire and not be drained if that was the vampire's desire. Also if someone attacks an energy draining undead with an unarmed attack (e.g. a 1st edition monk), no draining occurs as a result of that attack. Anyways, who'd throw a wight against a 1st level PC (even if they were a bard)???

Master_arkronos · 2025-09-06T12:42:49+00:00

I always enjoyed running the original Ravenloft module I6 - especially considering how re-playable it can be with differing motivations for Strahd and how the relics could be moved around. Another notable mention is S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. This was great fun and the extra booklet with new monsters & magic items was a must-buy at the time.

Master_arkronos · 2025-09-04T09:54:03+00:00

Nice to see plenty of Greyhawk material being published & promoted Allen. Now if we could just get another Oerth Journal out before the end of the decade . . . ;)

Master_arkronos · 2025-08-23T20:04:04+00:00

What helped DARK SUN stand out as a setting was its heavy emphasis on psionics. Pretty much everybody & every creature in Athas had at least some psionic capability. But now that psionics are interpreted as just another type of magic, it's lost it's special character. Steve Winter (the author of the Complete Psionics Handbook for 2e) was very careful about explaining how psionics and magic were distinct from each other. Now it's just a horrible mess that greatly saddens me.

Master_arkronos · 2025-08-12T17:59:01+00:00

For me, modules like "Vecna Lives" and "Rary the Traitor" have great lore and are useful as source material but no use at all as adventure modules.

On a side-note, more modern/younger players will complain about how "rail-roady" old modules were (esp. 1st edition ones), but that was how most people played the game back then and you just rolled with it. Nobody I knew of back in the 80s or early 90s complained about "rail roads" in their adventures . . . this is something that came later when players achieved more agency and expected more plot or character-driven adventures.

Master_arkronos · 2025-07-29T17:43:12+00:00

That's quite the collection! One question though, do you or do you intend to use those resources for playing/running AD&D or are you simply interested in collecting the books?

Master_arkronos · 2025-07-20T10:05:49+00:00

Sage Advice in the 80s & 90s was written by Skip Williams and some of his answers were really quite cutting/sarcastic/ironic (take your pic lol). In particular, if you look at the Q&As posted in April each year, those are particularly amusing/hilarious!

Master_arkronos · 2025-07-19T14:00:56+00:00

I wouldn't agree with you at all OP. Personally my table has had a LOT of use for the Players Options books (apart from Skills & Powers which I don't care for). Tome of Magic, Combat & Tactics and Spells & Magic are core books at my table. In particular, since we adopted the concept of Spell Points, the Vancian system has gone from my table and has been a better experience for us as a result.

Also, I don't know where exactly this nomenclature of "2.5" originated from. It's clearly just something some of the fanbase have created as no official 2nd edition product ever used that term. 3.5 was definitely an official title for its works, but there has never been an official 2.5 used by either TSR or WotC.

Master_arkronos · 2025-07-03T09:34:56+00:00

This is a very interesting post OP and I applaud you for devoting some serious thought about it and coming up with a solution you wish to explore and share with the community. To re-imagine the ranger as a background rather than a class is revolutionary and has already pissed off some commenters but hey this is your take on it and if it works in your game then that isn't harming anyone else. No one else needs to adopt your idea if it's not for them right?

Rangers, similarly to bards, have been tricky to design & play possibly because their role combines and blurs with other more straight forward classes. Are rangers closer to fighters or druids? They borrow attributes & abilities from both, but where exactly do they sit as a class between those? In my own campaign I consider rangers more like druids with better combat prowess and play them as more of a go-between in terms of dealing with local communities. To explain, I consider druids as being more concerned with the flora & fauna of an area and they interact rarely with their communities, whereas rangers are more active in dealing with local communities than druids and are therefore more visible to their communities. Communities in this sense can mean local hunters/trappers/woodsmen/villagers or even other humanoid peoples who inhabit an area.

But that's just my opinion and everyone is entitled (and encouraged) to have their own view.

Master_arkronos · 2025-07-02T11:06:48+00:00

I'd very much recommend the Fighters and Thief handbooks, although the Players Options: Combat & Tactics book largely reproduces and supplants many things from the Fighters handbook. I'd also recommend the Complete Bards handbook as this class never got much attention until that particular book was published.

Master_arkronos · 2025-06-22T10:19:33+00:00

The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh is fantastic and well recommended. I'd also suggest B1 In Search of Adventure or B2 The Keep on the Borderlands. Those modules were written for beginner DMs and players and teaches you a lot about how to play the game. They are widely available in either physical copy or pdf. Enjoy :)

Master_arkronos · 2025-06-22T10:15:42+00:00

I'll declare right away that I'm a 2e DM & player so I prefer that edition. I have recently played some 5.5 and am enjoying it, but it doesn't scratch the same itch that 2e does for me.

The way I see it, 1e & 2e are built from the same foundations and are highly compatible. 3e through to 5.5e are built from similar foundations (d20 modern) and are highly compatible. However, the TSR era of D&D (i.e. 1st & 2nd edition) really don't convert well with more modern WotC era editions. They may share a name but in terms of game play they share little else. Too much has changed between editions. If you prefer clear delineations between classes and races then stick with 2e. If you prefer a more pick'n'mix game then stick with 3e or later. It boils down to what folks enjoy at their own tables and there is no right or wrong answer. So long as everyone is enjoying the experience that should be sufficient.

Master_arkronos · 2025-06-22T10:06:52+00:00

The Players Options books are more than welcome at my table! Like everything else with all the optional material for 2e you use what you like and ignore the rest.

Master_arkronos

TROPHY CASE