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In almost all my games, it's theatre of the mind. My players are improv and roleplay heavy - and generally try to solve problems without violence, so combat doesn't happen every session. The game I'm currently a player in has been using gridless maps as well. Very nice honestly when the GM can...

I'd take a browse - perhaps just share the document?

To each, their own. I think you're partly right - I've never run a good /true/ sandbox. I'd love to hear how you plan and how it goes. I recommend getting your players on a ship - there weather is king. Such a nightmare - I generally name characters on stupid themes (Kraba Rangoon, Corona...

Charging a spell sounds cool and you can let your player do it as flavoring, but require the actions to be spent. One turn to cast the spell, a second turn to swing and hit, dealing both damages. This conserves the action economy well enough. The risk being their chance to miss the swing and...

You might find a balance here by having scenes collaboratively designed. One of my players loves the idea of acrobatic stunts, so whenever we describe a scene together, he always adds stuff he can jump off of or swing on. It really gets him into the scene and eager for the next event. Remember...

Well... I'm in the festive mood, so why not staple a few more onto this corpse? Let 'em Roll! Let 'em Roll! Let 'em Roll! (To the tune of Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!) Oh, the weather outside is frightful But the booze is so delightful And the wiz just got a new scroll So, let 'em...

Some fellows/frights from Chinese myth (mostly Journey to the West): Huangdi (The Yellow Emperor) Sun WuKong (The Monkey King) Sage Tripitaka Lü Bu (Real person, but the myth is bigger) Yuhuang (The Jade Emperor) Nianshou or Nian (Recognizable from the Lion Dances) Jiangshi (Zombie/Vampires)...

Thanks for sharing, Jacob - this is an interesting journey I have yet to encounter. I pretty often bring new people into the world of DnD and love giving people their first adventures. There aren't any game shops where I live, so unfortunately, I can't run games in shops, as I'd like to. Getting...

GMing is a skill, you get better with practice, time, and advice/observation of others. Personally, I love GMing. I love writing a story where I don't control the main characters and collaboratively making a world with friends. But like every skill, you'll hit a plateau. And that's where I...

Speaking of great mechanics: Favorite that I forgot about, We used the Story Point system from FFG's Edge of the Empire in a campaign basically in place of Inspiration. Players could flip a point for advantage, or I could flip one to give them disadvantage. We also used them narratively - such...

In an argument for reprinting races - not everyone buys every book, so presumably they can pick a book which covers the races their players are interested in, alongside a setting. The other extreme would be not reprinting, but printing several books to require collection (or piracy).

I played a game where a crit fail meant you fall prone. This was in 3.5 - so standing would get you AoO. Basically made crit fails a death sentence. I really hated it - because it made melee characters much worse. We also fought mostly groups of things, so when an enemy fell, it wasn't a big...

Uncommon races, as per RAW, aren't necessary to include at all. So really the only 'guarantees' are dwarf, human, elf, and halfling. Anyway, to return to point; I think the criteria could be pretty simple: 1. Races should be reasonably playable by a new player (heavy RP races like Drow, or...

I'd say goblins are pretty exemplary of generic fantasy, though. I believe they should be added, honestly - especially if as OP says, they're commonly included in setting books and have been printed so many times.

Cheers Defcon - I'll give this a run in the future and start implementing more exhaustion - either through situations or monsters that cause it. With the new UA ranger being able to deal with exhaustion with a one level dip - I think it'll lead to some interesting gameplay.

I generally play in small groups. Parties of three or so really suffer when one character gets exhaustion at least in RAW. So much so, that the Berserker has never been played in my groups. They aren't skill jockeys, but having one less set of hands/eyes for skill checks sucks. Disadvantage on...

Favorite: First couple levels you roll for HP - if less than half, take half. I like the max HP thing, but prefer this. It ensures players have a healthy amount of HP but also has some variation and luck involved. Hated: XP to slayer. This makes the table a competitive and toxic place.

Sticking inside the category of Nature - your druid could be some sort of embodiment of an area. Perhaps you're a dense forest druid. Your conflict can come from you trying to expand this area at all times. Planting trees, burning brush to set the land for forestation, feeding birds lots of...

Netrunner syndrome is a real concern. In Shadowrun and any game, I allow metagaming here. The PC with Arcane Eye can be muttering what it sees and the other PCs can be chiming in to investigate parts. I do the same in the Matrix in SR, even though it's against the rules. I find it is a lot more...

I found this one, which looks about right, but I remember having that paperback PHB for 3.5, which I think was only with a starter kit. Looking back, this isn't a great adventure. Very simple dungeon crawl with no chance to really interact with NPCs/solve problems without violence. Though, I...