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The more the better. Dungeons and Dragons is too important to be entrusted to any one company or group of designers. Yeah, many of them will never get any traction - and that's fine. But I think we will get plenty that contribute good ideas, or support a particular style of play better than...

Different adventures for different level ranges: Lower levels: Dragon of Icespire Peak Mid levels: PotA. The haunted keeps are great is written, but I would probably break up the elemental dungeons into four separate dungeons plus the fane of the eye and elemental nodes as the final dungeon...

Well that combo doesn't really come on line until level 8, so I would just conclude the campaign as the players were leveling up from 7th....

I have toyed with doing short rests like the Cypher System rests, where they require progressively more time the more you take. The idea being that you only need a quick breather to recharge at first, with longer intervals needed later. So your first short rest of the day might only require...

Taco Bell FTW

I don't think it is a perfect analogy, but I do think that rules lite games tend to encourage/require a lot more big judgment calls by GMs in how to handle situations, where is crunchier systems (3.x, 4E, PF2) provide rules for everything and expect the GM is just adjudicating the application of...

For me it is all because of VTTs. I work, have two young kids, and a spouse that travels for her job regularly. In-person gaming on a regular basis just isn't a possibility. But if I can put the kids to bed, go downstairs and log into FG (while still being available when I am the only adult...

Seems like a good idea for the overwhelming majority of DMs running this game. If you are a highly experienced DM who knows your players well enough to feel you can forgo this advice for your particular group, you are certainly experienced enough to understand that you are not actually required...

I think the thief as an archetype is popular in D&D because it is popular in fantasy generally. Fafhard and the Grey Mouser, Shadowspawn from the Thieves World books, Jimmy the Hand from Riftwar saga, even Conan was a thief professionally for much of his life. Thieves overlap with adventurers...

Overall it is probably my favorite "generic" system and is a go-to when I want to run a genre that doesn't already have a strong rule set (I did Savage Gamma World a few years ago and it worked great). It does big fights really well and has fast, yet robust character creation. But there are...

I would define prep fairly narrowly as stuff that is directly related to running the adventure. I have lots of activities that are useful to running games - painting minis, watching Matt Coleville videos, reading through other adventures/RPGs for inspiration. But I do not think of those as prep.

Of the stuff I own its the Tyranny of Dragons adventure. I own most of the other adventures, and even the ones I wouldn't run as a campaign there is material in there that I would use piecemeal (e.g. the giant lairs in SKT).

As a player, I like the wealth of character options. The game stays fresh as it feels like there are always new options to try out that are going to feel mechanically distinct from the characters I have run before. As a DM the complexity feels about right. It is complex enough that I can...

Just the opposite: during 3E I had a campaign where Players started out as Drow slaves deep in the underdark and had to escape to the surface. I thought it was a a really original take on the idea of delving into the underdark depicted in published adventures like D1-3 and Night Below. Then...

Maybe they should start by asking ChatGPT what it thinks of "artificial intelligence + copyright." Seems like it is only fair to ask A.I. what it's opinion on the matter is!

I spend the time imagining how fun the game will become if I actually manage to hit fifth level.

It is an interesting read. But with all of the mainstream media articles in recent years, you would think editors would know by now that the abbreviation for Dungeons and Dragons is "D&D" not "D.&D."

One DM several years back had a map of his campaign world he made in Inkarnate. When the campaign wrapped we had a framed, poster-sized print made of the map for him. Not a GM gift, but another time a player had a custom art commission done of the party, so that was a cool memento.

For me it was Flash: The Return of Barry Allen. Every one of those books ended in a cliffhanger and I spent the next 30 days going nuts waiting for the next one to come out. I am sure if I read it straight through it would have been much less memorable, but the serialized format meant it...

Have you looked at the Cypher System? It is not my jam, but might fit your needs (simple system, lots of options, reasonably survivable, tons of cool settings). I don't have a ton of experience with it, but the reasons I disliked it aren't on your list so maybe it will click for you. Also...