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Adventuring day and number of encounters per day with number of encounters for leveling went out of the window when people stopped using XP and switched to milestone leveling. It opened up more play options and made circumventing encounters viable playstayle that didn't punish you. With xp for...

As for inspiration, for more fantasy take, The Pirates of Dark Water. Awesome early 90s fantasy cartoon, with just 21 episodes. But it's fun and it blends fantasy and pirate tropes well. You can just use plot of cartoon for solid campaign (find 13 macguffins to save the kingdom). Other one, is...

Our current campaign is set in the middle of civil war, with our party being elite mercenary company that sided with one of the factions and we are currently dealing with large influx of refugees while preparing for siege and possible naval blockade. Basically, 2 dukes are set by king against...

Not just spell pruning. If i would run it, i would prune classes. Fighter, rogue, bard and ranger only. They fit theme of pirate shenanigans best, you still have some magic via sub classes and bard/ranger. And this is ironically, one type of campaign ranger would fit great with it's abilities (...

You can run a pirate-themed campaign in 5e, but it’s not a great fit without some serious adjustments. The rules are built for land-based, small-party adventures, so naval combat and ship management rules are underdeveloped. The few official rules for sailing (like those in Ghosts of Saltmarsh)...

If you are going pirate, ditch D&D. It's seriously isn't that great. I would suggest 7th sea, 1st edition. It's game about swasbuckling adventures and pirates fit right in (there is also Pirate nations expansion). While spellslingers in dnd have some long range spells, fireballs 150 feet is...

While item is cool, from practical side, it does 5 more damage. Bonus to hit is better in long run since +2 gives you 10% more chance. It's trade off, but some people value more smaller damage that's more reliable than higher damage with less chance to land. Resistance to psychic sounds cool...

Mix. Very few were found since we rarely do classic dungeon looting, some bought, some were rewards. Ring was created by my character, along with few other items (except my sword, all others were just fun gimmicks with situational usefulness). Point is, if you shift focus away from combat...

It might be due to style of play. I'll give you two examples. One of my friends runs PF1. It's all about combat, almost 80% of every session I've played in his campaigns were - combat. So, what did we buy or make? Items that boosted combat capabilities. Were those boring? Hell yeah they were...

Random items remind me of Diablo. You would get tons of random magic items, some were good, some were ok, some were just crap to sell. Sure, items had durability, but once you found good stuff, you repaired it. Most anoying items in Diablo were good weapons and armors that were ethereal. You...

When you look at it like a feature, not a bug, life becomes easier. Sure, sometimes my players steamroll boss in 1-2 rounds. Good for them, if they enjoyed it, i see it as a success. If they want to go nova every encounter and have 5 minute work day, sure, i let them have it (unless story...

Same. System needs to be flexible enough to accommodate and mechanically support at least 3-4 game themes and genres so i can throw some variety of scenarios. 60+ sessions, by frequency of my group playing, is 3-4 years in real life. That's long time to keep someones attention and enjoyment.

Just to add few points. Stuff that helps me with winging it. These days, i'll mostly run oWoD. I use our hometown as starting point, keep my stories contained mostly to our region (or use european cities we all have visited and have enough familiarity) and use present day as is, just with...

Some people, not me, would say you can give them better sword, not stat wise, but story wise - maybe it's prettier and shinier with nice jewels in hilt. Problem is, decent amount of players will look at it same way like their crappy old sword from the bootcamp. They won't see it as a reward...

Sometimes. Sometimes DM just lets you steamroll opposition. At least all DMs i played with did that and that's what i do as a DM. Sure, it is kind of weapons race between players and monsters, but just cause my players are kitted out for the dragon, doesn't mean they wont encounter some orcs or...

Yup. Fighting stuff, killing others and avoiding being killed yourself is fundamental part of D&D game play. Given option, players will always gravitate to items that make them better at it. It's same in real life, you want best tools you can get to do your job in easiest, most efficient way.

Ok, this explains it. We are talking about two different things. You are measuring how good design of a game is for you personally. I'm talking generally, not how good is for me personally. Good design is one in which mechanics give good support for play style intended by the designers. 4e has...

Depends on the game. My DM notes are usually couple of bullet points. I think the key is i know my players very well. We have been playing together close to 20 years together. So it's easy to wing it when you can have solid educated guess how will they act or react. What i do like to do is set...

Just to add. Houses of the blooded. Game i would absolutley love to run or play for long campaign. Mix of GoT and telenovelas with multi generational story arcs.

Vampire: Dark Ages would be my first choice. Second one would be 7th sea, 1st edition, for more fantasy meets swashbuckling. Honorable mention: LOTR 5e I generally like classless systems which allow for horizontal growth of characters.