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In preparation I think of cool stuff that could happen during the encounter due to terrain, enemy abilites, villain motivation and other circumstances. I take some minimal notes and that it. The only big thing I have in my notebooks are simplified monster statblocks. I have the HP of the...

In general I like to have gore and blood in combat, adult themes in sense of deep motivations and human emotions. One-sided violence (torture, sexual violence, discrimination) I really dislike in my games and in special cases like sexual violence its a strict no, in other cases it happens...

Strongly disagree to that. High level play is gameplay/mechanics, fantastical elements are setting/theme. Starter set should definitely dont have high level elements, but for gods sake, its a fantasy rpgs. Show your newbies something of it. A starter set is supposed to make a good first...

None of this need to happen mechanically. In the end even the hurt action hero defeats the baddies without being hindered by his wound. In most games I played the players roleplay it by themselves without any needed mechanic that they are hurt when they are. The mechanics say: "You are on low...

So you are of the opinion that Mines of Phandelver has an exciting hook and Phandalin is an exciting town? Because that what we were discussing and not how beloved the adventure was. I also liked to run it btw. I like the structure of the adventure, I like the dungeons and battles. I just find...

I never understood the HP and AC discussion. AC represents the defense potential of someone to prevent damage to themselves, HP represents the damage if they can't prevent it. These are abstractions, but the abstractions are representing (matching) the fiction. But I think a lot of the...

I absolutely agree with everything you said, but nothing in Phandalin is exciting. There are no fantastic elements, nor clues and intrigue, nor mystery. Strong player motivations are often missing with new players too, if the DM is not experienced and takes care in a good session 0 to help them...

All players know fantasy tropes, use them. Even early lotr has hobbits in funny houses, a mysterious artifact, a mighty wizard, nazgul etc. Phandelver is boring and my newbie group agreed. The starting problems come with mechanics not setting

Its not about novelty, its about excitement. My players were definitely not excited when they realized Phandalin has nothing to offer. Mostly human NPC and human bandits. And nothing special about the town. Its the least fantastical you can go without actually playing in a medieval setting. It...

Obviously it was intended, I just found it was a bad decision as introduction to a fantasy game to make the setting as least fantastical as possible. I repeat myself, but you can build a strong contrast without being bland.

One of OP points was "discovery" and skill challenges were put as an answer to that. I don't understand how skill challenges or clocks are helping with building a sense for discovery, thats why I asked.

Me personally I am all for in a good contrast, but the first part is just too bland. Make it goody shoe fantasy, but FANTASY. There was almost nothing fantastical about the town of phandelver. Could've been from a non-fantasy setting almost. The outskirts are a bit better but not much.

Ok the weird definitely seem interesting. But if they really change nothing to the "old part", than it will be quite the opposing contrast coming from the most basic adventure to one of the weirdest. Hopefully they at least hint, foreshadow aspects of it. Still definitely one of the more...

Thats my biggest gripe with them. I start to use them, but I think I still have to fully grasp them. ops, completely overread these two words. Yeah, clocks are definitely better, but I don't get how they would help with a sense of discovery for the players. Maybe I misunderstand them (see first...

I hope they make Phandalin more fantastical. The original adventure felt so bland and uninspired in large parts. Only Thundertree and Wave Echo Cave were memorable locations with enemies not human or goblin bandits. (ok Nothic was also cool in Redbrand hideout). If yes I would be inclined to run...

Half of that is adventure design or DMing IMO. Also in my opinion D&D has not too much to learn from video games, the experiences are different and I dont want to play a video game when playing D&D. I think though exploration is really underdeveloped in 5e and some video games have a beautiful...

sorry for the late answer. They buy stuff. Early game basic items, resources, inns etc. Mid game downtime expenses like buying magic items, training, research etc. Late game kinda depends on the campaign, they are half gods at this point, and half gods usually dont care about money. I had one...

That is literally what these age ratings are made for. Is the content appropiate for kids. Do you think VRGtR was written by WotC with the intention to write PG content to be family friendly?

ok so not changing the world is kids content, and changing the world is adult content? Doesnt make sense IMO. These are debatable design decisions but are not related with protecting kids from disturbing content. I would not run a horror VRGtR campaign for kids with the content provided in the...

I honestly don't think 5e has that big issues. Most of the complaints are due to personal preference. I think the biggest real offender is the bad layout and structure of all the books, not just DMG. Things are often hard to find, spread all over the place and difficult to understand. I...