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The last thing any DM should ever be is an entertainer. It's like a complete misunderstanding of games and why they are designed. A DM is a referee and in that respect needs to be fair first and last. Don't be cruel to your players, but don't favor them either. Don't make calls so the players...

It surprises me how few people understand DMing when it's pretty easy to explain. In wargaming (and boardgaming too) there is a common practice of people who don't play the games, but run them for others as assistants. They study the rules so they can be called upon without looking them up or...

Adventures need to be 100% game content, not narratives. They are designs perhaps only a few pages in length, but like any game rigorously tested and retested to ensure balanced and challenging play at the level they are listed for. Of course, every DM is going to need to adopt these...

Maybe another poll is in order with different poll options? I've bought (and sold again) and read literally 100s. Most are simply bad designs or stories waiting to be told, but there are always useful bits to steal.

Openly supporting House Rules for any version of D&D is a good idea. My own preference is Weapon Length / Reach matters more than Weapon Speed. But I don't have Dexterity modify Initiative rolls either because combat is done in 1 minute rounds. Disrupting casting is done another way, so it...

Tendril trailing bivalves with eye stalks sticking out the top as they float around on air they eject from holes in their bottoms? Just from an ecological point of view I'd say these are aerial creatures previously at home on atolls, beaches, and other shallow aquatic environments. But...

So this is the mysterious step between Starter Sets and DMG buyers? Now that I think back that does have a familiar sting to it... They really are going for that old school feel.

Called Back Necromancy/Enchantment (compulsion) [Evil, Language-Dependent, Mind-Affecting] Level: Wiz/Sor3 Components: V, S, M, F Casting Time: 8 hours Range: Touch Targets: 1 corpse less than 1 week dead Duration: Special Saving Throw: Neg. Spell Resistance: Yes A recently dead, once living...

Origin (by type) History (they were alive once) Current Activity (Since becoming undead) Personality (some more than others) (De)composition (rather than physiology) Ecology (survival needs, lairs, territories, wandering/activity, organization, etc.) Special Abilities / Magical Powers (attacks...

I agree with Mearls here. Starter sets should be easy to read and quickly pick up, marketed to the one person who will be running the game, and include a starting campaign adventure. Only pre-generated PCs is a stretch, but that's a problem so easily fixed in our internet age as to almost be...

If they want to stick to traditional races non-hobbyists can appeal to, I'd publish more mythological creatures. I have a yearly Al'Qadim game and in prepping for it I realized the 2e designers had ported D&D demi-humans from european medieval myths as the only options other than human. It...

In my current AoW game the players are almost to 3rd level in Pathfinder, medium XP progression. They each have their particular favorites I've learned. Most love combat though some beetle swarms nearly wiped one of them out. Another sucked it up when she hiked out alone around the lake and died...

B1 & B2 together should get you to 5th, but that may be too often done. L1 & L2 are fun, though Assassin's Knot needs some redesign. I agree with Sunless Citadel and Forge of Fury. Mid-level adventuring might include I1 or C1.

I *believe* AD&D was $10 for each of the hardcover books, perhaps $15 for the DMG. 2e AD&D was $20 per book 3.0 starters were $20 each 3.5 made the jump to $30 4e D&D manuals were $35 apiece (I think all three) 5e are $50 each Of course we used to get everything for just $10 and a wood box...

And in this it begins with the preconceived notion that the game includes imaginary characters thus moving it from playing a game to creating a story. I take it you believe any non-character performing game doesn't have stances? People can treat lots of stuff as a game or puzzle (operating...

RPGing are games about performing a social role with most to all game design supporting that. As in all non-Storygames there are no shared fictions involved. It is indirect manipulation via the DM's hands, but it is still manipulation. Word choice is crucial, just like the term role playing...

Of course games aren't "shared fiction". They are designs, patterns, which could be treated as enigmas in and of themselves. Like playing Chess against yourself thereby improving your understanding of Chess. Closing one's eyes and learning the pattern in imagination makes it no less actual as...

LostSoul, I forgot to include an example. Otherwise it may appear players know when they are and when they aren't adding content. Like discerning odds, cooperation/competition, focus on goals, accomplishment, and everything else in the game, the magic of engaging with the game includes not...

To everyone else who has been systematically marginalized and had what they loved redefined into what they don't care fore, I'm guessing sympathy abounds. I certainly care for those who are in similar positions. You don't like the way just this conversation is phrased? That should hopefully...

Nothing the players can capably express to the DM is inadmissable just like in a situational puzzle. But it may not be in the game prior to them making the attempt to smell/feel/whatever the goblin dung. Features not in the game are put there by the players by making the attempts (also like...