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Yeah, all initiative systems have some degree of ridiculousness when you get into them, so if we're using one initiative system (how most games handle it) rather than several systems depending on situation (how I'm trying to house rule it), it's sort of a case of which sort of ridiculousness can...

Crazy idea: Initiative is counted from lowest current hit points going first, up to highest current hit points going last. Basically initiative as "urgency to act." The caveat would be solo/legendary monsters getting special treatment with some kind of off-normal-turn action capability.

Thanks for sounding off, everybody! @TaranTheWanderer sounds like the party would be happy to have you. :)

I just heard from a player who is interested in joining your party. That would keep you at 6 PCs…I think you could use a tank and/or healer? Would everyone be open to adding one more? @Aethmud @happylace @Neurotic @Steve Gorak @VLAD the Destroyer

Your involuntary gifts of dice will have ripple effects in the kiddo's lives, for sure. The Sunless Citadel (in TftYP) is a nice one, a bit shorter and more straightforward than LMoP, depending how you run the later. But LMoP is great.

Gosh, this poll is so hard to decide... Do I want to appear myopic, hidebound, mean-spirited, or just plain irrational? So many good options to choose from!

Take care of yourself Necropolitan! I completely understand.

kobolds dc 10 wisdom morale save: 1D20-2 = [10]-2 = 8 failed Squeaking in alarm, the kobolds hold their hands up and meekly come over towards you, afraid to make eye contact, but clearly bewildered about who you are and where you've come from. Around the corner of the darkened eastern passage...

I don't like it. Leaving aside my negative views of the parent corporation, and leaving aside my positive views of Chris Perkins, I was on the "cusp" of 5e fandom to begin with, with tastes leaning more OSR. So they don't really need me as a fan anymore. The game was already plenty complex...

GM POST Wending up the sloping passage that spirals like a corkscrew, your footsteps are carefully to avoid disturbing rocks dislodged by kobold mining. Lumrolur brings your party to a halt at the entrance to another small chamber from which a pair of irritated high-pitched kobold voices...

I always like to lead with "Ok, imagine this is the door. Show me where you're standing while you disarm the trap, Bob." It works especially well when pre-arming the other players with Nerf weapons.

There's tons of things a GM can do to reduce PC power in 5e, but for your purposes I think it's more of an engineering question – Given the constraints with how 5e player-facing rules are implemented in Roll20, what CAN you actually change within the Roll20 environment? I could imagine...

Shouldn't lower level characters be quicker to run away? ;) ;)

I made so many photocopies of that blank monster page, and filled in dozens of homemade monsters when I was 10-11 years old. Hah. I had noooo idea what I was doing, but that didn't stop me!

Salt water taffy (laughy taffy) that acts like both a potion of watchful rest AND a spell scroll of hideous laughter targeting the drinker.

Thanks Dave, that's high praise coming from you with all the monster crafting you've done! My approach is definitely heavy on the "art and intuition" side of things, but hopefully I was able to bridge that to a more analytical approach with my examples.

Treason! ;) I was playing a medley of Basic and AD&D 1e and 2e at 10 years old.

I want to share my "bounded complexity" principles to making monsters for 5th edition / 5e-adjacent games, not because I think it's a perfect 1:1 translation for your gaming, but because there might be bits that you can adopt or that might inspire your own creations. What this is not: I'm...

I've had situations where both of these approaches had their place. A spitting mimic? I can add acid splash or something to a mimic, done! A high CR complex undead that inflicts a petrifying disease, then animates petrified victims to fight for it, and can also teleport into your armor...