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On number 2: Can you elaborate on this a bit? With the players you've had, what sorts of situations have they seen such a conclusion as acceptable? What situations have they not? I guess I am just curious as to what other parties view as an Acceptable 'We screwed up, we lose' scenario. Does it...

I'd rather move away from the 'Fear of Death' conversation and focus on the 'Fear of Permanent Loss' one. Many in here have mentioned they prefer no-death campaigns because other consequences can be just as meaningful or even more so. So I wonder, do you let campaigns end in failure or loss...

So if I may take a stab at this? Forgive me if I am out of line, since I am not a grognard by anyones definition or stretch of the imagination, but even for me there is a draw, a spark, a certain something that the old old old style of D&D and the old old old system produces that draws me to it...

The impact of the players decisions and the stakes of getting it wrong are two ways I expect the narrative to differ between high level play and low level. Whilst when an adventurer starts out only a town may be at risk, and a bad decision might lead to the death of a villager or three, at high...

To put simply: no death is not the only form of permanent loss. As I mentioned in my previous post, a negative campaign end state also represents a permanent loss and this does not have to equal the characters die. The characters can fail in such a way that for the campaign and there quest there...

My 2 cents here: If there is no loss state, then there is no way to 'win'. In tabletop games I play, it is very possible to lose the campaign. The two hard loss states I have usually are TPK and severe failure to stop the bad-guy. I inform everyone of this during session 0. Everyone knows its...

Very good post. I approve! Trying to be better is something we can all do.

There are two types of manipulation being discussed here. I would be furious if I found out that my DM had been 'dumbing down' encounters or manipulating dice rolls to go easy on me or my group. I've explained this to my DM, explicitly asked them not to do that, to let dice fall where they will...

I view my role as DM as very much a combination of referee and story advocate. I set the stage on which the players and NPCs together will tell their story, using both dice and decisions. Yes, the dice can kill the players. In fact, if you are preventing the dice from killing the players via...

Yeah I see no reason not to allow players to play what they want. If two or more wanna play the same class, that is between them. I will advise them to have a wide variety of capabilities but beyond that, their choice.

A city split by civil war. The people, strained to breaking by being exploited and edged on by anti-immigrant revolutionary elements, have risen up against the merchant class and taken over the industrial sector and the docks. The party must decide to support the rebel workers or the ruling...

Gnomes and Halflings existing in the same setting. Also the 1000 subtypes of elves.

Do we care what the CR show does? I don't think they're a useful metric for a variety of reasons. Like, I could say that at my table, for every 2 hours of non-combat there is one hour of combat (and it is ALL roleplaying) but that really is of very little use except to show how I prefer to run...

Yes! When my players go off on a discussion amongst themselves and I can tell its gonna last a bit, it gives me a (sometimes much needed) break and I use the time to adjust the next parts of the game to whats happened thus far this session. If it goes on so long that I start getting bored I'll...

Yeah I find myself wanting both. If I have too much roleplaying with nary a break, I get bored. If all that happens is dungeon crawling and combat, I get bored. Variety is the spice of life, and novelty is the key part of running a successful game. I do find that some enjoy more of one or the...

After defeating a party of thugs sent to kidnap their charge, the PCs decided to leave their bodies on the side of the road with a message, warning the people who hired these thugs against further attempts. They set out from the inn where they were attacked toward their destination, but after a...

I generally am rather lax on the strict vision rules. The only time I bring them up is when they will add to the encounter. For instance, if there are hidden assassins in the shadows and the party has no darkvision, the lighting will be relevant and so I will cue them into it during the...

If only there were some way to keep the information fresh in ones head and right in front of them... some tool...perhaps a card one could take notes on...

I'm a huge fan of aligning with factions. I think 13th Age does this in a great way with their Icon system. You can have positive, negative or complicated relationships with the major players in the world. This actually adds to the game in a way that 'good/evil' just really cannot. IMHO. So if...

Certainly they are. Still, many folks want it to remain and enjoy it. I think there is a slight fetishizing of 'official content' here, mind you, but I try to follow the rule of "Just because I dont care doesn't mean no one cares" and I try to empathize with viewpoints I may disagree with. In...