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Forgot to mention — mundane animals as victims of monster attacks is a great motivator for some players to get them involved.

Yes, I routinely use mundane animals as background flavor, as warnings of impending threats, or more rarely as encounters (or parts of encounters). I try to make fauna ubiquitous so that when I do mention that there’s a crow in tree the players don’t automatically conclude that it’s the evil...

I think the intent is to circle back after the exploring player has resolved their exploration/disarm. 1) Scout declares the exploration or disarm intent, knowing that it's going to take some time. 2) Others say what they're doing while the scout is out-and-about/busy with the trap. 3) Resolve...

To me, casting the identify ritual is sensible and an effective use of downtime. After all, when the scout comes running back with a band of gnolls hot on her heels, there's won't be a chance to do that. We don't pass notes at our games. It takes a moment to declare the intention. In this...

Delete.

I apologize. I follow conversations much more clearly in small chunks, and I forget that others don't see that as a conversation that I intend it to be. I wasn't attempting to reduce context or meaning. Why wouldn't you? Well, maybe you would just stand guard quietly. Or maybe you'd barricade...

Yes it is. :) Actions in combat represent seconds in the fictional world, whereas actions in exploration are often longer blocks of time. The intitiative order is a methodical means to pan around the room. Well, that's the problem, I suppose. There's no need to resolve others' actions before...

I’m confused. D&D 5e combat is 100% built on the idea of panning around the room, or at least it seems so to me. It’s broken up to to six second segments and everyone is involved. Does it make sense to you that it’s important to establish what other characters are doing while one PC scouts...

This is excellent advice.

I've taken several different approaches to mapping. I've tried drawing as we go, on tiles or on paper, but alas I'm a slow drawer and it can be awkward to draw on a surface on a table surrounded by players. I've also drawn out entire dungeon levels on large easel-sized grid paper and, like you...

Okay, I won't argue about which TV characters are PCs and which are NPCs, because on TV they're neither. The point is that other PCs can be doing important things while the rogue is disarming the trap, and the party gets shortchanged if the players aren't given the opportunity to declare those...

Based on the illustration of the mostly-naked warrior, I would guess that the class was not meant to be male-specific.

Scotty didn’t complain when the camera moved away from him while he was installing the cloaking device to cover Kirk fast-talking the Romulans. If the other PCs are intent on doing something while the trap is being disarmed, they should get a chance to declare those actions.

We'll see soon enough if they shot themselves in the foot, but I'm doubting that. For my part, I am presently unlikely to buy the revised PHB and very, very unlikely to buy the revised MM and DMG. But I am very likely to buy some forthcoming adventures and sourcebooks, which I wouldn't be buying...

No, there are a lot more opportunities than a binary all or nothing. If you're running a game with the 2014 PHB rules and a player is disappointed about not being able to use a revised 2024 character class, you can find out what they like about the change and adopt part of it -- a different...

I disagree. It's a set up for conversation, compromise, and reasonable decisions about how the game will be played. If in the end the DM and players don't agree to play the game, that's reasonable. If that turns to hostility, it's a reflection on the participants, not on the game rules or...

It's difficult when the DM and some players want fundamentally different things from the game. If that devolves into hostility, well, there are problems there that won't be solved by rulebooks.

Downloading to read later. This looks great!

Sure, I get it. I don't think anything I said indicates that I think advancement should be disconnected to the setting and what you do in it. Milestones are milestones -- accomplishments, doing things, reaching goals. Maybe milestone seem "broader strokes" than XP point tallies, but in my...

Disagree. Yes, you can play in such a way that Milestone XP "rewards the railroad," but it's trivially easy for players to set their own milestone goals or for the DM to recognize accomplishments that the DM did not define in advance. Over years, I've gradually stopped seeing XP and level...