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I write my own for my own adventures to make sure I remember all the key facts to deliver. A good set of text includes: Descriptions that are not subjective. Only describes involuntary feelings/reactions a PC might have, such as nausea at a horrible smell or squinting at a bright light...

Hasbro is doing the same thing it always does - target maximum profits. When it does this, it favors profits over goodwill - but assumes the goodwill they have currently will remain steady as they squeeze customers more and more. As a result, they fail. If Hasbro wants to grow the D&D brand...

My approach since AD&D has been - ignore alignment. Outside of a few mechanics that connect to alignment I have ignored the concept entirely. This is essentially where we've gone in modern editions. There is no need to 'bucket' individuals into 9 categories.

I have some system agnostic house rules that are still in play - Psionics, historic vision types (Infravision, Low Light, Ultravision, etc...), homebrew spells/items/monsters/subclasses... Edition specific houserules are basically just the ones required to avoid overpowered combos. No...

That is like asking a friend whether they would go out to a bar to get a beer. If you asked, they might reply, "Sure - I want to hang out with you. I don't care where." Or, they might say, "Depends on the type of beer and the bar." Or they might say, "I don't drink beer." Your players might...

The problem with any digitial distribution is that it gets lost in the shuffle. We get inundated with all sorts of new digital content all the time. We take it for granted, do not appreciate it as a product, and object to paying anything for it. Tossing the name Dungeon or Dragon on some...

I've got this in my setting. I can share a bit about that situation for inspirations. My setting takes place on a world that has a surface area that is 12 times the size of the Earth, with a Dyson Sphere like Underdark surface nearly as large that is about 100 miles under sea level. The...

This is not the first time the D&D scene had to face waves of optimization. In the early 2000s the message boards (including here at Enworld) became flush with optimization threads that covered how to build the most effective PCs. Some focused on DPR. Some focused on stunlocks. It became the...

Both change and stability have benefits. We're going to feel the problem with a lack of stability over the next several years as the community continues to fracture into different systems.

Half my content is homebrew or taken from 3rd party with which the players are unfamiliar ... because I want them to feel unfamiliar. I don't want the players to "know" what monsters always do because I want there to be a thrill of discovery. This applies to monsters, spells, magic items...

The hallmark feature of D&D as a rule set is the progression model. That type of progression does not alignment well with established IPs. We didn't see Private America develop into Captain America, we saw him come out essentially fully baked. To that end: None. Design game systems that serve...

Depends upon the DM, class, and campaign ... but: Cantrip: Create Bonfire, Guidance 1st: Detect Magic, Fog Cloud, Hex, Hunter's Mark, Silent Image, THL, Witchbolt (2024) 2nd: Alter Self, Detect Thoughts, Enlarge, Heat Metal, Hold Person, Invisibility, Levitate, PwoT, Phantasmal Force, Silence...

Need? No. But when we plan, prepare, and craft we generally get a better result than when we just throw things together. This is true in storytelling, architecture, programming, etc... Don't get me wrong - I like improvisation and it is a necessary part of the game ... but if you're plugging...

I'd advise looking at what WotC did in their books over time. In older editions they allowed you to summon hordes of monsters of various types. Then you were limited more and more so that you could summon very select monsters - and they were weaker. Now, we don't even get to really summon...

In a one shot game where you're really just playing a strategy game? Story is a second thought, if a thought at all. In an adventure with a thin story and a focus on creating interesting combats with the story just there to give a reason to pull the PCs from combat to combat? Again, not so...

I look at this differently. I fill two roles. One is creative. One is administrative. For the creative role I am inserting elements into my game. I am designing an NPC, a location, a spell, an encounter, etc... I try to do creative elements early so they are proactive, and not reactive...

This is not a consistent experience with the wide variety of DMs that have shared a table with me. I do see it at times, but not consistently - and generally not at tables I make an effort to revisit. While a masterful storyteller can sometimes still run a fun game while often telling players...

Think of it another way: How do they balance the spotlight? Of all the archetypes, the scout/rogue/sneak role is the one that gets the most spotlight if they elect to take it. If the PCs arrive at a cave complex and want to scout it out, the rogue may spend 30 to 60 minutes solo roleplaying...

Sort of. I tend to be a role play heavy player, so the PCs I run tend to shape themselves around the adventures they endure. To that end, I tend to keep a specific PC tied to a specific world and do not take that specific PC out of a world to play in another world... ... but, I do subscribe...

There are a lot of threads on this topic over the years, but the short version: Bonus Spells: Solid, but not game breaking. Access to Greater Invisibility while you have a flight ability, however, can be game breaking. 1st/3rd: 300 feet of Darkvision for the party can be gamebreaking in...