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I’m going to hold off on posting for a week or so to give folks a chance to catch up

GM POST Clyde exhales and for the first time the rattling in the innkeeper's chest is no more. Sharindlar's grace has taken away the ailment plaguing him. Blinking away tears, he exchanges a look with his daughter Marta. She immediately notices the change in her father's countenance – the color...

Clyde, though weakened, has keen weathered eyes as he sizes up Oskar. After a pause, he nods to allow the examination. "I figured most of your kin would be retreating to the Dwarven Valley... seems like every day I hear of a dwarven family packing their bags. You're certainly traveling against...

My experience is D&D's initiative system fails to scale up well for larger groups – even if there's inevitable increase in handling time with more players, the initiative system really exacerbates that. My read is that the more an initiative system is about individual thinking (as opposed to...

Marta offers a weak smile and goes about scribbling in the accounting ledger, before she realizes she doesn't know Oskar's name to enter it in the ledger. "Your name, master dwarf?" She swallows and falls silent at the mention of her father's illness. "A-a- cleric?" Her eyes widen as if...

Physical labor like lifting up snow-buried rafters with a rock bar... that would take time. Doing so in the midst of a snowstorm... that would take endurance. And no reports of lanterns or suspicious activity, they likely were working in the dim light that smothers all of Icewind Dale... that...

As far as emulating the old version in the new edition, I think you did a great job! However, I question the underlying design framework of magic resistance in all editions (and legendary resistance, for that matter). Basically, super cool monster defenses are only interesting so far as they...

I asked that question and McGibster shared their answer/experience already: D&D (2024) - Is Combat Tedious on Purpose? (Links to exact post)

One observation I can make of 5e is that once you reach the tipping point (where it becomes moooostly clear which side will be victorious), the system can overstay its welcome due to hit point bloat. There are good reasons for HP bloat, such as giving a buffer for climactic monsters so they...

@MGibster Have you noticed the 2024 rules leading to more tedious combats than the 2014 rules? (asking because I haven't touched 2024) More generally... medium influences message. There was a consulting team during 2024 D&D's design that focused on digital integration, and they would give...

I wonder about letting players choose their classes from any of the 5e-ish books you allow, and then making photocopies / digital scans of the relevant parts of the book…that would work for me. This approach is more “gather round and make PCs together” (ans opposed to “come with PC ready”) and...

The saboteur or saboteurs clearly timed their sabotage during last night's snow storm – there's no chance of finding a trail. However, the Eastside's actual inn spaces are partly underground with just the snow-covered roof exposed – you realize there's no obvious way to tell where the support...

GM POST The freckled teen has been singing softly to herself as she takes notes in the accounting ledger... "Ahead of winter's wind she came— The lovely woman with no name; Draped in a fur-lined cloak of red, To the icy lake she fled; The wind pursued her all the same— As sure as night she's...

@Zardnaar I forgot to share this with you. I'm also (slowly, with interruptions) working on a homebrew that sounds a bit like the "B/X advanced with three saves, lower hp" sort of game you're wanting. It's meant to be mostly compatible with OSE and B/X-adjacent games. Here's one of the class...

Vilhon Reach

Totally, yeah, action denial has a wide swing of impact in 5E. I have experienced that too. Against lots of mooks or in certain situations (eg. slipping past held ogre door guard), it can work great, but against single or a few enemies, it can utterly cripple them for fairly low cost to the...

Love their art and the passion going into this, and thank you for the interview. That said, here’s my tongue in cheek reply to cut through some of the marketing speak. … The NPC stats are going to get a ton of use…not at all because we’ve removed many of the frequently used humanoid monsters...

Don’t know many of those products… A monster book (as opposed to a database or spreadsheet or stats-only list) is something i reference for ideas, lore, cool pictures - anything to inspire my creativity. If i need to just get to the stats, I will either get them online or have them copy-pasted...

Reducing hit points across the board, bounded accuracy, changing saves, curating spells, making monsters scary – there are worthy reasons to explore these changes. However... ...I think Magic Resistance is not the best way to go... especially when you're asserting that "Most spells aren't...