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Right, and if "the world" reacts to the players by invalidating their choice in favor of the DMs predetermined outcome, that's railroading.

It can certainly be railroading if the players are interacting with it and think they have a role in establishing it, when they, in fact, don't. If the DM wrote a story (all elements are established without the players) and is simply leading the players through it, without the players being...

She did have a thing for Kirk, but then found out he had a pregnant girlfriend - and backed right off. I'll agree that the Spock romance is a bit weird.

It is IF the DM leads the players into believing that they are the ones establishing these details, when in fact they are not. If/when the players think that certain details are established by their actions but, actually, they are determined by the DM regardless of what the players do - that's...

I disagree that this is semantics. If something is not determined, then it doesn't yet exist, and might never exist. That's not a state because it's not anything yet. But that's the secondary point here. To the main: Because it matters, it REALLY matters who gets to determine the price of tea...

That doesn't seem right. If the fictional reality is undermined and then it becomes determined, it becomes set not changed. As in it wasn't there before, now it is. Applying that to railroading, IF: The players THINK the reality is undetermined and that their choices/actions can/will...

Apparently there's been some complaining online that Paul Wesley wasn't quite doing Kirk's delivery "properly." The writers sure had fun with that in today's episode!

As you said in a previous post, I think he is absolutely willing to do whatever is necessary - for good to win. I'd also go with neutral good.

I absolutely agree about providing encouragement! But that doesn't mean letting clearly bad habits solidify. Rules whiplash is something that can be addressed without being at all harsh - and it seems it would solve most of the OPs issues.

It's always difficult when getting information from just the one viewpoint. But here, the OP expressly stated that the rules were 1)house rules 2) sprung on the group/person mid-session. I'm all for letting a new DM find their bearings (heck that's exactly what's happening in my Sunday group...

If that were the case, sure. But here it seems most of the changes are from the new DM going, wait that was too easy let's change the rule to xyz. With xyz being what the be DM thinks is "appropriate" going forward. That's the real issue, rule changes sprung on the players, often mid game and...

Seems like a great time for an email requesting a write up of all of the rules changes as well as (gently) suggesting a discussion/write up of any more the new DM still wants/is thinking about, so they are not just sprung in the group.

What about stealth and observation focused characters, characters with familiars, or casters with any number of "scouting" spells? Or do you just tell groups not to bother with that?

Though I won't forbid it, I'm generally not a fan. Tends to split my attention, leaves some players twiddling their thumbs, and can cause problems if there is a serious combat encounter. There are ways around any and all of those problems, but 5e doesn't tend to embrace them wholeheartedly (for...

I used Roll20 heavily from about 3/2020 to late last year. But I've always had a love/hate relationship with it. It works, but there just always seem to be issues. But now, since we've been sticking to 5e, I've been using a combination of Zoom and Maps (from DnD Beyond). Zoom has just been much...

Archivist AI looks decent, but I'm showing a cost of $10-$60 per month depending on tier.

Yeah, same here. Installed it, played around with it. Lost interest so far.

Yes another reason to prefer MAPS for now. you get the battle maps for free and in an easy to use format. Worked great for the entire Planescape adventure

MAPS is DnDbeyonds current 2D VTT. It's somewhat basic, but quite functional. With recent updates, it's pretty good for running 5e/5.24, I greatly prefer it to Roll20. SIGIL is Wizards, still in development, 3D VTT. In it's current stage, is good for messing around with, and it already looks...

While not as pretty, so far the MAPS VTT on DDbeyond is orders of magnitude more useful than SIGIL. I use Maps for my online group and it's great. I've tried SIGIL a few times in the last month or so, can't even imagine running a test encounter with it, much less a session - just found it...