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Based on the limited information available, I stay on the main floor. Either it doesn't matter at all or the ref is following the old convention of "deeper is harder". So overall the main floor is most likely safer. In my own games as a ref or in any game my friends run, either there would be...

I'd suggest not worrying about the players' reactions and concentrate on understanding the setting and preparing some good initial material. If you get fired up about what you have planned, all else will follow. Regardless of how sandbox-ish versus plotty you want to run the game, make sure...

What would really float my boat is playing a dragon rider (or almost as interesting, any aerial rider) in a dark age world where the players get to try to preserve the last traces of civilization. Maybe you could think of it as King Arthur meets dragons although I'm thinking more the gritty 5th...

My wife tried once. She gave it a good shot but in the end she didn't care for it and for reasons that I didn't expect: she didn't like the discussion and the roleplaying, she just liked to kill things, which isn't the type of game I can run for long. As for suggestions on how to integrate...

These days, I always plan such details. Sometimes there is a particular destination in mind, not so much a story arc as a "I'd like to see the PCs be able to kill dragons in this world" and I think the campaign concept is probably good for X months. I can then set a certain pace on level...

In general, it's better not to send them off into a completely new region simply because the ref has run out of ideas. It can be frustrating for the players and undercut your standing with the group. That's not to say it can't be done, especially if out of game you and the rest of the group...

My first thought was that the scenario you describe was okay. It's one thing to make me start at first when everyone else is much higher level. I'd always feel like a second class citizen in the group, just waiting for a new campaign where I could finally be equal. Your scenario, however...

I love mini's. It's part of the game for me. I used to paint them and have used them since my first session (OD&D) but one of my players far surpassed me. These days, we began every campaign with a slate of 25-35 newly painted figures from which the players draw their PC or in some cases a...

For a ref I trust I might show more latitude but deal breakers: limited options such as only a handful of classes or 1-2 races allowed, especially if the races are oddball like lizardman or goblins evil campaign unless its clearly of short duration Dark Sun. Cannibal hobbits just seem like a...

Excellent choice for a campaign inspiration: heroic combat in a relatively low population setting, especially if you roll back to the early- and pre-Viking era before more centralized kingship. There is a perpetual fascination with all things Viking and alot out there but some material I used...

It's easy and satisfying to suggest calling someone on cheating in front of the entire group as others have on this thread but it just struck me as wrong although I couldn't quite verbalize why at first. But thinking about it, it's pretty clear. There are two main reasons, in no particular...

I didn't realize I was so unusual for running 10 hour games. I think we may cut back to 6-7 hours.

:D Had to laugh at that. Nothing says you can't put in a few uber items in the game. It will break the SW tools but I wouldn't think a campaign would have more than a few so handling it as a manual exception should be fine. I think there is a place for memorable magic items. It's one of the...

I agree but I think that goal was driven also with an eye on MMORGs. In WoW it has become absurd: your character is your gear and your base stats almost irrelevant. That's mostly an issue with how they did expansions, of course. I haven't read much of the 4e designer's notes but to be honest, an...

Sorry dup post.

That's because the other poster related a fairly messy way of handling this :p It was a pretty confrontational way of resolving such a situation. That might be worth considering for its own sake but it is likely to only cause the player in question to alter his method of fudging rolls. From...

I was surprised to see that the sweet spot seems to be around 4 hours or so. I can certainly vouch for the fatigue factor, at least as a ref. Hosting a 10 hour sessions twice a month gets old, both in-game and prep. I don't think we will drop to four hours but we might go 6 to 12.

Reynard 's thread on what to do in a 4 hour session got me thinking of the opposite problem: when does a session get too long? We usually play 5:00 to 12:00 to 2:00 to 12:00 with a dinner break in there. In both sessions there is plenty of non-D&D chatter. For the longer sessions, we usually end...

These are good points. When I was reffing the extra PCs for my son, they were more NPCs. When I do it in the main campaign, it is with the thought that at some point the other ref will take over and then my PC will become a 'real' PC but while I ref it, it is certainly more of an NPC, partly...

Yes that could work, especially if you established at some point that the pronounciations associated with the alphabet (or just that race's conventions around the use of the letter X which is an oddbal letter, after all) is different from present. It could actually be interesting if they first...