Be social
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General
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* You should see plain text input by default; click "enable rich text" for fancy formatting tools. (Some people love that and some don't. Be aware that formatting tool performance may vary by browser.)
* With apologies to all, "captcha" questions may face unregistered posters. Otherwise, the spam flow will dwarf the Nile.
Registration and login
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* If you'd prefer to post as an unregistered visitor, that's welcome too. Just leave "Your name" as the default "Esteemed Visitor", or type in some other name. (But if you happen to type in a name used by a registered user – say, "tbone" – you'll get an error telling you so when you hit "post comment". And while your post text should still be there, waiting for a revised user name, there's a chance it could disappear.)
* If you're a registered user but haven't logged in and want to post a quick comment as Esteemed Visitor, that's fine; see above.
* If you're a registered user but haven't logged in, and enter your user name under "Your name" when posting, you'll get an error saying that's the name of a registered user. That's a good thing; it means strangers can't make posts under your user name! But as above, there's a chance of losing your post text. It's best to log in first here, and then start your posting.
Final
All the above is standard stuff for community web sites, but reminders are good; I hate post-related glitches, and hate to see people run into them on this site. On this or any site, it's a good practice to do a quick "Select All" and "Copy" on your post text before hitting "Preview comment" or "Post comment" – just in case.
For more on the whole topic of interaction with the site, please see User Interaction (opens in new window).
Patron advantage
How's everything?
Enjoying your Games Diner meal? Is the wait staff attentive? Is the chef bathed? (Then it must be a Sunday.) You do know that a little eggshell in the French toast adds calcium, right?
If the cramps haven't set in yet, I hope you'll say Hi to the chef or check out the many ways you can contribute to the Diner.
Now eat. Eat up! You're as thin as a rail.
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Dice mods vs. dice pools.
All RPGs have to balance several different factors. One is letting the players feel like their characters have at least a calculable chance of accomplishing tasks at least partially outside of their (the characters' AND the players') control. Another is not making every task too easy to bother with. And a third is keeping things from being totally predictable; it's just as as undesirable to know with certainty that your character will succeed as it is to know that he/she/it will fail.
Dice mods make it easier to calculate the odds of success, because you have a firm grasp of the base probabilities. The mods themselves can be known or hidden ('cos the tricksy GM didn't mention that the dungeon's oxygen levels are rising, or something equally weird) but you know what your chances are to hit or exceed the success threshold on a single roll, and it's easier to adjust your calculations from there. (Bonus: does anyone reading this column remember "column shifts"? They used to be all the rage, and now no one uses them. Care to guess why?)
On the other hand, dice pools make probability calculations more complex, because no one die roll result equals automatic success or failure. I might suggest visualizing it as playing at six craps tables simultaneously, with the wagers on each table modifying all of the others. Thus, it becomes much more difficult to tell whether or not a character will succeed at any task calling for dice rolls.
I believe that dice pools do a better job of making it more difficult for the player to predict the outcome of any contest, but that dice plus modifiers make the game flow more smoothly. Ultimately, it remains a matter of player choice which tools to use in the service of having fun.