Search results

Two wizards, a rogue, and a ranger delve into the dungeon, seeking to capture the wizard Bargle who lay somewhere within. Exploring carefully, they find an ogre sleeping in an oversized, ramshackle bed, under which the PCs spy a bearskin bag full of something they presume is treasure. The...

...you inexplicably find yourself spending an inordinate amount of session time shopping instead of adventuring.

Or they play in a way where there's no incentive to fudge so it doesn't ever happen.

I don't really see much difference between this and any other prerequisite for, say, a magic item except that it's a lot less clear than "must be attuned by a wizard," for example. It's also not so dissimilar from just deciding that an NPC doesn't like the way the PCs is behaving and taking...

What I'm referring to is "Heads, you live; tails, you die." Then flipping a coin, getting a result of tails, and saying "You live!" If you're specifically changing the rules to resolve the situation beforehand and everyone knows that's the rule, and you abide by that rule, then I don't see how...

DM decisions, player decisions, and dice all play into it. I think anyone claiming it's just the dice is mistaken. Changing the result of the die after rolling it though is a failure to accept the stakes the DM themselves created, which raises the question of "Why did the DM create those stakes...

A cinnamon-flavored whiskey called Fireball.

The D&D 5e DMG does discuss rolling in the open or rolling behind a screen, the latter so you have the option to fudge. Notably, this is in the section for Table Rules, which aren't the rules of the game, but something the DM and players will need to decide for themselves. The DMG suggests (1)...

Except I have no disdain regarding this matter. I have no strong feelings either way that would cause me to have contempt. I just find the incentive to fudge is obviated when approaching the game in the ways I've stated. What failed in what you are quoting? The players succeeded, and easily...

They did do market research. Years ago. And somehow it dominates the market. Weird. But also, there are a ton of dungeon crawling RPGs out there. Just pick one that works for you if D&D 5e ain't it. What I find tedious about these exchanges is that someone posts a nice thread on the kind of...

Entirely too reasonable. :sneaky:

I certainly didn't read it that way. I reached the same conclusion as the OP 8 years ago because I try to play games as they are designed, not try to play it how I want to play it then complain about something being wrong with the game. "This screwdriver is really bad at driving nails into...

We can't though. The game is published, done and dusted. Add time and it's fixed. Do you want a solution? Or does it feel better to just complain about things you can't change? I'm not interested in the latter, myself.

I'd say that's really not about "extremely lazy DMing" and more on you for not imagining that a game can have time pressures during adventures but space between adventures to engage in downtime or interviewing quirky, cagey NPCs. It's also not inherently railroading. If you don't want to stop...

Right. Make time matter and suddenly everything works better. The guidance in the DMG could be better in this regard, however, at least in my opinion.

Depends on the setting. Eberron is more Steampunk. Generic swords and sorcery might be more Conan or LotR.

Interesting. I wonder if they went too far with ghouls though. I love the idea of them and try to use them in lots of places, but they just get absolutely wrecked every time by the PCs. I can't remember the last time anyone was even paralyzed, if ever.

For situations like this, telegraphing what isn't going to work is useful. The Lady of Pain controls who goes and who comes out of the mazes, you might say (early and often). Then, even if the players haven't been thinking about it while you mention it, when the word of recall doesn't work...

What is it that they want then since you appear to have a finger on the pulse of the market? (Or are you just referring to your own group?) As well, this doesn't align well with what I see out there. Perhaps it's algorithm bias, but isn't there a whole movement toward going back to megadungeons...

Those pegs can be found in other games. No game can do everything. But if you want dungeons with dragons in them, not surprisingly, Dungeons & Dragons 5e delivers that just fine in my view.