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The enclaves are VERY NICE, in a sandboxy kind of way. They take a little bit of work to get up and running, but they're full of good inspiration and can accommodate a session or three. They're pretty easy to weave into ongoing adventures, too. It's an idea I'd love to see more of, since not...

Wizards are nerdy fantasy characters, so I guess it's pretty much on point.

I really like this! My dwarves are basically guardians of the tomb, but they were coming off as a bit boring, and to have some conflict between them - some of them wanting release, some of them still clinging to hope that the curse can be ended - really could add some interesting dynamics...

So I've been throwing together a Dark Souls-inspired gothic fantasy Snow White campaign. I've got some good initial legs, but I'd love to get some more brainfood. So help me riff on the idea! Big ideas I've got so far include In this version of the story, the Queen won. Though the Huntsman...

I think it can be useful to talk about the micro-moments that lead to that jerk mercenary being a problem. Like, you mention a sharp veer toward hostility, but in the right circumstances, that's not necessarily a problem. It's just a player saying, "I want to take the story in this direction."...

Yellow flag is very sensible here! I'd argue that the line between "jerk mercenary character" and "jerk player" is a more of a scale. A social mechanic that values character performance should allow for flaws with an impact on the game. If the flaw is just handwaved away, it's not really...

Yeah, this needs some work in D&D. IMO, the best example of this in D&D so far is inspiration for playing your flaw. Which is nice, but not super strong (there's a lot of ways to get advantage). There's also the group check, which means that I can blow up the social situation personally and...

Yes! This really gets at the different "mode of play" involved here. And I'm of the opinion that we can get better at mechanics that encourage that mode of play, without turning it into something else. Skill checks are fine, but they can't be our only tool.

Incorrect, and another strawman. I didn't think it needed to be spelled out, but the goal is just to have more fun playing D&D. And a game where character performance is part of the game adds fun in some of these ways: It challenges different skill-sets. If combat challenges our tactical...

Yeah, mechanics are never 1-to-1 representations of reality. Actual combat doesn't work according to initiative, either. We don't need to set an arbitrarily higher reality bar for social mechanics than we do for any other mechanics. Which was part of the point I was making by describing...

We're totally agreed on this. But by "mechanics," I don't mean rolling dice and adding modifiers to achieve success. I mean things that will support other players in being better performers of their characters. I mean, one of the mechanics could be a formalized kind of social initiative, so...

I don't think the appeal to history is as reassuring as it maybe could be. Part of how we "learned something new" in the wake of the industrial revolution was to pursue war and death on an unprecedented scale that showed its teeth with genocide and ended with the prospect of a few skittish apes...

What happens if we flip the script a bit? I feel character builds should be a fun extra. I don't want my real life character optimization skills to overshadow someone who lacks those advantages. It's like if I was using my system knowledge as a way to become the most effective in combat...

The modern hysteria that reminds me of these campaigns is not the scientifically robust data that shows human influence on the climate. It's the book burnings and paranoia about drag queens and trans people that often go hand in hand with doubting the above robust scientific data. Just raw...

I mean, it's not perfect, but I will defend it as a very good social pillar system, because of a few reasons: It gives you a broad two-word description of what is important to your character. It leaves the specific application of that broad description kind of open-ended. It defines Lawful...

I think when D&D players talk "systems," we can switch quickly to "things like combat and skill checks!" and miss the unique kind of play found in the social pillar. IMO, a system that supports social play shouldn't be like combat. It shouldn't be like rolling dice and adding and subtracting...

Yep! A lot of the "mechanics" I'd add are basically scaffolding that help normal DMs get to the place that good DMs get to intuitively. :)

Here's an idea of what I think would make a good social mechanic addition to 5e: Wants and Needs When you've got a recurring NPC, one helpful dimension to define for them are their wants and their needs. An NPC's wants define their current goals and what they're actively pursuing. NPC's are...

I mean, not to drag out the emergent narrative vs. plotted narrative horse, but improv theatre is absolutely a part of a lot of shared storytelling at a lot of D&D tables, and would be missed very deeply if it were to vanish. Which isn't to say there can't be rules - improv works well with...

Ding! Got it. They shouldn't be exploring AI as a way to generate content, they should be exploring AI as a way to replace the C-suite. ;)