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It's been really interesting tracking things over the past few months. A few things I have observed: D&D Beyond usage is up. If you look at the forums, you can see how many people are online and how many of them have accounts. The number of active users online has been consistently high over...

Exactly. Hearing the different angles in a forum also gives me a broader view of the issue. It's also very useful as a designer to see how people interpret and use rules.

I like arguing about rules on forums so that I don't have to argue about them at the table.

Great point. I think we'll end up seeing a hidden condition for that reason. Right now, you have to reverse engineer the conditions for hiding to get what is probably the answer.

Agree on invisible still muddying the waters, but I think it's a good step forward. I actually like see invisible as a spell that counters stealth, but I am not crazy about a low level spell being a hard counter to one of the rogue's core tricks. I think if you nest invisible into hidden...

That would be kind of funny. It reminds me of the episode of Frasier where Frasier and Niles plot and scheme to get into a secret club. When they finally worm their way in, they find another, even more secretive, club within the secret club. "Shh! Don't tell anyone, but we fixed the ranger..."

In the new errata, the stealth rules get the following update: Hide [Action] (p. 368) In the second paragraph, “you have the Invisible condition” is now “you have the Invisible condition while hidden”. In the third paragraph, “The condition ends on you” is now “You stop being hidden”. I think...

It's great news. I really, really love the commitment to update it with errata. Plus, using the same license just keeps things super easy.

All kidding aside, D&D does suffer from a fundamental break in its corporate structure. At a video game studio, if you launch a great game you get to build an even bigger, better, and more ambitious sequel. Or you pitch an entirely new game and get funding for that. In board games, you can go...

FWIW, when I run high level games with pregens I always build custom monsters based on what the PCs can do. I don't think any edition of the game outside of 4e accounted for what high level PCs can do in its monster design.

Maybe early 2023 or late 2022?

I think it was a thing McKinsey implemented to help cut costs by generating more turnover among older employees.

WotC is very unstable right now, at least from what I hear. There were people on Sigil who were there less than a year. They shut down a video game studio in Toronto even though they hired people on to it less than six months ago. Hasbro/WotC is having mini-layoffs every month to cut costs. I...

Just popping in to say I have had a very busy week, but am trying to keep up with the discussion and will reply when I finally have time.

The reaction to my thread is interesting, and I've enjoyed reading some of the commentary around it. It stems from my reading of the philosopher Bernard Suits and his definition of a game: "The voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles". It fascinates me, because at Gary Con I...

Yes. The person who said it clearly did not mean to and just let it slip, but we were all thinking it (or some variation).

Personal Anecdote about Working on D&D: If at any point in working on a new edition someone on the team is compelled by a presentation to say, "We're making New Coke, aren't we?" immediately scrap the project.

One other note - I don't add monster mods to attacks or damage. It's irritating that 5e forces accuracy AND damage up. I like being able to vary it, so I used a 4e-style approach where stats don't have a direct, mechanical influence on attack and damage numbers. The influence is more thematic...

I think that modern D&D is too non-swingy on the DM's side, or at least doesn't make enough use of high variability. Based on my own experiences of the past few years: Players like reliability. They have a thing they can do, and they do it. If a player wants a swingy character, they can opt...

I'm tackling this over on my Patreon! The key files are all free. First batch of stat blocks is available here: Mearls Patreon Monster Test As I've worked, I've found that a 4e style approach works best for getting monster stats into a good place. With stat blocks as written, I'd recommend...