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I have a mountain of work but have managed to get in two hours of gameplay this week. I keep thinking about it and want to dive back in. Really like the setting, love the set up, love how they have made it feel like approachable fantasy but added in enough twists to keep it fresh. Can't wait to...

Exactly! The main thing that we tried to take away from WoW was a larger focus on tactical combat that offered a puzzle. We felt that would make it easier to DM, plus give players a clearer sense of what they were supposed to do. I think if we had been allowed to take the D&D Minis game and...

I hadn't picked up on the wonkiness of the invisibility condition, but it's there. Here is the text for concealed: Concealed. You aren’t affected by any effect that requires its target to be seen unless the effect’s creator can somehow see you. Any equipment you are wearing or carrying is also...

This is exactly the kind of thing that breaks if you don't have a system architect and if you don't have the time you need to finish the game.

A bunch! But to be concise, I think stealth should be a function of the environment, mixed with the DM's assessment of how attentive a creature is. In short: Obscurement should limit how far a creature can see, say 10 feet for light and 5 feet for heavy. I'm still playing with this and might...

I went through the 5.5 PHB and did the following: I built out a base level 1 fighter and wizard For each, I plotted their at-will damage and stats by level I layered on their class features, using the battle master for the fighter I used the list of free spells for the wizard, and determined...

For what it's worth, I crunched the numbers on character output in 5.5. A party that leads with their most powerful abilities does more than double damage compared to their base abilities. That means fights should end in about a round or a round and a half.

The disclaimers were my idea, and I was always tickled that people liked them. In the early days I wrote all of them. There were two main reasons why I think I was the only person who liked them: Some people saw them as an annoying extra step in the production process. They'd be working on a...

I'm glad they made folks happy, but the staff basically resented them from the start. I'm surprised they didn't stop them earlier.

I think that's something that you have to consider with any platform. Does DTRPG or Roll20 have an agenda other than their own growth? There's nothing wrong with that, but I'm not sure D&D Beyond is unique in wanting to maximize itself potentially at the cost of its users. I do agree that...

Great point! I think that's also a clear win from the OGL. I think any platform owner would prefer that your customers don't have an easy off ramp. If anything, it can be a win-win if you have the product lineup that D&D Beyond customers can move into. D&D Beyond get more content and different...

I guess I don't see that as "winning" per se, because a win for them is a world where D&D Beyond is the only place where you can publish material. I think the Grim Hollow Kickstarter is a good example of the issues publishers face. Crunching some numbers: 52% of backers picked a tier that...

The downshift in DMs Guild content might be part of a larger trend. OTOH, as I'm working on my own stuff I am looking at ways to port things over to D&D. I think the bigger picture, at least for me, is that I'd rather lead with something I can control, even if it is smaller, then find ways to...

I disagree, but we might have different definitions of won. The joke around TTRPG publishing is that the best way to make $1 million is to start with $2 million. While that's not strictly true - every business is risky, the folk knowledge around TTRPG business practices is mostly inaccurate -...

Breaking down the math in the Monster Manual, this is my biggest worry. The general trend I see is that at low levels, monsters rely on sticking around for a long time to be a threat. Their attacks aren't too threatening, but after 5 or 6 rounds they wear down the party. The haunted house...

I think I wasn't very clear on my point. It's not about sweeping the new edition under the rug. Instead, I think the key is doing new stuff that is just exciting for any D&D fan. Put the focus on the future, and get people to stop looking to the past. Scenario A: New book comes out, updates...

Exactly. We had a lot of pitches back in the day, and the D&D was very picky about who they worked with.

Marketing is all about managing expectations and putting your best foot forward. There's nothing wrong with it. Within the context of D&D, it's not like the product promise to cure a disease or make you healthier. There's a world of difference between a game company talking about a release in a...

I zapped the image to save space. For the trend search, if it's not a topic that's preloaded in the search Google treats it like a typical text search. Putting the word in quotes slices out all the other searches that include those two words along with anything else. You can see the One D&D...