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Right so if comes to a check a character with high stealth is likely to get a great number and beat the passive perception of any guards. The player’s choice, of course, might make it so that no check is needed, but if it is, the character build is going to have a big impact.

I’ll give them advantage on their initiative roll if a fight breaks out in the next few moments.

One of the worst things I did was offer to run a city based adventure (roughly based on Dragonheist). It was “deer in the headlights” the whole time as the players could go anywhere and into any location, because of course a city is littered with interesting locations!

I think it’s things like a tablecloth etc. I might not describe a tablecloth in my description but if a player asked “is there a tablecloth that would decently obscure me?“ I might add one because it‘s fun and reasonable.

I’d agree with that. I’d say choose a location and your character will do an excellent job of using that space. But more specifics are needed. And hell I’ll even let a player invent something if it’s reasonable to expect but I’ve not described it.

It does seem like much of the disconnect in styles of play is whether one has been harmed by adversarial DMs. I’d like to think that everyone here, who DMs, is interesting in giving their players a fun time and not being petty tyrants.

Yeah, I guess we’re going in circles :)

We're still talking at cross purposes. We're saying that going into Burger King and asking for food is not specific enough. Ordering a whopper, on the other hand, is plenty specific enough.

I would say the situation challenges the player, and the uncertainty resolution challenges the PC.

Nope, because the NPCs are not the heroes.

Outside of combat where the target is unaware of the skilled PC (likely assassin) and is basically a sitting duck with no obvious complications, I would adjudicate that it is an automatic success and they kill their target. But never in a combat as there is too much chaos and uncertainty. I...

This an excellent point so, in case it hasn’t been asked already, for those that advocate for letting players just declare “I use X skill on Y“ how do you know whether it qualifies for advantage or disadvantage when the approach is unknown?

Well this has been a helpful process for me to get a handle on this adventure and I hope some others find it useful. :)

Chapter 4: Clifftop Observatory Looking at the final chapter and it also needs some work. D1: Overlook It’s fine but seems unnecessarily confusing to have to two keyholes and one key? Nice that they have to leave the key behind though. D2: Rotunda Ruins & D3: Kobold Camp Fun that there‘s a...

Thinking a bit more about Tarak and the Seagrow Caves and I realize that a sense of urgency is missing. A good motivation for the players would be for one of the residents to the deathly ill with an illness that only the ruby morel in the Seagrove caves can cure. Probably Varnath. Then when...

Once again, I have to lament WotC's word choice with passive. Passive is referring to the player not the PC. The player does not make rolls for these checks, they are passive. But the PC is very busy with their ongoing action. Shakes fist at WotC! :D

This new starter adventure comes out of the gate with a number of issues and opportunities. This thread is for offering improvements to the adventure to make it easier and/or more fun at the table. Straight into Chapter 1 and it seems silly not to foreshadow the shipwrecks (and the Compass...

Sure, but to immediately have inconsistency without explanation puts the DM on the spot. New DMs are stressed enough without unnecessary complication/confusion.

Reading through it now, and as usual sadly disappointed. I’m looking to use it to run an intro game for some friends and it looks like it’s going to require some DM skill to make it workable. Disappointing for a starter set, but not surprising from WotC. They really do try to make it harder than...

How video game savvy are they? There’s tons of soundtracks out there which often have a epic overture. Edit: just don’t be me and use the Skyrim music to introduce the session only to have the players sing along… :oops: