Search results

Yeah, hiding is often just more than not being seen - it has an element of being quiet/silent. I'm a little unhappy that 2024 only cares about the visual aspect. Further, some creatures can be detected/percieved by smell, but I'm not sure about the idea of using Stealth to mask one's scent...

Dwarf Bear cavalry is certainly a thing in my homebrew. But "cuddletime"? Ye gads, we dwarves recruit and train bears the old fashioned way - trap 'em, train em, and give em snacks of goblin captives. Ye don't want these things domesticated - ye want killers.

Bit of a tough one, and why I dropped using the table. On #1, you could either roll randomly to see which one takes effect, choose the first one drunken or the second (I think I'd choose the 2nd if you plan to continue to roll these kind of checks). I'd lean towards "choose" and go with the...

D&D no longer uses facing, so conceivably even when you break from cover they may have their back to you or otherwise be looking elsewhere. What comes to mind in particular is something like the Yiga castle in Breath of the Wild where you're sneaking behind the backs of guards and such. Also...

There is a Medieval Sims game. If you're willing to use DOSBox, there's Castles and Castles II. As well as Birthright: The Gorgon's Alliance (it's more of a country sim). As for Minecraft, the first thing I did in creative mode years ago was build Castle Ravenloft. That was fun. There's also...

I use https://www.dungeonfog.com/ for online mapping of any sort. The free version is pretty serviceable (I have a paid subscription). Just be careful about using the lighting tool - it's cool but can slow rendering to a crawl if you get too fancy.

Thinking about this some more ... Bloodied could be a condition restricted to living creatures with a circulatory system, and Battered could be applied to objects, constructs and certain undead. From that, you could have effects that work off either - in the case of Battered, we have...

Well, we already know that light in D&D doesn't work like it does in the real world from the Darkness spell, that emanates darkness. It's also not 3E's lowlight vision, because you can see in the utter darkness where there is no light at all. Even the light spell has lost the ability to be...

Moreso, rot. Also, it would likely attract barnacles that if left unchecked could accelerate rot and compromise the structure through sheer weight. Coral could be an alternative, or the two could be used in tandem. What might be more interesting is "sleds" - "skyscrapers" built horizontally...

As much as I loved the Ravenloft campaign set, after a bad interaction with the opening of From the Shadows I ran for my players, I realized that I did NOT like the way those adventures stole player agency, nor most of the boxed text sections in those adventures. I ended up never actually...

#1 is on the tip of being overly long. #2 is way to wordy and has sections dictating character actions (feeling ashamed, wiping boots) #3 is story exposition that in no way should be just be blurted out in one go. This is more information the DM should have, but it should be doled out to...

The only thing about Bloodied is it isn't the best descriptor. How can you Bloody a skeleton or a stone golem? "Battered" might have been a slightly better name for the condition, but it does mostly work for about 80-90% of creatures/PCs.

I'm a big fan of Carolinian/Frankish empire history, so I have pulled in various aspects of that. Most notably a sort of "Holy Roman Empire" in the near past where there is an over-kingdom that lesser empires are vassals or defer to and is the basis of current knighthood. Although I have...

I too would like to see D&D do another survey or two of its fan base, especially since the new core books have been dropped. Beyond UA's, I can't recall when the last "general" survey was done, and as I recall, it got pulled in less than 24 hours (the infamous "Do you like WotC" question). I...

Danger first; separate the description so after the danger has been resolved, you can give more attention to the rest of the room. Example: "In the center of this dimly lit room sits a group of five human-sized green-gray humanoids in mismatched armor playing cards." After the party resolved...

They tried some of that in the 90's, with sets like Hail The Heroes, A Light In the Belfry, etc. They were very poorly received.

D&D used to use the Chicago manual of style for its bookwriting. I'm wondering if they are moving away from that with attempting to utilize keywords, into their own sort of thing, and if was suggested by their editors or just "made up".

Yeah, all the effects are triggered on the monster/character end. For example there's a few monsters in the new MM who have abilities that only activate against opponents who are bloodied. I think there's a couple subclass abilities that only activate when the PC is bloodied as well.

Read-aloud text helped me a fair bit in my early DMing years. If it gets to be more than a short paragraph, I'll paraphrase it. Certainly will avoid any parts that ascribe actions or emotions in the player's characters. Even if I just read over it while learning the dungeon layout it often...

I got to meet and interact with Chris a year or two prior at the WotC game camp in Seattle in 1998. A really great fellow to interact with (and very, very patient!), and a hell of an editor. A memory from that camp...