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Frankly, we've always been able to do this. 5e.2024 didn't really do anything special to enable it. I already had a handy table on page 282 of the 5e.2014 DMG that summarized how different species would modify stat blocks of NPCs and Orc is right on it. No, what this does is remove orc-unique...

While that may be common among a number of other RPGs (I know I'm not making a Shadowrun character without a builder), WotC's licensing shenanigans with 4e does make it a particularly problematic issue with 4e in the D&D family. The 3e family (3.5 and PF1, mainly) have so many WotC-published...

I understand blanking out on a failure - that seems perfectly reasonable. What I'm not personally keen on is a result being paradoxical. It's like those stupid nilbogs from the 1e AD&D Fiend Folio (if there's a dumb monster, chances are it's from the FF) - they healed when you hit them and took...

We know. But if that's the result, then what's the difference between a successful lore check and an unsuccessful one if both give you no useful information?

That may be because... they generally ARE about binary results. Did the PC successfully climb the obstacle? Athlethics check says Yes/No. Did the PC sneak past the potential observer? Stealth check says Yes/No. And in both cases, the results are a "win" against that particular obstacle/question...

OK, I see what's going on here. Your approach of researching something and prepping to determine how best to take it down might work for certain known set-piece types of encounter lairs such as "We're planning to confront the Demon Beast of Yppsilanti in his lair and we need to know more about...

Marianne Faithfull has passed away. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2025/jan/30/marianne-faithfull-singular-icon-of-british-pop-dies-aged-78

I don't think it's about perfect. Making a knowledge check about a monster is an excellent case for degrees of success - cross one difficulty threshold, learn X. Cross 2, learn X and Y. Cross 3, learn X, Y, and Z. None of those have to be "perfect" as in complete. But at every level they should...

Isn't uncertainty covered by the die roll? Doesn't passing the check resolve that uncertainty?

I'm not sure unreliable is a synonym for interesting.

Even if not company funds, you're right that the optics are terrible. After all, when your employees are tightening their belts because of sparse paychecks, what says "I'm in the same boat with you" better than an expensive vacation overseas?

You know, there's "stirring the pot" and then there's "chumming the water".

As frustrating as losing a turn can be from time to time, I think there's a serious (and maybe growing) problem in the community when losing turns is the worst thing that can happen. Games naturally have some give and take and while I do agree that overly powerful save or sit kinds of mechanics...

Oooo, someone mentioned that which must not be said. Time to start the countdown.

If that's the case, I'd have been better off failing my roll - because no information is better than bad info.

That's the benefit of having a successful skill check - information that's useful and correct. Disinformation would only be appropriate for a failed role.

This is definitely not the thread I expected. <Looks at the world around him and sees plenty of weakness of character>

I've had short pages, but never a blank one that should otherwise be full. Now, blank pages where there's only one or two posts by people I've ignored, that's common. I also do have my profile set to show me 20 posts per page and not 10. I might see more if I set to 10...

This is a good point. I have a cheatsheet about my players' PCs listing their passive perception, passive insight, special notes, and the knowledge-type skills in which they are proficient. Then, in play, if a topic comes up, I give the proficient players information about it. It helps me decide...

If they successfully beat a deception check, I'll let them know that the speaker seems to be hiding something or is doing something shifty like a tell. If they fail, or if there's no deception to check, I'll tell them that the speaker isn't giving off any indication that they are insincere. I...