u/Lloydwrites

I used to sit on a group called the Product Guidance Council. It was a collection of retailers who provided feedback to game designers (mostly board games, but some minis and RPGs) regarding things like marketing, price points, release strategy, etc. Back in the day, a very high percentage of game sales were through retailers via distributors--like 90%. Only a small percentage came through direction sales at conventions or direct ordering. Thus, most publishers were blind to customer browsing experiences and purchasing decision-making, and our feedback helped guide them (I'd like to think).

I sold my stores to focus on game publishing, but I recently had 3 large stores (one at 4,000 square feet, the others 5,000 sf or more), and I've sold many tons of games. If you have questions about box size and shape, unusual formats (like Happy Salmon's), price points, or other stuff related to the experience of customers interacting with your game on a shelf (and hopefully buying it), ask away.

When a character dies, what are your rules on replacement characters? Does the replacement start out at level 1 with normal starting wealth? Higher level? Higher xp?

I have recently been inspired to start them with a fixed percentage of the previous character's xp, with different modifiers for retired or dead characters.

However, there are still some issues.

In 1e, demihumans--even multi-classed--contribute a little more than humans despite a slight level difference. Because the XP to level roughly doubles for most classes the multi-classed characters are generally only a level behind single-classed characters, and the suite of racial abilities they have more than makes up the difference.

So what often happens in a campaign--unless its restricted somehow--is that players roll up demihumans at low levels and replace them with humans around level 9 or so.

Likewise, players roll up fighters at low level and tend to replace them with spellcasters at high level. Given the vertical balance, principle not playing through those low levels as a caster throws game play out of balance a little.

What about magic items? If a character dies, his magic items are usually still available to the group. Even if he has heirs, the group still tends to loot him. Maybe they'll return personal possessions, but the sword+2 goes to another fighter. So if the replacement 8th level ranger comes in with the same gear as the old one, the party's total haul has just increased considerably.

I was using the Appendix P assignment of magic items to replacement characters, but I abandoned it for some better personalization.

For characters high enough, do they start with a stronghold? What about much higher characters?

Henchmen? Hirelings?

For reference, I play pre-UA 1e and stick to RAW, except for the numerous places where RAW is silent, like this.

I have the LE hardback, and I'm wondering what you guys had to say about prep as a GM before launching a campaign using this behemoth. Additional NPCs to stat out, areas to prepare for, etc. Maybe interior maps needed. For those who have run it, what trouble spots popped up?

This was a short story anthology. I was told by family member that it was my older brother's 6th grade textbook. Hardback, I want to say a primarily blue cove. The only story I remember was "The Erne from the Coast" by T.O. Beachcroft. I don't remember seeing discussion questions with each story, so maybe it had a companion workbook or something. Or wasn't a textbook.

A book of facts I read in the mid-70s. It might have been a spinoff of Guinness Book of Records. I had two in the series, each with a theme. The one theme I remember was young people and had achievements like youngest person to get a pilot's license or (morbidly) die of alcoholism (I think he was 10 or 11 and British).

To the best of my memory from 50 years ago, the trim size was small (like mass market paperback size) and the page count would have been relatively brief; it was a thin spine.

I remember almost nothing about graphics or visuals, but I might recognize a cover or interior illo. Like most books of the era, the interior was all b&w.

I was a child reading this, but I read above my age.

We have the diary of an inspector (quarry supervisor) who recorded where he sent cut blocks. We found it at the quarry from where his crew of about 40 workers moved the blocks to their destination. We can date this document almost exactly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diary_of_Merer#:~:text=The%20text%2C%20written%20with%20cursive,quarries%20to%20Giza%20by%20boat.

The Egyptians have a long history of developing technologies that predate the construction of the Great Pyramids. The Great Pyramids didn't spring up out of the dust. They're the natural progression of all the pyramids and other structures that came before them. Suggesting otherwise is like acknowledging that Egyptians invented the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 but aliens came down out of the sky and gave them 7, then disappeared without a trace.

We know a considerable amount about the tools and techniques they used, and this amount increases regularly with new discoveries. While we don't know every single thing about the construction of the pyramids, I will point out that the answer to every question ever solved has been "not magic." It wasn't giants. It wasn't aliens. It wasn't time-travelers. All the evidence shows intelligent human designers who united a people with a common goal and gave them the tools to make it happen.

I am out of patience with the conspiracy theories. I'm not stopping with just removing posts. I am handing out bans without discussion. If you think you have a new idea about how the pyramids were built, no, you don't.