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Computer games - digital, although I worry about losing access due to Sony-style shenanigans. Music - happy to stream not own. Text - This varies a lot. Novels, definitely physical. For RPG stuff it depends hugely. An adventure PDF is very handy to have e-copies of the maps & art. But I'm still...

I do find this is quite important to setting the feel of the setting. Eg Primeval Thule has a 'badass planet' vibe where the typical Legionary is 52 hp CR 2 and there are Lomari squadrons of guys with over 100 hp each. Very different from a setting where the 11 hp CR 1/8 Guard represents a...

I ran PoTA, but I also reused Riverguard Keep independently (with Orogs in it), and have other surface sites from PoTA scattered around one of my campaign settings.

In terms of world simulation, it's definitely a 5e MM failing IMO that there is nothing between the very weak 11 hp Guard and the very strong 58 hp Veteran. I don't really have a problem with the BBEG in a level 5 adventure being guarded by elite Veterans, but a CR 3 Veteran is worth 700 XP...

If he'd been stabbed by the assassin then Sleeped the Veteran would have worked, right? This doesn't sound unfair to me. A CR 3 58 hp Veteran is an elite guard, but something a competent level 5 party could be expected to deal with IMO.

Just in terms of game design, I think hit point totals should almost always stay in the two-digit range (1-99), with the game balanced around that. Maybe huge ancient dragons and demon lords can go three-digit. In play there is far more brain load on the GM when dealing with three digit numbers...

He says it's important as GM to use force to get the desired outcome, to prevent a "random mess" of unexpected stuff happening. Obviously this goes against most GMing advice, which is to give the players the chance to make a meaningful impact on events through their choices.

There's definitely a legitimate place for quantum ogres in a DM's toolkit! :LOL: There are some GMing tools such as a local area map, some NPCs, a wandering monster table, and a couple prepped drop-in encounters, that are worth their weight in gold.

To me it's very striking that both Kobold's Tyranny of Dragons and Sasquatch's Princes of the Apocalypse for WoTC fall so far below the work they do/did in-house. Rich Baker (Forge of Fury, Red Hand of Doom et al) is a fantastic creator, but I ran PoTA to the end and it was pretty dull, even...

Well I think good GMing involves a mix of improv and planning, and no railroading. I create a setting with a bunch of NPCs and adventures, and ways for the PCs to get into the adventures. I've never seen players demand a villain who always gets away!

I think they tried to riff off it for 5e with Hoard of the Dragon Queen & Tyranny of Dragons, but it didn't really work that well (although reading Hoard it does seem better than most Internet opinion).

(slight necro) I'm doing this! A Roll20 game (page at https://app.roll20.net/campaigns/details/16571999/dandd-5e-basic ), I thought I'd have trouble recruiting but it filled up right away, with brand new players, and a couple who'd played earlier editions. I love the simplicity & elegance of the...

To be fair, Red Hand of Doom was good too. :LOL: Can't think of anything since, though Thunderspire Labyrinth & Demon Queen's Enclave could have been ok with different presentation. Some bits of Dragon of Icespire Peak were ok-ish.

Owlbear is the one I was allowing back in 2015/16. I can't actually think of any others that demand to be Beasts. Fey type critters without magic powers seem to fit best. Looking at the list at http://dndroll.wikidot.com/creatures:beasts it seems to me that the main gaps for Moon Druids is at CR...

I'd never played before first GMing, Fighting Fantasy RPG ca 1984/85. You don't need to play first, although a couple sessions is good. You probably want to GM for fellow novices, and probably not (eg) strangers on the Internet, for your first ever game. It's good to run a simple dungeon for...

Yeah, me too!

I love how 4e has an encounter building system that actually works. I think Mearls made a mistake with 5e in going back to a 3e D&D "single monster" base for 5e encounter building. 4e's assumption that the default encounter is one monster per PC works far better, naturally scales to any party...

5e 2014 is definitely a brilliant game. Not sure if it's lone genius so much as Mike's ability to get the best out of collaborators.

Mr Mearls. In response to your free article on 5e DCs, I have to say. The obvious conclusion is that at level 1, the typical DC should be 12. 😄Which is indeed what we see in most published 5e adventures, monster ACs, spell save DCs et al.