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Sounds like what you want is the old 3.5-era sourcebook Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume I, published by Swords & Sorcery Studios. (I'd link to the DM's Guild, but the Ravenloft Gazetteers don't appear to be on the DMs Guild yet.) There are specific sections on the flora and fauna of Barovia, the...

Note that this answer works great if you want the underlying reality to reflect the AD&D/D&D 3E Ravenloft campaign setting lore. However, there have been persistent rumors that the Hickmans were never fond of the Ravenloft campaign setting. Chris Perkins, in designing Curse of Strahd, has...

Here's an example of one of the things I'm talking about. This introduction seems reasonable, even sincere, and should be acceptable as a 'voice of reason' in the context of a community discussion. Yet the poster concludes: As a member of the community, do I point out that this stance seems...

There's a curious facet of this discussion that I'm not entirely sure how to process. First off, I don't agree that incidents of sexual harassment are evidence that current harassment policies are inadequate. Yes, Fannon's comments about the Gamers Giving event and his description of men who...

I've browsed through the last few pages of discussion on alignment, and it surprises me that nobody has noticed that Fifth Edition has basically abandoned the field on alignment. You can use alignment in 5E, but the kind of weirdness that results from doing so pretty much convinces most DMs to...

I'm not sure it's even Bonnie Tyler's best song -- I've long preferred "Total Eclipse of the Heart". -- Pauper

I'll agree -- I'd definitely be curious to see how Tynes reacts to the changes in the hobby over the past two decades since his original Power Kill essay. Game design has in many ways evolved beyond the simpler 'kill and get XP' systems of gaming's past; as noted by other posters in this...

It's always interesting to see this topic resurface -- it's certainly not new. It probably wasn't new when John Tynes, former WotC employee and co-designer of Delta Green and Unknown Armies, wrote his essay about a new 'RPG metagame' called Power Kill over 20 years ago. It actually goes a...

This technically requires a sympathetic DM ruling, as Jeremy Crawford has clarified that spell effects do not count toward activating the 'on attack' effects of alchemists fire or acid: The origin of this clarification is Crawford's observation that the Catapult spell does not deal damage from...

This here is precisely my main irritation with people who blindly criticize 4E as a 'bad game'. Thanks. -- Pauper

Should be noted, for those who care, that this interpretation of Simulacrum -- a Simulacrum is copy of you and thus counts as you -- is also the functioning interpretation for Adventurers League. (This does make for interesting corner cases with spells and class abilities that you can't use on...

I don't think this is a winning line of argument -- contrast Bardic Inspiration with the text for the Divination Wizard's Portent ability: "You can replace any attack roll, saving throw, or ability check made by you or a creature that you can see with one of these foretelling rolls." (emphasis...

All Season One, Two, and Four DDAL mods. (Season Four as DM only, others both as player and DM.) Most Season Three and Season Five DDAL mods. (As player and DM.) The Season Seven intro mod. (Played only.) Numerous CCC AL modules, mostly BMG mods at GenCon, but some purchased and downloaded from...

I've seen this assertion a few times now in this thread, but haven't seen any real justification for it. In fact, having seen the War Cleric in play, I can suggest exactly the opposite -- the War Cleric is exactly the cleric who wants to cast a spell at the start of combat (Bless, Spiritual...

I'm guessing every fantasy heartbreaker in existence owes its life to its creator having just that moment of "man, D&D was great before this specific rule ruined it -- hey, what if..." -- Pauper

Let's be honest -- if you're going to see Ready Player One, you probably already know about D&D. -- Pauper

Glad to see the Fraternity of Shadows represented -- definitely a great resource for Ravenloft fans! -- Pauper

Within the D&D universe (and the universes deliberately designed to be similar to it, such as Pathfinder's Golarion and Hackmaster's default universe, etcetera), magic exists as a tool -- it is defined, has specific effects, and requires explicit factors to be in place (class, level, components...

At the risk of feeding the side thread and turning a dumpster fire about race into a dumpster fire about the edition wars, I'll agree that the game likely wasn't for you, but disagree that it was a bad design. My belief is that 4e was the most faithful interpretation of the original D&D that...

At this point I'd like to propose Pauper's Extrapolation of Godwin's Law: In any discussion of problematic mechanics or design in role-playing games, as the discussion thread grows longer, the probability of mentioning FATAL approaches one. -- Pauper