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More than one miss in a row is extremely demoralizing. A game design study showed that most people are happiest around 70% hit rate, across both non-deterministic video games and tabletop war games. 60% is also generally accepted, in the bell curve of happiness. This is impacted somewhat by the...

I handwave it just because martials already have so many handicaps, being forced to disarmor and disarm on the regular is pretty brutal. Dressing up for a formal affair, or trying to appear peaceful to a group of suspicious people? Sure. But I let them wander around town in armor and shield on...

Sad news for Kobold Press, but a big tribute to them for being awesome enough and quality enough to get repeatedly recruited from.

Dream of the Blue Veil gives you visions of another world, which you may not previously know anything about. This makes it a massive plot device since the DM controls what visions you see, but does allow you to fish for strange and interesting locations. Plane Shift doesn't require you to...

Entirely possible! I'm not sure what you mean. Why not do both? Set up the fight with the pillars and medusa to make sure the battle will be mechanically interesting for your party, and then spread rumors and clues about a horrible beast so that the party can engage, avoid, or gather...

Strahd has a variable difficulty. He has the tools to wipe the floor with almost any party around 10th level, but that doesn't mean an individual GM will play him that way, or that it will be a satisfying climax for the party. But you can split the difference. I mean a wedding ceremony is just...

You can handle it the same way comic books handle Superman, and it works fine, provided your players buy into emotionally caring about the people and things in your world. In many ways, "Dire Consequences" not involving death are more interesting than outright stopping someone's story and their...

Not going to happen. Just keeping the IP around at a loss is still beneficial to Hasbro from a brand recognition point of view, and they are most definitely not suffering a loss. The threat of someone bigger buying Hasbro is essentially non-existent since Disney already owns them. And we know...

I design every encounter from scratch. But I can see the appeal of a module approach.

Better to live with the guilt of a fudge, than wiping out half the party because of your poor encounter design. Consider it a tool to correct your mistakes as a DM. Not the mistakes of your players. Eventually you won't need to use it at all.

Arneson and Gygax are like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. The industry would have gotten here sooner or later, but these were the names that made it happen. I'm going with Mearls and Crawford for modern D&D, because the modern renaissance wouldn't have been possible without a good product to put...

https://www.enworld.org/threads/inspired-by-lords-of-madness-updated-with-65-more-ideas-and-74-more-confusion.128237/

Compromise Gained at Level 5 - A warlock may cast a single 1st level spell they know without expending a spell slot. You cannot use this ability again until you have finished a short or long rest.

Gelatinous Cube Trash Pit. Gelatinous Cube Toilet. Gelatinous Cube at the end of a shock prod Hall Cleaner.

Frankly, I think Subclasses should have the possibility to changing your casting stat. I can see a Warlock subclass that translates and finds loopholes in an ancient contract (Int), a Wizard sublass that finds and draws upon leylines (Wis), a Cleric that inspires others through deed and word...

Probably given to them by Asmodeus. The process of becoming a lemure is absolutely horrendous, and intentionally scrubs away your mortal identity so you can properly conform. The number of Devils that come out of the process with their John Smith name intact can probably be counted on one hand...

Side note: Things get really interesting when enemies lie on the ground crying and bleeding when they reach 0, instead of just dying. Probably one of the biggest mindgames I've ever seen at a table.

The MPAA were people with no credentials hiring people with credentials, then convincing them to adhere to the non-credential standards. :D

As a gag, I once ran a game where every combat scene "faded to black." Murder is far worse than Sex, you know. :ROFLMAO: