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The previous post was on the original topic, but to address the topic the thread has kind of become: There needs to be a mix of storytelling mechanics and simulation mechanics, IMHO to really have fun. I think players should have SOME input into the game world and the background. However, I...

Since I've been gone a while and this thread has gone quite far without me, let me put my 2 cents in. I think the game needs a good balance between player power and character power. I think that removing all power from one or the other will cause major problems. However, I stand firmly in the...

There are things I'd allow and things I wouldn't. I can never really know unless I'm in the middle of a game with a group of players that I have a good feeling for exactly what I'd allow. Sometimes a challenge sounds better in my head and the game has been going really slow and the challenge...

It is...and I'm much less strict on the "absolutely NO meta game mechanics in my D&D" than Mark CMG. However, I like to limit it as much as possible. To me, the game is a mix of meta-game contrivances that are required to even have a game(Spells are the order they are in because players will...

I won't draw the line somewhere in the middle. Since I started playing D&D back in the day, I've been taught that the DM is in charge. It is their world, you just live in it briefly. They decide 100% of these things. You can take whatever actions you want but if the DM says there is no boxes...

Being the OP, I can say that out of the 5 players in the game, 2 of the complained about Murder in Baldur's Gate. One minorly complained and the other one majorly complained. The player I was talking about in the OP complained about nearly everything that happened in the adventure. The...

My first step in creating or even running an adventure is for me to visualize a scene. I get to a section of a prewritten adventure that says "The thing the PCs want is on the second floor of a building that has a window facing an alley. The PCs must climb(DC 15) or find some other way up...

Honestly, having been in the web beta and not seeing any real progress in the last month, I suspect WOTC grew impatient with waiting for the program to be completed. You could not successfully make a character in the beta in the state it is in. At least not one that was 100% correct. It also...

Wow...I just looked at the schedule. I didn't realize there was going to be a 3 month gap in available adventures from December until March. We've been running D&D Expeditions weekly since it started and everyone is having a lot of fun. When a new adventure doesn't come out that week, we've...

For me, it's that the crux of playing the game is solving problems. You might be solving those problems by killing things or by coming up with non-combat solutions. The entire point of the game, IMHO, is that players use the information they have in order to come up with solutions. Changing...

I've gone back and forth on the issue of rolling stats and have been on both sides of this arguments at various points. However, I've never equated rolling with powergaming. I got fed up of seeing everyone having maxed stats in their primary stat in 3e, and 4e when using point buy. It was...

No. For a number of reasons: I'm running the Starter Set as an Adventurer's League adventure. Which means that in order to follow the rules, I cannot hand out any magic items that are not listed in the adventure ever. I've already explained this to the player in question who keeps asking for...

I try not to rank the intelligence of my friends. I really don't know who is the smartest and who is the dumbest. I assume they are all average so I don't have to look down on anyone or feel inferior to anyone. Besides, Intelligence, as I've said is a measure of knowledge and ability to learn...

I'm going to disagree with that point already. It's good to try to keep players happy. When they ask for unreasonable things, however, you can't give it to them or they'll expect the same thing again and again. I already have a player in one of my games who is playing a halfling rogue. They...

That's pretty much it. The players are likely wondering what the answer to the question is. This answers it for them so they can feel complete. Here's the basic summary of the adventure and the motivation behind it. Each of the 5 adventures is an introduction to each of the 5 factions in...

The players are both players AND viewers. They get to be part of the story, but that doesn't mean they don't also view the story...just through the eyes of their characters. The adventure in question is the story about a bunch of Red Wizards who are trying to conquer the Sword Coast and the...

No it isn't. People keep abusing the word metagaming. The definition as per both the 3e and 4e DMGs is using the knowledge that you are playing a game in order to come up with information that your character would not know. The example given in the 3e DMG was coming across a door that didn't...

Here's the deal. As I said in a previous post, 8 Int is slightly below average. Saying "Sorry, you have 8 Int, you are too stupid to figure this out" is like telling the stupidest person in your D&D group that he can't contribute to the puzzle because the players is too stupid to help, sorry...

My philosophy on mental stats is that they can give you more information upon which to make your decision. But decisions always need to be made by the players. Say there is a puzzle with symbols on buttons...they have to be pushed in the right order. If you have enough Int, you may make a...

I disagree. Part of clever thinking is working WITHIN the boundaries you are given. Player's have control over their characters, they don't have control over the world around them. They can't make an NPC grow a beard through wishful thinking. If their plan requires the NPC to have a beard...