Recent content by bloodtide

agreed. I would say for the game as a whole taking any temporary stance won't effect the game much.....unless you take an extreme stance (like Buddy or Killer GM) or if you take the stance at just the right time. Like having a helpful NPC give each PC a potion would not over disrupt...

Neither. The average Benevolent (I would say Buddy) DM will freely admit they never or almost never kill PCs or do any real semi-permanent harmful effects to a PC. It is not even close to a secret. And having nothing in the game the players don't like is the whole foundation of player lead...

I think this mixes too much. 1. The DMs that treat foes as just nothing NPC game tokens and the Immersive DM that treats all NPC as Characters. 2. Not all NPC, even when played immersivly will be a hard opponent: they can be anything. A typical such benevolent DM plays the whole game in this...

D&D is full of them. Once you get past low level lots of foes have powerful attacks and abilities. 5E super nerfed most of them, but they are still there. A lot of BGM just don't use them or even use the monsters that have them. Or have powerful spellcasters attacking with only low level...

The Undermountian books from 2E had this sort of thing as Ed does like "crazy random dungeons". And it has a lot of his old Dragon Magazine articles put into it. Like his long ago article "dungeon doors of the Realms". The Ruins of Myth Drannor has some too.

No they don't. There is nothing about "benevolent" that means you must make things a Challenge. What a benevolent GM must do, is what you say below: So, like you say not giving hard or really challenging tasks, only luke warm ones that are the "most challenging" for such easy tasks. As said...

There is a crazy line here though. The "benevolent" GM does not and can not do things like "play to there best ability" or "make things a challenge". Such a DM just rolls out the Red Carpet and the Easy Button ans says "yes players". The benevolent GM can "challenge" the players, but it will...

And Cheep! A lot of books were in the $9-$12 range, and that was the SMP. You could find them on sale easy enough. Bookstores either had sales or coupons where you could get like 20% off. And if you were a member of the book club, you could even get another 20% off. I remember stacking...

Yes. No. This is way too complex for 5E.

Nearly everything is controversial in some circles. The big thing to do is preparation. Controversial as many DMs just like to make up random simple stuff or even have the players take the lead and just make up the stuff every player says on a whim. Preparation can solve a lot. A good...

Yes. There is a lot of society and economics mixed in here. It was cheep enough to make, distribute, market and sell most RPG books. Back in the days of game shops, they would often have at least one whole bookcase full of such books. And gamers bought them up. A shop that got a box of ten...

I Love low stats. I love characters that make sense: having stats that match the role play. As a role player, I love to play all sorts of characters. And as I'm not an obsessive all combat type player, I'm fine if my clumsy character does not get a huge bonus to AC.. I remember back in the...

I only run what I really, really like. And up front I will lay out a large number of generic system-less house rules. If players don't agree, I won't run the game. I don't really run short games often. I'm not a "wow lets try this new game" for a couple weeks kind of DM. I stick to "so...

I'm a tyrant DM that plays several groups a week and I force the games to move forward at a blazing fast pace. If you want to play a very fast, focused immersive role play, my game is for you. If you want anything else, find another game. I'm very harsh....a player even suggests that they...

What? This seems like such a limited view point. To say X always equals Y is just not good game play, story telling or really anything else. This example is way to vague. To say "well any humanoid with a beard has a quest for your characters" is just silly. Now, sure there are some times...