Recent content by Epic Meepo

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    D&D 5E (2024) Mike Mearls explains why your boss monsters die too easily

    The game is designed to have 6-8 encounters per Long Rest, and (at low to mid levels), it takes 6-8 max difficulty encounters to level up. So... eliminate Long Rests, and apply the benefits of a Long Rest whenever the PCs gain a level?
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    D&D General Beadle & Grimms Forgotten Realms Premium Map Collection

    If they group southern Faerun and northern Zakhara together, they could easily do a pair of Great Sea sourcebooks that cover the same amount of ground as the (northern) Faerun sourcebooks.
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    D&D General Beadle & Grimms Forgotten Realms Premium Map Collection

    I'm guessing it's not a coincidence that the Forgotten Lands are all the lands in and around the Forgotten Kingdom of Impiltur. As an aside, I find it amusing we now have the Forgotten Kingdom (Impiltur) in the Forgotten Lands (northeastern Faerun) in the the Forgotten Realms (the world of...
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    DMs Guild [Design Notes] Forgotten Realms Travel Guide: Faerûn, Kara-Tur, and Zakhara

    Today's mission: agonize over minutiae as I review my list of graphics that might look better if I moved something a few pixels to the left. Since that doesn't make for an exciting forum post, here's a randomly chosen map. Because sometimes you just need to know where in the Underdark gray...
  5. duergar-map.png

    duergar-map.png

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    ChatGPT lies then gaslights reporter with fake transcript

    I've heard this before and it always strikes me as odd. I'm genuinely curious: if asking, "Are you sure?" identifies most hallucinations, why isn't "Are you sure?" functionality being used under the hood to proactively stop hallucinations from happening?
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    D&D General Favorite Forgotten Realms products of all time?

    I'm a fan of the Atlas, but I wasn't happy with the poor scan job WotC did for the pdf version I purchased. I haven't checked to see if they've updated the file since I first downloaded it, but the copy I got a few years back had several maps cut off at the edges because the pages were cropped...
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    How long before VTTs support TTRPGs with AI GMs?

    Fair point. But I'd say an AI GM is just one step removed from that; an AI GM would be an expert system that runs game rules paired with a LLM that generates adventure content and NPC dialogue. (You'd want an expert system like a VTT to handle the game rules whenever the LLM isn't needed to...
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    How long before VTTs support TTRPGs with AI GMs?

    I'm sure someone will provide a passable AI GM in the not too distant future. A GM bot isn't that dissimilar from a call center bot, and AI call center bots are becoming a fairly standard tool for businesses. If nothing else, I could see one or more hobbyists cobbling together an AI GM of some...
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    DMs Guild [Design Notes] Forgotten Realms Travel Guide: Faerûn, Kara-Tur, and Zakhara

    That's a great question, one I had to answer for myself when WotC announced the upcoming Forgotten Realms books. The introduction to the Travel Guide addresses the possibility of discrepancies between different Forgotten Realms campaign setting products. To paraphrase, the Dungeon Master can...
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    DMs Guild [Design Notes] Forgotten Realms Travel Guide: Faerûn, Kara-Tur, and Zakhara

    I'm too busy polishing up the Forgotten Realms Travel Guide to write a lengthy post today, so here are two illustrations from the book: the shortest and tallest Humanoids native to Zakhara (shown to scale). (Some stock art courtesy of pixabay.com and shutter stock.com.)
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    halfling.png

  13. goliath.png

    goliath.png

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    D&D General Eberron - why don't you run it? [-]

    Personally, I've had more fun playing a changeling against type. My changeling character was honest to a fault and refused to use shapechanging to deceive others. Instead, the changeling wore the same, identifiable face at all times, modified in small ways to reflect their current mood. (The...
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    D&D General I need some lore help for the Lord of the First (Baator)

    I'm inclined to say "Zariel" is the name attached to anyone serving as rightful Lord of Avernus. Asmodeus strips the name from any former lord and gifts to their successor as a badge of office. (Bel was just a placeholder, so Asmodeus never renamed him. Bel was blinded by hubris after seizing...
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