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This is a legitimate concern. It would suck for a player to say, "We're always searching for traps, so I'm going to take proficiency in Investigation, because that's something I'd like to be good at," and then find that every time a trap was encountered, it was entirely a series of carefully...

Sorry, maybe I am missing the point. Is the point that the player was trying to say, "I try to convince the Princess to give us some horses," but instead they say, "I lick my lips, wink at the Princess, and ask her if she wants to screw." And since they are rolling Persuasion, we are supposed to...

Real people make non-optimal choices all the time. Particularly when it comes to something as lengthy and involved as personal development. Not to mention that there are plenty of other factors that play into how we develop personally and professionally beyond our choices to be the best...

I think this is just where different people do it differently. In this regard, D&D seems to straddle and support two approaches. Neither of which are wrong, just different. What you are describing sounds like players, when faced with a situation, push a button on their character sheet. They...

I agree with this. My goal is not to be in a situation where the checks being used are surprising and counterintuitive to the players. I think that's part of letting the rules fade into the background. It also sounds like you and your group have been playing together long enough to have a...

Just a little to the left ... Nope, wait, rotate your head .7 degrees counter-clockwise, ok, great. If the enemy stands exactly in this position, he will definitely not see you behind that potted plant. Planning ahead for the win!

I don't know that I'd consider that the Help action. That's just changing the surroundings to create an advantage. But, once the curtains are drawn or the furniture is moved, anybody could take advantage of it. However, it does get me to thinking that one could Help another to hide by creating...

Agree with secondhander. I can't think of an application where the "Help" action would apply to a Stealth skill check. Help is when two people work together to accomplish the same goal. Instead of each rolling, you grant Advantage to the character you are helping. So, sure, one character could...

No doubt. Alien is definitely a template for certain kinds of dungeon crawls for me. A horror D&D movie — I could get into that. Though I guess, that's what Stranger Things is. This is definitely true, and true of any adaptation of another property. Be it book, movie, game, theme park ride...

Are there any other popular properties that have such a focus on, well, dungeons? There's a little bit of this in Indiana Jones, but I think the idea of sprawling, ancient underground complexes, occupied by widely varied inhabitants over the ages, is something somewhat unique to the D&D genre...

The difference is, if you know it's preferred to present actions as, well, actions, that never changes. It's a constant. If you try, you will succeed. If you are making assumptions, even if you are trying to make good ones, you will end up making bad ones, because you don't know what the players...

As others have said, it sounds like there might be themes he wants that are missing from your campaign. Maybe you can give some of these themes to him. Trying to be popular with the masses and constantly looking for ways to win them over and achieve leadership positions is a totally valid...

Wait, you went from a question about the door being locked to moving the characters into the next room? That wouldn't fly with me. How do you know that the player was asking if the door was locked in order to immediately open it? If all I wanted to do was go into the next room, I would have...

Thanks for your thoughts! The goal is to find that middle ground, where characters have individual information and connections during the adventure, helping them to feel distinct, but where it does not become a point of needless conflict. Ideally, I want the characters to share at least some of...

The reason for "only accepting" things in a certain format is that it is the fastest way to get everybody on the same page. It's a table rule, and once everybody gets it, there are no more questions about it. The same as dice that fall on the floor, or expecting players to keep track of what has...

For an upcoming single-session adventure I am running, I plan to start the game by giving each player a card with some sort of rumor, piece of information, or other tidbit on it. Standard stuff. I want these rumors to potentially be quite useful — a connection to an NPC in the dungeon, knowledge...

I'll also add that the first time I ran a horror adventure with my group, I asked every player to e-mail me privately with any subject matter that would make them uncomfortable or that they would prefer to avoid. I'm very glad I did this — it resulted in some changes to the published adventure I...

This seems good. I like to ask players questions before starting a campaign. Usually, I will custom tailor the questions to match choices I anticipate making in game prep. For instance, I don't need to know how players want to run combats at the table during campaign prep — I can throw the...

I think you identified the distinction between Bonus Actions, yourself, though. A character who is set up to use Bonus Actions, a Rogue with cunning action or a Fighter two-weapon fighting or pole-arm mastering, has a limited number of obvious Bonus Actions that they can take. Rarely do I hear...

I've played in and run games this way, where effectively, the party is always "split," because we look at the position and actions of each character individually. This could mean 4 characters in 4 corners of a large room, or it could mean 4 characters moving through different rooms of a house...