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I likely play too many video games but MMOs have never really been my thing. I've tried a few and I do play some online competitive racing games but the game play loop of the MMOs I've tried just doesn't have much appeal.

I think it was interesting what he said about video game development "In addition, Wizards of the Coast operates a central content development team that any of its internal or external studios can draw on. The idea, he says, is to have a 'set of artists and designers that are trained up on the...

I think they're just acknowledging that in-person play is important and to counter the argument that I've seen made that they're pushing for more and more online play.

If you don't use something like CR how would you be able to tell at a glance how powerful a goblin is versus a tarrasque? CR certainly has it's faults because no generic rating system will always work, but it serves a purpose. Personally I find it reasonably accurate. They can, but it also...

I discuss how likely the characters are to die when we do our session 0 with the understanding that death will never be completely off the table. Meanwhile we like tough combats which means there is a risk of death. A few sessions ago, the characters had just gotten done fighting some vampire...

Depends on how you define player skill. I've never really cared for things like math puzzles for example. I am not my character and if Alex is playing an intelligence 20 wizard but Alex has a hard time with adding much less math puzzles. Meanwhile Kim is playing a barbarian who's intellect...

I think it was simple - they gave a strict by the letter ruling because there was no way to satisfy people with whatever answer they gave. I don't see a reason to believe they ever thought the rules were perfect, they openly admit that they make small adjustments for their home games. But if...

I was a lucky roll away from permanently killing a couple of 19th level characters in my last campaign. Even at 20th level there were some close calls.

Why do you need "rewards" from the rules? If I create a new monster and it works well for the scenario I'm envisioning then I've got all the reward I need. I wouldn't mind details for making my own NPCs and monsters but I don't need them and can find general guidelines if I want them. It's...

It was the same with 3e and PF was frequently labeled D&D 3.75 by my friends who played it. Which brought along all the baggage like what you mentioned but also if I happened to describe a wall that didn't match up to the climbing chart then as the DM I was somehow "cheating". The more you had...

Serious question: why? I started creating custom monsters long ago before there were any rules for making them, or if there were any I didn't know about them. It just seemed obvious to me that since I was creating whole worlds that I could also create customized monsters based on something I...

Good luck answering a question about a version of the game that many (most?) of us haven't played for nearly a decade with actual rules. We have opinions, important opinions which we must repeat for hundreds of posts! ;)

If you don't have new DMs the game slowly dies. So, yes. Veteran DMs don't need the hand-holding anyway.

I think the change in target audience is pretty clear based on how the 2024 version is written vs the 2014 book. The 2014 book was fairly clearly primarily aimed at veteran DMs and I recall them talking about the change of direction for 2024. As far as whether they should include something...

Your complaint is that we don't have detailed rules to modify monsters, correct? Therefore what I believe the target audience for the book to be is germane. New DMs probably should just use the monsters as written until they get a better handle on the rules. Meanwhile, once people have been...

The 2024 MM is aimed at new DMs. Once you have some experience DMing, you don't need a line in the book telling you that you can customize. Assuming anybody actually read the DMG in the first place of course. ;)

I never assume the boss will escape. But if I want to make it likely, that will take about 5 minutes. Time spent on an individual boss? Usually less than half an hour, frequently much less. I may spend more time on a climactic battle, it depends on how many moving parts I want. But it's...

While I'm not sure I ever spent an entire hour, it did take significant time to not only build a new NPC but to actually go through the dozens of spells to figure out the handful they were likely to use.

Being "a bit complicated" was one of the major barriers to attracting new players in 3e. It will always be a balancing act but from my experience with people I actually play with, the majority are quite casual about the game. Maybe 1/4 really dig into the complicated options - not enough to...