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Bag of rats avoidance rule idea: The power-recovery ability only triggers if at least 10 points of damage is dealt in a single attack. The damaged target must have started with at least 20 hit points, not counting temporaries. For very low level play the 10- and 20-point minimums will...

Or even spin off such that the side plot becomes the main plot, though at that point the DM is probably winging it.

Overarching structure looks fine as a storyboard but it would take some significant player buy-in to keep it on track all the way through and not have them wander off chasing red herrings and-or going after unrelated-to-the-plot things that have piqued their interest.

Where I think both can work, or be made to work, quite well. Might be edition-dependent, though, to some extent. I know I could make it work in 1e or adjacent, probably in 2e as well. I'd leave it to others to make it work in 3e or 5e. I'm not sure how well 4e could do it given its focus on...

Maritime campaign in general, then; neither pirate nor naval necessarily, just focused on the sea, the ships on it and the conflicts between them, and the people on those ships.

Those can be - and very often are - the main features of any campaign. Doesn't need to be maritime.

Friction within the party shouldn't escalate to friction at the table. If it does, someone's doing it wrong. In character, when playing a chaotic sort I've sometimes in the past flat-out said things to the effect of "You guys do your planning but leave me out of it, I'll figure out on my own...

For me, the ship-v-ship combat etc. would be a large part of the point of doing a maritime or pirate campaign in the first place. If I just want hand-to-hand combat I can get my fill of that with a conventional land-based campaign.

Same principle - what's good for the goose is good for the gander. :) Same difference if the same PC, full knowing what's going on, casts fireball on the ogres because he doesn't like ogres, or because he thinks the negotiation play is dumb and would rather there be a war, or whatever. Thing...

Problem there is one PC ends up the captain and everyone else ends up following orders. If they're all crew (or special passengers) then at least they're on an equal footing. That progress can be reflected in ship size and-or capabilities. They start with a small frigate then - if they want...

Dunno. Just tell me what to play and I'm on board. :)

We're using Blades in the Dark rules for this heist, right?

No. Not in the slightest. We assume creatures speak their racial language and after that it's random what if anything else each one might speak. That would be up to the players running mages that happened to have the spell in their books. That said, devices of translation are and always have...

My concern is more one of preventing the loudest or most enthusiastic (or, at some tables, most competitive) player(s) from just taking over. The flip side is that something like this, if uncodified, leaves the door wide open for DM favouritism. No DM will ever admit they play favourites. And...

Really depends on the adventure. For some of them, particularly at low level, what you say is true. For others, a lot depends on party makeup, party numbers, and how much magic they have in items and spells: a well-rounded well-equipped party can punch way above their pay grade.

I think that's a table-by-table thing, and even maybe player-by-player. Some just want to fight everything that moves. Others will do anything to avoid fighting (which in a 1e-like game can sometimes be the wiser play). Others are a mix and can - and will - go either way, depending on a host...

I think you've just identified the primary overarching problem with modern society in a single sentence. People forget how to play, beyond just D&D, and for some stupid reason they equate this with "growing up".

I'd argue the same, and it's a huge difference. A game marketed to 20-somethings can include adult or off-colour content and doesn't have to be sanitized for the kids, and 70s era D&D was all of this - and was better for it. During the 80s the marketing focus got steadily younger, or so it...

This still raise more questions than it answers, though: --- "the GM offers [someone the option to act immediately]". It's completely GM-controlled, then? I ask because active, engaged players will very quckly start jumping in and asking for - or outright claiming - the chance to react at...

I parsed "a game dying" or "a game being lost" to mean an individual table or group ceasing play and disbanding. Which, worldwide, probably happens a few thousand times a week anyway. Meanwhile and at the same time, just as many new groups or tables coalesce and begin play. Where the OP's...