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The Flanaess in my Greyhawk campaign is about 40% humans, who dominate the political landscape. Even places that are ruled by other races are predominately human in population. About 40% is made up of the various "evil humanoids" (kobolds, goblinoids, gnolls, etc.). They actually outproduce...

I think this is also something that's often overlooked, and is a problem for published adventures, since they don't know which one the DM will be using. Since I use a VTT, with the mini's already on the map, I don't bother describing the size of the area, because it's already obvious, and I...

I've seen a lot of humans, elves, half-elves, and dwarves. Gnomes, halflings, and half-orcs haven't been really popular, but have seen some play. I've been the only one to play a teifling, and I don't think we've seen a dragonborn (if we have, I've forgotten). Non-PHB races have generally been...

I personally dislike the cardinal directions because the party may not know the cardinal direction. Old adventures tried very hard to confuse map makers and try and get the party lost, so using cardinal directions messes with that idea. Personally I prefer vague descriptions when dealing with...

Depends on how it's done. Short room descriptions are useful, but leave details in the non-boxed text. It should be long enough to give players ideas of what actions they want to take, but short enough to be spoken in only seconds. I personally hate having monsters in the box text, however...

Absolutely. It's an obvious plot hook , with a clearly defined reward. While you may consider it "just a +1 sword," there are a lot lamer rewards to be found. Besides, not everywhere is going to have treasure, unless the DM is using the same encounters and treasure regardless of the party's...

Personally, I'm a fan of concentration spells that allow for repeat damage, such as Spirit Guardians and Flaming Sphere. Control spells like Hypnotic Pattern and Banishment are also pretty solid, but I'm not a fan of those with repeating saves, because IME they don't last long enough to be worth it.

I feel all cantrips, not just utility cantrips, should be limited per day. Of course, I also feel that increasing cantrip damage was a bad idea too.

Currently dealing with a Twilight Cleric in my Eve of Ruin campaign. Twilight Sanctuary basically makes mobs of monsters irrelevant, because they just can't overcome the amount of temporary HP granted every single round. Additionally, the temp HP don't go away after the effect ends, so even...

This is really the sticking point. If you accept this premise, which I don't, then you are correct. However, damage is still necessary to deal with the vast majority of enemies, even with the use of control spells to assist. While you're correct that it's "situational," that situation is going...

Wouldn't necessarily have to be parody, as I've had a player that was "out to get me." He considered his job as a player to ruin the DM's plans for the campaign. Ruining the story was his fun, regardless of how it impacted others. Thankfully I no longer have to game with $^^@#$% like that...

I play online, because I have players across the US. I have nothing against playing IRL, but it's harder to get people together IME.

I am known as a killer DM, because I have absolutely no qualms about killing PCs. I don't hold back, and I don't build using "encounter design." I make a somewhat realistic world, and the players have to adjust to it.

Probably should have been a poll so we could easily see results. I track everything: rations, ammunition, torches/oil, material components, etc. If the book says you need it, then you need it; ignoring it means you're cheating IMO. It's not like it takes that much effort to track things...

I've re-ran numerous AD&D and BECMI adventures for a host of campaigns. I think I've used Keep on the Borderlands as the start of about a dozen or so campaigns. I've also used Village of Hommlet/Temple of Elemental Evil as the start twice (once in 1E in once in 5E). Against the Giants has been...

Rather than use mob rules, I generally use them as swarms. It makes tracking so much easier, although we don't have monster creation rules yet for 2024...

Other: DM wasn't prepped. Sometimes life gets in the way.

Obviously it depends on level and caster type. In general, I feel about a dozen or two times per adventuring day is about right. We tend towards more encounters per day, however, averaging about 6 combats and 3 exploration encounters per adventuring day (social encounters vary too much to give...

I do this to an extent in my Greyhawk campaign. My campaign document includes all languages and what's related to what. If you understand a related language, you can get the general gist of what's said.

The issue is one that D&D specifically suffers from: it doesn't have a default setting. Unlike Pathfinder and other RPGs, D&D has mostly been designed to be "generic" enough to be used for numerous settings rather than a single one. This means that it doesn't really fit any specific theme or...