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I think most of the time I fight against D&D's specific tropes rather than embrace them. The one thing I do embrace is the monsters. I love D&D specific monsters (from Beholders to Gelatinous Cubes) and try to get as many in my games as possible - that's not really a trope though. Other things I...

I give out quite a lot of treasure as it is such a feel good for the players, but there is usually never just a stash of coins hanging around. Baddies might have coin purses on them, and I'll get the players to roll the amount. A band of goblins might have 3D6 copper on them in total, while a...

In my world Dwarves eat turnips and pumpkins, boiled into stew, and grumble about it endlessly. They definitely don't sit around drinking espresso and eating chocolate mousse of all things! :ROFLMAO: Shave my beard and call me a Gnome. I have never heard of something so un-dwarfy!

For me, it's doing stuff off the cuff. I am at my best when I have fully prepped and so I prep extensively. As soon as we go far beyond my notes (or go too far sideways), I feel like I am running on empty and can feel the quality of the session deteriorating. I think it'll get better over...

Yes, I do. I do quite extensive prep for each session, usually about 4,000 words, so each of those prep files gets a title: Session 1: The Valley North Session 2: The Beast of the Mountain Beyond Session 3: Elgi & the Temple Session 4: Downtime in Lantern Hold Session 5: Hearthmeet Session 6...

I think you've handled it really well so thanks for sharing! I have always been interested in the 'Last Stand' or 'Blaze of Glory' style mechanics, where a player can doom their fate but gains an advantage that lets them wreak havoc on the enemy until they eventually fall. Maybe in for his...

Fair point indeed. I shouldn't presume that all players dislike Save vs Death mechanics! With regards to my "hook and levers", I don't make any of them as obvious get-out-clauses, nor do I have any intention or idea on how the players can use any of them to their advantage. I just find the more...

As others have mentioned, at this point I would play it out to its conclusion. Anything else would be unsatisfying for the players. But afterwards, I would ask myself as a DM what I could have done with the design of the encounter to give my players more avenues to explore when things started...

I'm not sure the analogy between player-death and the Kobayashi Maru is the best. For me the Kobayshi Maru is more about encounter design than the minute-by-minute trading of blows, and I think players should always have the chance to turn an unwinnable scenario into a winnable one. This is the...

Darkvision. Also, Goodberry.

I also love big books with lots of content, but love it even more if it is very modular and each section is quick and easy to grasp allowing you to expand upon it at your own pace! :)

In my humble opinion, this is actually the wrong question to ask. I say this because if the reality of the sandbox is that players are only expected to go to an area once it becomes level appropriate, are the 2 methods really all that different? Instead I would say the question to ask is: “does...

Generally they are way too high magic for the style of game I like to run. Our Tiefling Druid does Peyote rituals, and so I say those take place on the Astral Plane, but that’s really just D&D lingo for what is essentially a dream sequence. Also, both Demons and Devils are playing a big role in...

I gave Orcs, goblins and gnolls all a similar treatment, which was to make them more akin to fiends/devils than human cultures. All 3 are genderless, they do not grow, they do not reproduce, and are irredeemable creatures filled with malice and spite that the adventurers need no qualms in...

So in my current campaign, we are 12 sessions in and 3 of those featured no combats making it 25% exactly. 2 of those were fun downtime sessions after quests, and 1 was a night of burglary that could have turned into combat but was avoided. I think the next session is likely to be no combat too...

Here's a few of mine that I would add to the list :): (most that I have picked up from others). Game Design is an Iterative Process You write rules, you test them, you tweak them, you repeat this again and again until the deadline looms and you run out of time to do any more! Usually your rules...

We might still be in agreement. I am envisioning a Warhammer 40k without any D&D influence and without any Warhammer Fantasy Battle influence. I think it is possible for Warhammer 40k to come about without either. Of course there would be some changes to it, but I don't think they are so extreme...

Another thing I want to add to this thread, (which is a bit of tangent, so I apologise). I don’t believe in the idea of “No D&D = No Warhammer” (which was mentioned a lot on the early pages). And I wanted to explain why. Understandably, lots of people see a simple progression of D&D being...

This is an interesting thread (I will say, I haven’t read all 16 pages though!) One thought I had comes from the following video: (This is a great channel btw that I fully recommend). In this video it’s argued that one of the major differences between JRPGs and Western CRPGs is in the latter...

I own the 5e DMG and have read good portions of it, but not all of it. I don’t actually find it to be very useful as a DM, or at least large portions of it. Page 24 suggests you “start small” (good advice), but then the first thing it points you to do in Chapter 1 is decide on a Pantheon, and...