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  1. M

    Dealing with a DM who takes things too literally

    Agreed, but with two provisos. 1) You should have a decent understanding of why the rules work the way they do before you try to change them. 2) If the vast majority of the rules don't make sense to you in the way that you describe, you're probably using the wrong system. You should consider...
  2. M

    DMs not playing by the rules (Forked Thread: What are the no-goes for you?)

    If I caught you doing that, I would forbid you from using a DM screen if you wanted me in your game. Not that I mind playing with simplified rules, but as I pointed out in the thread this was forked from, I expect to know what rules we are playing with. If you want to play simplified D&D by all...
  3. M

    Forked Thread: What are the no-goes for you? - Evil campaigns

    I've run a lot of games in my day and few have been so much of an abysmal failure as the two 'evil' games I tried to run. However from the ruins of that, I think I've drawn a number of valuable lessons and if I were to run another evil game, I'm sure it would turn out much better than either of...
  4. M

    Looking for help handling PCs

    It's hard to give an answer without knowing more details. Introducing a new race like this has several points of potential problems. 1) Unbalanced mechanics. The statistics of the race may be too powerful, too weak or too strange to work properly within a standard D&D game. The two solutions...
  5. M

    When the story doesn't come...

    This trick works quite well under some circumstances, generally when you have a ton of random things going on in the campaign that you just threw in because it seemed like a good idea at the time. Tell your players that there's been some kind of conspiracy going on in the background that has...
  6. M

    Why the beer hate? (Forked Thread: What are the no-goes...)

    I run my games off the top of my head which relies on quick thinking, careful choices and memorizing most of the books. So drinking isn't really compatible with my DMing. As a player I usually avoid drinking because I'd probably lose the sense to keep myself from wisecracking and otherwise...
  7. M

    What are the no-goes for you?

    When I'm gaming with friends there are no deal-breakers. Even if I despise the game, I'll still enjoy the hang-out time and just try to avoid letting the game get to me. I've done that plenty of times in the past. However if I'm gaming with a group of strangers then there are a few things that...
  8. M

    Resource Management in RPGs

    We do use mundane resources. We've had in game discussions before about what our group of adventurers would make for dinner and looked at the listing of spices and cooking ingredients on our equipment list. We like our games to 'feel real' and part of that is thinking about the non-adventuring...
  9. M

    Mary Sue- Not sure I understand

    I don't really play Forgotten realms, aside from once being in a 2nd ed Undermountain campaign that barely left the dungeon. However I remember reading the 2nd ed campaign guide and being impressed to see the colours of the roofs in one town being described for each district. My first impression...
  10. M

    GHOULS! Help me scare the crap out of my players.

    You could use the mechanics for Gravetouched Ghouls, page 103 Libris Mortis, to do much the same if you don't have access to that particular dragon magazine.
  11. M

    Let's homebrew together!

    "Centuries ago a clan of dwarves named the Etheel clan committed a terrible crime. The nature of this crime is kept secret by their High Elders, entrusted only to a select few who pass the knowledge down to their replacements. They were cursed by Kalshaken, the dwarvish god of the Earth, with...
  12. M

    GHOULS! Help me scare the crap out of my players.

    It's all in the paralyzing touch. For example: The players walk into a room and see the armoured and helmed back of someone standing still who ignores them completely. They walk around to the front and through his open-faced helm they see that all the flesh has been devoured from his face down...
  13. M

    A DM's best friend - a Guiding NPC

    Oh I do that as well, not necessarily through any one NPC but through anyone they meet. The difference is if I say something to the players as the DM I'll never lie (unless they're subject to an illusion, etc) but if an NPC says something they can never rely upon it 100%. So if I need them to...
  14. M

    Would you allow Entice Gift to do this?

    My on the spot decision is to say yes, but I'd want to consider it after the session and figure out whether it would be allowed again in the future. For that I'd need to read the spell and think about things a little bit more.
  15. M

    A DM's best friend - a Guiding NPC

    I'll have NPCs offer advise and information sometimes, but the players know that anything said by an NPC can be a lie or a biased opinion or the NPC may just be wrong. I don't speak as the DM through NPCs. If I think the PCs should know that the Forest of Blackmoore is haunted, then I'll tell...
  16. M

    Successful DM NPCs: fact or fiction?

    I decided to run a game a while back using only prewritten modules as an experiment (I normally never use published adventures). The party didn't have a rogue and since we'd be using a lot of modules with traps, locks and other such things I thought it'd be important to have one in the group...
  17. M

    Building a world

    Let me crack open my bookmarks folder: Creating an Earthlike Planet Language Construction Kit Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions Mythopoet's Manual Weather and Worldbuilding The Climate Cookbook Medieval Demographics Made Easy Limyaael's Fantasy Rants
  18. M

    Fantasy RPG Classes

    Well, it depends. Not all Fantasy RPGs are going to be the same sort of thing or genre. The entire spectrum of Fantasy is really too large to comment upon. So for the sake of argument, I'll assume we're talking about Dungeon Fantasy. A group of adventurers going out to break into monsters'...
  19. M

    Moments in DM'ing

    Amen to that. Though I'd say more than just 110%, there's just no comparing them.
  20. M

    Moments in DM'ing

    I know my game is going okay when I can stop doing or saying anything and the game keeps going on its own inertia. I have fond memories of moments where I leave the table to organize everyone's dinner and the players continue to roleplay in character discussing the situation they're facing and...
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