I also recommend the chessex battlemat and a couple wet erasers (black and blue, avoid red and green because they're more stain prone). And I usually describe the map and the dimensions of the rooms and the players draw it. They find it very fun, but YMMV
I'm looking for an old blog post that's starts with a story about when the author tells ran Tomb of Horrors as a kid, and all the players fell for the Devil's Mouth trap and were pretty bummed by it. IIRC the author also mentions I6 - Ravenloft, and the article was about changing things in...
It's an element present since I6 - Ravenloft, but on the original module it was awful: he used the spell Polymorph to turn the victim into himself, and then would turn into the victim and scape the mists. I guess CoS tried to preserve it in some form, but I think in the current incarnation and...
My first RPG purchase with my own money was the Pathfinder Core Rulebook (1st edition). The group with I played D&D 3.5 before disbanded and only the DM had books, so I had to get my own books. Owning the rulebook was also what plunged me to the forever DM seat.
My theory is that closing this deal with a big game director and show it to the investors was what secured a huge annual bonus for someone on Hasbro. Now getting this game finished (or even started) isn't a priority until someone need to meet their KPIs or something.
I don't know about specific animes, but SquareSoft took a lot directly from D&D when making the Final Fantasy franchise. The Beholder in FF1 is my favourite example. It was another time and maybe Square Enix and WotC have some kind of deal about it currently, but I would not call it public domain.
No, but in later tiers characters are more capable of dealing with environmental conditions they couldn't before. For a Tier 1 party a hailstorm could be a challenge, but exploring caves inside a volcano would be outright deadly (YMMV).
Dungeon Master's Guide isn't very clear about it, but 5e 2014 have a very specific expectation about treasure: you're awarded the equivalent of one treasure hoard of adequate level each adventuring day. (one hoard at level 1, one at level 2, two at level 3, three at each level 4 to 10, and two...
The only monster I remember having a prescriptive order is the Grick, that first use its tentacles and if the attack hits it bites the target. How is the wording of it's multiattack in the new edition?
While I do agree Shattered Obelisk and Eve of Ruin are far from the best 5e books, I think she have an advantage with Dragon Delves: they are separate adventures instead of a campaign book. The number one flaw in Shattered Obelisk is making a Lost Mine a worst adventure by attaching an unrelated...