Goodman Games

A World At War "Our people have fought with their people since the ancient days. It is stupid and wasteful. This cycle must end, which is why I must take up the sword as my ancestors did." The Stone Ledger: The Dwarves Remember Deep in the mountains, the Dwarf people have records that go ...

Fighting with Honor "There is only one ethical system and it is pragmatism. Only goals change." The concept of honorable combat is pretty fishy when you look at it carefully. Your goal is to painfully kill another sapient being with a deadly weapon, and the other guy is attempting to do t...

Multiclassing Characters "What do I do? I stab things in the face. …Fine, I'm a Fighter/Ranger/Barbarian/Master of Black Fire/ Cloud Jumper." It's time to face the music, Warriors are the only people who multiclass, and thus the proper place to discuss multiclassing characters is right he...

Unusual Races For a long time, there has been a definite pro-prettiness bias in the rules of D&D. That is, elves (who are pretty) get a much better deal as player characters than do hobgoblins (who are ugly). This dates back to when races had mandatory alignments and people wanted to discourage...

Empirinomicon "What difference does it make? We're just going to kill them anyway…" The Underdark is filled with empires. It is notable not only that there is civilization down here at all, but that there are actual empires. There's enough space for there to be tribes of creatures that pe...

The Constructanomicon: "How does that even stay up?" Perhaps the most important question surrounding Dungeons and Dragons is the question why there are Dungeons and Dragons. When you think about it, that's pretty weird. Dungeons: By the gods, why? Alright, we know that you love dungeons. ...

Prestige Classes The prestige class system is as old as Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, and it has never really lived up to peoples' high expectations of it. From the original Bard on, there has always been an expectation that getting into a Prestige Class somehow should be an ordeal where you get ...

Optional Rules There are a number of places in the rules that governing Fiends that just don't work at all, or don't work in a way that is good. This is an attempt to fix them. No Wishing for More Wishes! The 3.5 wish spell is very explicit in what it can do, and extremely vague about what it can't...

Morality: How Black is the Night? Those readers who have been following this series will remember the basic moral question regarding Necromancy: namely the fundamental decision for each game as to whether to treat Negative Energy as an objective force or an ultimate moral indictment. The central qu...

New rules: The interaction of Undead with the rest of the rules is often less than satisfactory. Part of this is that the undead type itself is extremely overzealous in the game effects it provides. The fact that all undead don't need sleep means that vampires don't have to sleep in their coffins. ...

Tome of Necromancy Unlike the Revised Necromancer Handbook, which is a compilation of the Necromancy rules as they stand, what you are reading now is the rules for Necromancy as they should be. We feel there is a need for this because despite (or let's not kid ourselves, because of) the considerabl...

Since I have nothing better to do right now, I'll put up some samples from Frank and K's work, which the In My Humble Opinion board is home to. First, an explanation: Frank and K are able to find a lot of exploits and faults in the rules, and they're good at logically working out how a race's abilit...

Arek, thanks for the update and for spreading the word! It's always good to hear about new fans. I'm curious about the comments regarding the new classes. Sure, maybe this is a hard-to-please group (which makes the thumbs-up for the setting ever better), but anything in particular that you recall? ...

Further Update: It seems a couple of more people have bought it, and one even thanked me! He says the only thing that keeps it from being his new favorite setting is his concern that the new classes weren't properly balanced. And I have to tell you, Goodman Games, these are people who can find fault...

Will the Gearwrights ever find out those spells are in existence? I can't quite decide if they'd be interested, ecstatic, or horrified. If we do 4E DragonMech, you may well find an answer to this question. The other new question, which arrived upon running over Tannanliel's characteristics in my mi...

Tannan, as the foremost arcane mech designer in history, has created a bunch of weird spells specifically to help with that very problem. Consider how useful it would be to have a medium-level divination that functioned like True Strike , only for reaching your Craft DC. Very useful, indeed. And I ...

Okay, found what I want.

It raises another question, though.


...

How the hell was Tannaliel's DC achieved?

Hey, how does Aid Another work for making a mech? I seem to remember there being a recent post about it, but I can't find it.

Update: Well, one person has gone ahead and bought the core rulebook. He says it's pretty interesting, although he questions some stuff, like Clerics sometimes not receiving their spells. Eh, the chance that a cleric won't receive their spells is relatively small, and more than made up for by the d...

Double Jointed: clockwork enhancement allow joints to work at odd angles; gain +4 competence bonus to escape artist; Cwb can no longer be flanked Interesting. Precision Timepiece: CwB has a precise sense of time; always aware of passage of time despite sleep or unconsciousness; only death and resur...

Update:

Well, one person has gone ahead and bought the core rulebook. He says it's pretty interesting, although he questions some stuff, like Clerics sometimes not receiving their spells.

I dig the idea of an recurring skinstealer. And sure, why not have a skinstealer who's not onboard with the Master Plan? He could be roguish, looking to taste all the sensations denied his race on the cold moon, or even a moralistic one, appalled by what his race is doing to Highpoint. --Ken There'...

Yep, that would work. Or you could keep it within the setting as is by saying that Mal & Pals were part of a failed coup against the Stenian Confederacy a few years ago. In the current political landscape of Highpoint, there are plenty of opportunities for smugglers, scavengers, and other bold/...

Or, the crew could be given general combat training, so if they are boarded, they put up a hell of a fight and make boarding the mech tougher (although the mech temporarily loses crew while they switch over to being fighters.) No promises, but this is one of the things we're tinkering with in the l...

We're sill in the process of tweaking, re-tweaking, and re-re-tweaking rules, and the character/crew rules are some that are likely going to get a fairly major overhaul again before the game comes out...so anything we say now may end up not being true in the final product. Keeping that in mind: How...