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Wait, this is an action, as in I can do this in combat? Folks, I just found out how to turn disaffected minions into a live coup attempt after rolling initiative.

One of the things about being hidden is that like charmed or frightened it is relative - there's a creature you are hidden from. This is also why it's useful to have more than one guard standing watch, right? You can be hidden from one, but if the other spots you, they can raise the alarm (and...

I like this ruling, but it doesn't seem RAI to me, else we'd be seeing a lot of rogues sneaking up to sleeping dragons and slitting their throats without ever needing to roll initiative. If I can make one skill check to kill a boss, I'd always be trying to get and maximize that skill check...

It was in doubt because it hadn't entered play. I could've said "no" to this action in various ways, so there was no guarantee of this being possible or likely or a good idea. I don't quite understand why doubt factors into if it was player-authored, though.

I mean that it was not an action I or the rules provided to them. I think the player deciding to seal up the passage determines the focus of the action (they decided to take this action, and it has consquences) and also establishes what's possible in action declaration (the passage is something...

My current gothic fantasy snow white game has a world authored by me (the PCs are strangers to the world, so I want them to go in blind). There is an abundance of NPC's trapped in the world with the PC's. One of those NPCs is a blood warlock who hunts others. The world was such that this blood...

Players come up with quests for their characters often in my games, regardless of the edition. It's not typically very formal, and I don't need to assign levels or anything - the player decides their character has a goal, and pursues it via deciding to take those actions in play. They decide...

Definitely feels like it's part of the "minimizing species impact" angle. Can't even let characters move at different speeds, unless it's a class thing.

I missed this above, but wizards as weavers is pretty on point. Color and pattern and natural knowledge and the ability to bring together strands of magic just as you would strands of reeds and fibers. Replace your orbs and wands with needles, spindles, etc. Before we were writing things down...

Well, that's a bit of a different problem! I like the idea of legendary resistance causing some monster-specific debuff to happen, which solves one of the major problems without having to get a specific list of permissions. It means your entire turn doesn't feel negated (you can't paralyze the...

That makes sense. I guess I just disagree that the players need to know what abilities work and should be able to plan accordingly. I highly value surprise in my fights - it's dramatic and interesting. Having a predictable list of immunities is much less surprising and interesting than "Try it...

What's the problem this is trying to solve? IMXP, letting the DM make the call is elegant and straightforward. A list of conditions or a damage number are easily forgotten about. I like your thinking here. Flee Mortals! has a similar thought, where a legendary resistance use often comes with...

One hook that arises out of the agriculture/foraging dichotomy in the classes is the idea of the rise of civilization and the problems it causes. You have things like: A strong law/chaos divide in the setting. Probably good and evil people on both sides. Devils and diabolical cults as...

Let's get a little specific with it. Barbarian. Easy. No notes. :) The axes might be stone, but they work the same mechanically. Bard. Also easy. Oral histories and musical traditions are as old as people. Might be fewer stringed instruments, and I'd maybe lean into the idea of bards as...

Heh, different editions have made different choices among those three. :) 5e is favoring diversity and balance, and fitting in mechanical representation where possible. I wonder what it would look like if we chose balance and mechanical representation? We maybe allow diversity through DM...

One of the issues in any species discussion is that we quickly enter a world where if we're trying to be very biological about things (which is a problem in itself) there's just not balance between the species in the game, and that leads to issues in gameplay. Our super-educated elves become...

There's a method to this. Passive abilities that are always on tend to be easy to forget about. But abilities that you have to choose to switch on are more memorable, and can be more impactful. Not that this is always a good idea or that they needed to go so hard with it, but I imagine the...

If we were to list out the more intrinsic traits, we'd have something like... Size. Size should have a meaningful impact on the capabilities of the character (this is Difficult for Reasons, but this is a wish list). Locomotion. Walk speed (which should be more than 5' different if we want an...

Happy to chat about that if you wanna start the thread. ;)

There's almost no light between a design that encapsulates "anything that can be done" and a design that encapsulates "anything magical that can be done." They share nearly identical problems and benefits in a fantasy TTRPG. Heck, given the inherent exceptionality of a D&D PC, there's a case to...