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Rules lawyers can be dealt with by simply setting some ground rules. I allow one pitch for their "interpretation" of a rule, then make my summary judgement. Appeals must occur outside of game time, but it's unlikely they will sway me. The interpretation is the set as part of a set of...

The easiest way to understand Bounded Accuracy is that the game tries to make it that everyone has a chance of success or failure at most things. Bonuses generally range from +0 to +11, while the target number (DC/AC) is rarely above 20. This means that even with a +11, you have a chance of...

The most interesting version of guns I've seen were similar to crossbows, except they were a Dex saving throw instead of an attack roll, turning them into a form of martial cantrip.

I try to incorporate aspects of old campaigns into the current one when possible. PCs become NPCs, but if the player is still around, I often present them with the situation before using them. If not, I just try to have them act the same way they would have back when they were active.

Long Rests occur based on the time spent in game, not the time spent IRL. Except during planning sessions or traveling, we pretty much never end on a long rest.

"Fun play" is usually a casualty of strategy/tactics. As a grognard, I recall when rolling initiative was a failure, since you should have avoided/defeated the enemy beforehand. In this case, the players could totally rush the room and have a "fun combat." I'm working up a level 18 adventure...

Reminder, creatures can close doors too. They could easily close the door and ready to attack as soon as it opens.

PHB pg. 204: Since your space is the point of origin, it's not included. It's kinda backwards, since you're pointing it back on yourself, but technically correct.

Apparently you can still cast it that way, but it requires some 3D logic. You cast the spell upwards, using your floor space as the starting point, center of the cube face. Since you have the option to have your space not be part of the effect, you don't take any damage. This causes everyone...

Primarily useful for DMs when world building. Since it provides names based on historical regions, you can have different regions use different naming sources. For example, in my Greyhawk campaign the Baklunish use Arabian names, the Suel use ancient Roman names, the Oeridian use either German...

Given that Magic Initiate is an entry level feat and elves still get cantrips, I seriously doubt they're going to change the way cantrips works. Kinda hard to scale with class level when you don't get it from a class.

World Builder, Living Fantasy, and Insidiae are all interesting reads, but I question if they were really worth the money. Extraordinary Book of Names is worth its weight in gold.

You can have a mix, however. If you're holding a torch, for example, you'd see 40 ft as bright light (the bright and dim light of the torch) and 20 ft as dim light (darkness beyond the torchlight).

Typically a poison needle trap would be in the lock, and metal gauntlets wouldn't provide the necessary flexibility to pick the lock. If the poison needle just shoots out when the chest is opened, it could be opened without any check, since they could just hold the lid from a different spot.

@Morrus will there be a tag for the new rules revision, or will everything be filed under "5th Edition?"

The key to a successful campaign conclusion is the story. My first 5E campaign started with the party investigating some bandits, leading ultimately to a showdown against Lolth in the Demonweb Pits. Everyone enjoyed it, and with an epilogue to wrap things up, the story was complete. My latest...

Even in a heavy story based game, death is always an option. I try very hard not to limit the story based on a few PCs, so even if half the party dies off (and is replaced), the overall story continues. The story of the fallen PCs, however, comes to an end.

Pre-5E I always rolled. With 5E I got lazy, until I started using the average. Now I use Roll20, so I have a macro that makes it easy. One note: for elite monsters and leaders I tend to use 3/4 or max HP, since rolling for them makes it anti-climactic if they roll low.

End of session. I usually try to set aside about 5-10 minutes for bookkeeping. Leveling only occurs after a Long Rest, however.