Search results

Use character sheets to soak up any pizza grease before it gets on your dice and affects your ability to roll well.

Telegraph danger liberally with an eye toward what can be reasonably perceived or deduced by the characters. The rule I use is that if things go awry and the players can say "Oh, right, we totally ignored that detail," or words to that effect, then it's fair. It's total blindsiding (i.e...

Whatever supports the agreed-upon theme of the campaign or adventure be it sticks and stones or laser guns.

An important skill to learn in my view is when and how to say "No." People who don't do that often become exhausted, bitter, and resentful in my experience. It sort of comes with being too agreeable. So just say "No" to running these extra games. Or any games at all, if that's what you need to...

Yeah for social, almost certainly the task to convince an NPC to do a thing will take longer than a minute (except in some extenuating circumstances) so it's just not on the table for this in my games.

To apply the bonus to guidance in my games, the task must begin and end within 1 minute. This means there's a lot of tasks it simply doesn't apply to because the task takes longer than 1 minute. This means it sees some use, but there's no spamming. That feels about right for a cantrip to me.

It taught me how to run a conference call at work very efficiently while making sure everyone on the call had input.

Nobody's perfect. Not even Mercer. This looks like a miss to me and an opportunity to improve. The trick is not to make up a "cockeyed reason." Make up one the group thinks is exciting and memorable instead. It just takes a little imagination and collaboration.

Look, if Mercer can't picture how a D&D character could stop a gargantuan monster in its tracks, which in this case is also supported by the rules, he's admitting to a failure of imagination while playing a game based on make-believe. And he's doing it in front of a bunch of nerds on the...

I stick to the rules. I can't recall a time I overrode them knowingly in play. In the example in the OP, we'd just have to imagine what it looked like and settle on something that was exciting and memorable. What the DM says, the players say, and the rules contribute to what emerges in play. I...

It's to avoid that whole Goofy/Pluto awkwardness.

I recommend you keep the 8 players, but you tell them that only 6 can play in any given session (quorum of 4) with those that RSVP the fastest getting the seats (or some other method of your devising). In my experience, there's always going to be 1 or 2 people that can't make a session anyway...

If you're going to do it anywhere, this is the place. I think it would be ideal to make it sit in the space for the character's Ideal and be something you can portray to earn Inspiration. That's what I do in my Planescape games so that the players have an incentive to have their characters act...

In a Spelljammer campaign, I had a gnoll named Poochie. He was pretty cool, but he died on the way back to his home planet.

I don't necessarily prefer either of those. What I want is a consistent DM who is clear with their expectations up front so I can make informed decisions.

DM: I think all your characters are absolutely magical, so unfortunately it doesn't work.

Don't ask for the "skill check." Those don't exist in D&D 5e anyway. Ask for the ability check (e.g. "Make an Intelligence check, DC 20."). Then let the player apply whatever skill proficiency they think is relevant, based on what they described prior to you calling for a roll. All other skill...

So what you're saying is you found stuff to spend gold on.

Money has as much use in D&D 5e as the DM and players decide. In some games, it doesn't get a lot of focus. In other games, it's front and center. People play their characters accordingly.

For me, it's about having a decent-sized adventure location with more than one faction inhabiting it. It should be open-ended in how the players deal with it, including opportunities for combat, social interaction, and exploration. It shouldn't make a lot of assumptions about what the players...