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Just ban feats period. They're they worst addition to the game since monsters came on hole-punched sheets in a three-ring binder.

Thanks. I don't spend any time on the WotC boards or char-oping, so hadn't seen this term before.

Has anyone ever tried turning the DM screen around so you see the art but the players get at-a-glance descriptions of conditions, lists of what's a standard action vs. what's a minor, etc? If so, how did it work out for you? Seems like my new and casual players would greatly benefit from...

Detailed analysis, but you don't go deep enough. Why were the first two books well organized and true to a vision, while later releases lost the thread? My hypothesis: They laid off too many people. Not enough human resources resulted in a loss of vision and failure of execution. I think...

The three things that keep combat moving: Make sure players know where they are in the initiative order. Use a tool to track initiative that is visible to the players. As a player is taking his turn, remind the next player that they are "on deck" and should be readying their actions. Run...

If you post any restrictions/freebies/house-rules on your "looking for players" poster, you'll tend to not get any new or more casual players but will get char-op geeks (in my experience). Also, if you impose too many restrictions/freebies/house-rules at the character creation session, any new...

I have all of these at home, but I'll be going of memory. Some of these I haven't read in quite a while so I'll maybe update this post this evening after I flip through them again. Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons Solid books. Necessary if you want to build an...

For the record, I think D&D is better without morale in the RAW. DMs are empowered to decide when monsters run or surrender or fight to the death. Morale can be a good corrective for DMs that have every creature fight to the death regardless of what is happening during the combat. But DMs...

Another important trick that is very friendly to new players is introducing a morale system. I essentially use the system from Rules Cyclopedia Basic D&D. There are a few benefits that make this worth considering: It can significantly shorten combats. Nothing makes players run away from the...

I've been running Encounters for the past year and have a lot of experience getting new players into the game. When it's their turn, make sure you have them role-play: DM: OK, Nora the Mage, it's your turn. Katie (playing Nora the Mage): Oh, right! Uh, um. I don't know... (deer-in-headlights...

What is a "laser cleric"?

Ask them "Well, what do you think you need to do?" This insinuates they aren't smart enough to figure out your puzzle. Insinuating someone isn't smart enough to to do something tends to make them work harder at solving the puzzle. Take the answers shouted at you, choose whatever you think is...

Dungeons and Dragons needs to seriously, professionally explore psychographics similar to Magic: the Gathering's "Timmy, Johnny, and Spike" and Melvin-Vorthos cross-categorizations. The only acceptable use for multi-classing IMHO is to make the concept of a character more playable. For example...

As someone who hates Essentials and has organized and DMed Encounters the past two seasons, I have no problem with Encounters requiring Essentials characters. If you don't like the character restrictions on Encounters, Encounters is not for you. Do not play it. Do not play Encounters if you do...

No, there is not. You are looking for too much and possibly misunderstanding what the "Points of Light" setting is and represents. The PoL means it's up to you, as the DM, to decide what the PCs know and what they do not, what each deity's worshiper's dress looks like, etc. The PoL only give...

Ignoring this gift, tonight's Encounters was one of the best nights of Dungeons and Dragons of which I've had to fortune to be a part. I love D&D. (4E is D&D, haters will hate.)

So, I received the "You're one of the 900 best DMs" reward delivered to and handed over from my FLGS today. It's pretty awesome, IMHO. It came with A letter to my FLGS saying I'm a pretty awesome DM and to treat me like royalty since I help the store actually sell some D&D product instead of...