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I've had success with both "Lost Mine of Phandelver" and "The Sunless Citadel" with new players. "The Whispering Cairn" is regarded as one of the best adventures to grace the pages of Dungeon magazine, and although it's the first part of the "Age of Worms", it should be easy enough to...

This thread hits on my major issue with RPG reviews - in order to be relevant they need to come out close to product release, but that means that the reviewers may well not have read the thing in detail, much less run it. (And even if they have run it, you still only get an impression of how it...

I think there's a sliding scale at play - to have agency, players must have the information to make meaningful decisions. The better the information they have, the more meaningful those choices, and the more agency they have. That being the case, the use of random tables does indeed reduce...

I'm also half expecting him to use the opportunity to show her the future and add her voice to the chorus in "Rise of Skywalker". That way, there's no need for her to be dead by that point, and he can bring her back for future projects as desired.

I think people can talk about any edition or editions they like. My answer was about 5e specifically for two reasons: it's the only edition I've played in some years now, and consequently it's the edition I've been most critical of over those years. Plus, my answer would be a bit different for...

The people around the table. But regarding D&D 5e itself, the core experience is really strong (that is, the combat pillar at levels 3-10 or so). Which is, to be honest, most of what I need support for in my gaming - I'm able to fill in the gaps for interaction and exploration rather more...

Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. Though I suppose I should be grateful - thanks to that one, I skipped Spelljammer, which I'm sure I would have hated.

Q&A with Gary Gygax?

Murder in Baldur's Gate 21 Legacy of the Crystal Shard 18 Hoard of the Dragon Queen 15 The Rise of Tiamat 23 Curse of Strahd 15 Storm King's Thunder 18 Tomb of Annihilation 21 Waterdeep: Dragon Heist 18 Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage 20 Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden 10 The Wild...

Doubtful. Very doubtful. It's very likely that by the time they are released I will no longer be playing D&D, with no intention to start another campaign in any foreseeable future. And I've run out of shelf space, so it's really hard to justify clearing some for new books I'm probably never...

Against the Cult of Chaos 18 Storm over Neverwinter 20 Search for the Diamond Staff 14 Murder in Baldur's Gate 21 Legacy of the Crystal Shard 20 Hoard of the Dragon Queen 19 The Rise of Tiamat 22-2 = 20 Princes of the Apocalypse 12 Out of the Abyss 18 Curse of Strahd 19 Storm King's Thunder 20...

Maybe not, but they do. But, honestly, I'm not sure there's any value in debating this further - I'm happy to respect your opinion, but I'm just not going to share it.

Mostly I look them up because they're referenced in a monster description or a magic item. In neither case do they reliably include the level.

It's been a really long time since I read it, but I think the 2nd Ed DMG actually calls out that behavior as a no-no - basically, the DM shouldn't give the PCs for no-challenge combats.

I'm afraid I'd much rather have a single alphabetical listing than anything else - if I need to know which level/class/whatever the spell applies to before I can start looking it up, that's a problem IMO.

The only true issues I've seen are the awful indices and the binding issue. Fortunately, one of those at least is long since resolved. Everything else I'm aware of is at least somewhat subjective.

These days, my preference is that species choice should be entirely cosmetic - instead, have the player pick a handful of traits for their character and let them justify them however they want (maybe Bruenor has darkvision because he's a dwarf, Geralt has it due to his mutations, and Arya has it...

In 35 years of gaming, I can count the number of campaigns to reach the teen-levels on the fingers of one hand. High level play is something I'd like to achieve more of, in theory, but in practice it just doesn't seem to work out. That said, my most played edition in that time is 3e (or 3.5e)...

Agreed. I'm inclined to suggest that the players should create their characters with no items, and then the DM assign those. That way they get those important, and powerful items, but they also can't optimize their builds based on having particular items. Or... don't worry about it. :)

Wasn't there a great server crash a few years ago (well, a decade and a half ago), in which a vast chunk of our collective history was lost?