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There are many ways to play a sandbox, a lot of people use random tables. But just to expand a bit (and because it's early and my brain is still waking up) I don't remember ever saying everything is locked down. I have a good overview of who's who, what's where and things that are in motion...

Are you really that desperate for a gotcha? Details like the exact number of enemies is in flux until the encounter starts. Just like other myriad small details of what the characters will encounter as I've explained before. Edit - removed a sentence that could have come across as more...

The reason I think players fudge more than DMs is simply a numbers game. Let's say that 1 in 10 DMs fudge now and then while 1 in 25 players do. Basic math tells me that if you look at 10 tables you'll have on average 1 fudging DM and 2 fudging players. I have no clue what the ratio is of...

I don't go out of my way to kill of characters by double tapping. But I think some people are overly concerned about killing off characters. On the other hand I roll death saves in secret (I don't fudge those either, I just don't want players knowing), and there have been times when multiple...

In my game the response would have been "You critted AGAIN???" ;) Ya take the risk ya suffer the consequences, ya gain the glory.

Maybe. I may adjust the number of adversaries just before the fight because I run a sandbox and they may have skipped over or stumbled into more than I had expected but that's it. I tweak monsters on a pretty regular basis so they fit my vision but that's before the session starts. Once...

Skimming the first few pages, adjustments are made in favor of the characters. Ending a combat when the outcome is certain, dropping crits to regular hits and so on. Like I said, in my experience some DMs will hold back in order to not kill off characters. I think that likely depends on group...

I wouldn't pull too much stock in surveys on this site, the numbers are too small.

I would disagree. If I truly have no idea what to do I'll tell the players. I don't remember the last time that happened but I suppose I could if they shifted to another plane or something. There have been times when I had to go the bathroom to give me a minute to think. I do always do minimal...

I disagree that DMs cheat more, except perhaps to not kill off a character without meaning to do so. There's no more motivation for them to cheat than players. I don't consider giving misleading info if they are relaying what the character would think was true. Withholding info is the same. I...

That's one if the reasons I always roll in the open. I don't want the players to think I'm cheating when the monster crits their character yet again. ;) But if you think the DM is the only one who judges dice or rules, I've got news for you. I've caught players flat out cheating by...

I don't know that I ever considered power gaming all that bad until it got to the point of borderline cheating. Those people? We called them munchkin gamers.

Metagaming isn't good or bad, to me it's just stating a preference on how the game works. I'm not even sure what other word we would use. If the player is using knowledge their character doesn't have, that's perfectly normal at some tables and not others. To a certain degree if you've played...

I started way, way back in high school and we ran with the same characters for years. I even started work on the world I still use back then. Our idea was a little more nebulous back then, but my experience isn't that much different. Sadly we all had to move because it was a small farming...

That sounds nice, it's also somewhat unusual. I mean, I like DMing and have told my wife that my brain gets a bit itchy if I don't DM for a long time. If I created new worlds every campaign I'd likely be more open to different species and assumptions, but I'm not. I've invested a lot of time on...

That brings up a whole new can of worms (feathers?) because owlbears can't be spirit animals, they're monstrosities! RTFM! ;)

Of course any time a DM volunteers to run a game they should run the setting past the players. I do it by letting people know about my setting on my invite. But ... it's the DM volunteering to run a game. They have more of a vote than anyone else at the table. Don't like it? Keep looking or...

Depends on the game. New world set up for this campaign? Having a session 0 with everyone voicing an opinion is nice. Established world? I wouldn't expect to make significant changes to it. If a DM is running a Dragonlance campaign I don't expect to be able to play a half orc because they don't...

While I limit species in my world for a variety of reasons, one main reason is so that choice of species narrows down the cultural identity. I want an elf from The Misty Forest to have a different outlook than an elf from a different region or a dwarf from the third. But as much as I try to...

I was thinking Star Trek where every new race they come across has basically two flavors. The first is the Planet of Hats trope where every member of the species is part of the same monoculture. All klingons are warlike but value honor and so on. But then once a member of any of these species...