Recent content by Mort

I've found 5e much more DM friendly than 3e. Specifically, DMing 3e to high level (tier 4) became a difficult slog for me. I've found DMing high level 5e significantly easier, and have enjoyed DMing through tier 4 a lot.

You're missing a major part of the 5e market, young people. When my son was in 7th grade (about 6 years ago) he joined the D&D club, it was BY FAR the biggest club at his middle school. It was so big they had to get a bigger room for it, and there was even a wait list - with parents calling and...

I think Campaign 1 had some things really worth emulating. For example, the way Mercer world builds. Starting small and then expanding from there (both in terms of the physical world and the lore) is a great way to do it, not the only way, but a pretty good one. Exandria is now very developed...

I've always been a big fan of alternate abilities for skills, as long as there's a good explanation and it's not absurd. Sure that means results by table may vary, but since I'm only concerned about my table when I DM, it's generally not an issue With the History skill, I consider it not just...

At the end of the day, it's usually about space issues, pretty hard to fit everything in. WoTC picked a side. They wanted to present (even showcase) the game as written. Can't blame them at all, one of the biggest complaints of prior DMGs (Certainly of the 5e one) is that they are opaque for...

Unlike prior DMGs, the 5.24 one seems much more a new DM primer than a DM Toolbox. From what I've seen "alternate" rules are all but gone in favor of much more advice on running the game as presented. It's a more focused supplement. Which, of course, doesn't help those looking for an alternative.

It's sad you assume such an adversarial relationship. I guess I've played with the same group of players for a long time. We all trust each other enough to know we have each other's fun in mind. I strongly disagree that players only like playing their PCs when they are at full strength. That...

Players will fight the passage of time tooth and nail? Players will fight obvious time constraints (not unnatural ones, obvious ones) tooth and nail? So if you're chasing the BBEG, and you've found his stronghold. The group gets through the grunts and cannon fodder. The group progresses and...

Really? Again, I've never had players try to rule lawyer me on consequences from time passing. I've never even had to explain (as far as I recall) that the world isn't a collection of scenes frozen in time waiting for the PCs to get there. From my experience, people seem to easily understand...

This is interesting. I've NEVER had players who refuse to accept that some things are time sensitive. And that there are consequences for delaying. I mean are you telling me that if you set up a challenge where there are 5 groups going after the treasure, the players will not understand that...

For me, if a new group misreads a spell THAT badly (missing that it's a 1 minute casting time), I will prompt them. "That has a minute casting time, you sure about this?" Last time this came up (Can't remember the spell but it was something with a minute casting time) - the player realized had...

If you look at the threads here, there are MANY people who understood what the DMG said perfectly. But here is not a representative sample. And a bigger problem, many of the people writing adventures didn't seem to get it!

So the argument is, because the party will approach the BBEG with all abilities ready (e.g. fully rested) they need to be differently designed. That's one take. But a likely better one, the DM needs to understand and control the pace of play. There can be many ways to ensure the party can't...

Probably not, but she does love to sow some chaos.

The tiny and cute fairy who's actually a stone cold killer with a grudge and a short fuse could be really fun or could get old quick and be a nightmare for the rest of the table! We had a character like this (minus the tiny and cute) in a prior campaign and he caused several fights that could...