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I find it pretty sad that the biggest thing in D&D in a long time is commonly looked down on as “not D&D”.

Needless cheap shot tbh.

I really don’t like the fixed number of failures in the 4e skill challenge, it punishes larger groups or longer challenges or dissuades players from trying risky things. To my mind a skill challenge should be more like a tug of war with a time limit. So achieve X within Y rounds. Of course it...

That’s not been my experience. Typically the players have forgotten by the time the next encounter rolls up.

Lots of good suggestions here. Something I will suggest is pre-rollling initiative so that you can smoothly transition into turn-based play when things get hot. This avoids the combat swoosh interruption. At the end of the encounter, seed the next initiative order. (The DM slots in the monster...

Cool, I was inventing my own version of skill challenges when I came across this. I've not run it at the table, and I'm no mathematician :) The key part for me was ensuring there was some time pressure on the challenge (along with the possibility of failure). Basically "Accomplish X before Y...

Just no pleasing some people :D Darker Dungeons is supposed to be tough. There’s a lot of complaint that default 5e is too easy. What I don’t like about 4e skill challenges is the failure count is fixed. IMO this allows more interesting setups and of course you can play with the numbers to suit...

I can do you one better and point you to the source itself: https://giffyglyph.com/darkerdungeons/grimoire/4.0.0/en/trials.html In fact for those looking for more options, there’s a ton of good stuff in Darker Dungeons.

This also exposes their character to the world and possible traps, perception opportunities etc etc. All of which makes the exploration actions much more visceral.

So we can dispense with the windy DM as an exemplar of the exploration pillar then :)

I dunno that seems poor form to me from the DM. If it was harrowing then why didn't the players get to experience that? I'll take time (a minute or two) to set the scene if we're going to be adventuring in a location, but if there was is journey that we're skipping over then I'll narrate it with...

This seems similar to the other complaint about a boring trip not being exploration. It's easy to point to poor DMing style and say that's not exploration. I don't think anyone here would try and argue against that?

In the spirit of being constructive here are things I intend to change about the default exploration mode in 5e: DMGs alternate travel rules: long rest benefits gained only in safe locations AngryGMs tension pool to make the passage of game time more transparent Giffyglyph's Darker Dungeons...

The one thing I intend to add is the tension pool/time pool thing. I know people say just use a piece of paper etc but I really like the idea of making it clear to the players that time is passing and something might turn up. That aspect was definitely missing in my exploration pillar before...

I dunno, just seems like it's with the most magical and free-flowing part of the game: the give and take of players declaring actions and the DM responding. Bogging it down with rules systems seems unnecessary. Wow I am really not helping am I? :) I'm going to drop out now.

Ha, you're right. Well loop closed and obviously I disagree that it's the boring bit between encounters. It's essential but yes it can be done poorly. I don't see that more rules is going to make a better narrator of a DM.

I disagree. Exploration is the pillar (I prefer foundation) that leads to the other pillars. Without exploration combat and social encounters become meaningless. Exploration can offer challenges (survival, puzzles, traps) but it is not required. All that is required is that it provide...

Right, if the trip does not provide any adventure then skip it. ”after three days of travel you arrive in Phandalin”.

So now there’s a 4th ”boring trip” pillar too?! :p Edit: this is why I don’t love the FR it’s hard to imagine an exciting journey when the road has been travelled by thousands of other adventurers. This is what comes to mind when I think of adventuring in the realms :)

From what I‘ve heard from my players, every combat does feel like it has the risk of death (which I’ll take as a compliment :) ) but really, I think, simply illustrates the information gap between DM and players and just because we think the encounter is no big deal doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel...