Recent content by KRussellB

I feel like translating d20 Conan would really require an overhaul. I'd really be interested in taking the classes and translating them to 5e, much more so than adjusting the existing 5e classes. Plus you'd need to just port over all the spells. I loved how ALL the spells were basically Save or...

Ah! Nostalgia attack! I LOVED that system!

I definitely use traps! But I tend to reskin them as other dangers. For example, a rickety bridge is definitely a trap. A collapsing room is a trap. I also like to introduce traps in isolation, and then bring them into the combat environment to make things more exciting. So the characters...

Well yeah, obviously there's certain aspects of D&D as a game that will pressure players to keep their characters together. And yes, you can always just throw the responsibility on the players. But I'm trying to think more structurally here. I guess my thoughts stray to great groupings of...

Does anyone know of any efforts made to translate d20 Conan to 5e? For those without the wonderful experience of playing d20 Conan, it became my group's go-to rulebook for playing d20 campaigns. We loved the designers' choice to mostly throw out balance and focus on recreating the abilities...

My group and I are about to start a new 5e campaign. We were talking about our old 4e game, and the problem we had of the characters being so different in their motivations that there was no real good reason for them to travel together. Why, exactly, is the dwarf paladin still traveling with the...

That reminds me of a d20 Conan (I miss d20 Conan) game I ran for a few years in which all the players agreed to have sneaky characters. So we had a Barbarian, a Thief, a Soldier, and a Scholar who all invested in stealth skills. Anytime the characters could ambush, they would wipe the floor...

Thanks for the shout-out. :) To me, that question is honestly why I love having the mythical be real in campaigns. It creates this really fun domino effect of explanations. It's like how in Greek mythology, all these myths are tied together, all working under this theme of scheming, jealous...

I have always loved making campaign worlds in which the mythic is real. Why not have the Sun be a ball of fire pulled by a god in a chariot? Or a hawk traveling across the sky? I had one campaign world in which the King of the land sat upon a throne at the top of the mountain. Every day the...

I haven't, but I remember a FANTASTIC Call of Cthulhu Story Hour here on EN World (long ago), in which the players created themselves as characters who drastically changed because of the horrifying things they'd experienced. The DM wound up driving one of the players crazy by holding up a green...

In a game I ran, the halfling hermit had been run out of town when his romance with the daughter of the Dwarven guild master was discovered. After years of isolation, he stumbled upon an illegal trade network between the Dwarven guild and Drow. He came back down the mountains for revenge!

Yes, totally!!! I think the idea of designing lessons that are accessible to all students is very applicable to D&D. When designing encounters, I'm thinking of how each character, and each player will find an entry point. I also find that the creative itch that D&D scratches is also scratched...

I'm an elementary school teacher who also runs a weekly 5e game. I've noticed a lot of cross-over skills between planning and running curriculum, and running a good D&D game. Any other teachers out there feel the same?

So many great ideas!!! I love the structure of Wants, Fears, Believes. One way I want to improve my social challenges is by adding the factor of time. I've noticed that my dungeons have many different scenes (usually broken up by different rooms), but my social challenges have only one or two...

Hey all, What are your experiences in planning out social challenges in a more game-like structure? Typically in my game, I will create a kind of flow-chart of dialogue / social interaction options with an NPC, depending on PC social skill rolls or simply reacting to what the characters say...