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I love playing sub-optimal. It reminds me of my old 11 AC, dart slinging, 3 hit point 1st level wizard from 1e days. Seriously, a D&D character can only be truly sub-optimal if it can't be good at anything. That's pretty rare. Even a character that is just built for charisma and interaction...

6-8 medium encounters or 3 ish hard encounters or 1 or 2 deadly ones. DMs have the control. My advice for all DMs when I see a thread like this is to make sure that encounter occurrence and difficulty level is unpredictable. If players don't know what's coming, they will not go "nova", they...

I like how you gave them the choice and they reacted to it naturally. That's awesome! Cheers.

Interestingly, to me, the power gaming option is to remain in one class rather than to dip or multi-class. The only reason I would multi-class would be to gain more diversity/breadth of options and to develop an interesting character concept. So far with 5e, I have not played a multi-classed...

I always found it difficult to award Inspiration as a DM. I like the idea you present, iserith. I've started to grant inspiration when any player rolls a natural "20" for an attack, check or save. This has made rolling a "20" even more exciting and it has eliminated the burden of who awards...

To me, milestone xp/leveling actually frees up the party and the DM. It creates a specific goal oriented focus rather than a what can I do to gain more XP approach. Sure, some DMs and players who use xp can also focus on goals and avoid xp grind, but after using milestones, xp alone does not...

I think the social media angle is key. That and brand recognition has helped 5e capture a larger audience. When I was a kid (sometimes even now) I'll watch a sports game on television and then have the overwhelming urge to get outside and play. People who watch D&D 5e live streamed may...

Session 45 – Van Richten’s Tower We made it to the Tower without incident. At the door, I noticed runes that were different from the first time we had visited. The inner edges that used to be golden, where then separated from each other. Now they were dark and touched each other. We assumed...

The time investment to learn a new system may be more of an issue for DMs than players. I've been more than happy to play in Star Wars The Edge of the Empire games and I'd give Savage Worlds a try if I had a chance, but I would not have the time to learn the rules well enough to DM. The nice...

I think it is great for D&D and table top RPGs. Competition raises the bar and gets more people interested. I like playing both 5e and Pathfinder, but I don't necessarily like Dming Pathfinder/D&D 3.5 any more. If they can clean up the mechanics and make the classes and leveling curve more...

Session 42 and 43 – Chat with Ezmeralda and a Visit to the Abby, A Wedding and A Resurrection. We spoke with Ezmeralda and asked her questions about the Abbott and the readings that Madame Eva gave us. We learned a little and it helped us plan our future travels. When we asked how to contact...

Session 41 – Krezk, Ezmeralda and Removing the Curse from Fid’s Sword After a short rest at the winery, we took to the road. After an hour, we realized we were lost. Luckily, Fid and Brigby kept sharp eyes open and saw a nasty pit trap before we stepped into it. Then, we came upon some...

Session 40 – Wintersplinter and the Gulthius Tree Bynn worked to purify the wine in the large casks as soon as we woke up early in the morning and then we set out south on the path toward Yesterhill. As we got deeper into the forest path, we saw a flaming horse fly above us toward the area...

I actually took 2 days to teach 4 of my 9th grade English classes to play D&D. I used the pre-gens from Lost Mines and made the class split into 5 or 6 groups. Then I gave each group a character and asked them to read/study it, paying attention to the written information mostly. They had to...

5e is quite an adaptable beast. If you like making combat more complicated, and you don't mind slowing down turns, give it a shot. But, remember to let your foes do the same and see if that keeps balance and gives you what you are looking for. Be wary of too many options. That often leads...

Session 39 – Defeating the Druids at the Wizards of Wine Vinyard Inside the basement, we took a quick breather, finding some wine called Purple Grape Mash #3. We didn’t drink any for fear that it had been tainted by the Druids. Then we made our way up to the 2nd floor of the building to check...

I don't necessarily break/change rules, but I do the following: 1) I make one or more foe in each encounter customized with some kind of extra power or ability that may not be from the rules. 2) I vary when foes are average hp, random hit points and maximum hit points. 3) I tell the players...

I started with Basic/1st edition, but pretty soon 2nd took over. So...here's the time played for me: 1) 2nd Edition. This was the height of my teenage gaming years. We had so much free time to play D&D. 2) 3rd Edition/3.5/Pathfinder - This was my first reawakening to D&D. I ran a few...

Session 38 – Esmeralda and the Wizards of Wine In the morning we ate breakfast and spoke briefly with Irwin Martikoff about his relations at the Wizards of Wine. He told us about Davian and his family, but admitted that he had not gotten a chance to see them lately, and he was worried. We...

Session 37 – Purifying Bones and Resisting Strahd I was able to call forth Leomund’s Tiny Hut to encase Lucien, the alter, me and my comrades, but as Lucien’s ritual continued, black shades, shadows and writhing forms emerged from the bones themselves. Then, outside our protective dome, we saw...