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Commentary as I'm listening to it: "Blue Magic" design was part of what informed the design of Shield and Counterspell, since Mearls is a big Blue-style M:TG player. This could probably be a whole thread of its own, but the Blue playstyle is a big part of why I am not an M:TG fan. These spells...

In an ideal system, trying to intimidate to surrender, like casting a save-or-die spell, would still do something to these encounters. Make the enemy frightened, cause some damage, etc. It might be something handled more on a monster-by-monster basis than something handled in the system though...

Oh, it's a great use in theory. In practice, no, I'm not going to let you frighten Orcus into giving up and begging for his (un)life because one person made a high roll and now my climactic fight is scuttled. This isn't a problem 4e really dodged, btw. Though it limited the valid targets to...

Worth exploring! I'd want to note that disengagement itself isn't necessarily a huge problem. In a 4-hour session, a little brain break isn't a bad thing. It's OK for a player to run to the restroom or go grab snacks. Engagement is important, but it should be expected to wax and wane over the...

I think this is likelier than something more....product-intensive. If the idea is to do little pop culture riffs and just kind of have fun with it, I'd expect a lot of reskinning (which is already a thing for the M:TG cards) and only a few new mechanics where it would be particularly...

Hmmm....not sure I follow. If the goblins want to kill me, and I say "You all might get lucky enough to kill me, but how many of you will die before you get lucky?", I might be able to Intimidate them into thinking it's a bad idea. They respond, "Yeah. Sod off, then, we ain't seen nothin'."...

This is part of what makes me very suspicious of the D&D skill system. How your character is defined and how they interact with the world? That's HUGE. That's a question that should be answered by your CLASS, the most significant mechanical choice you're making when you are building a...

Heh, one of the fascinating things about the show is that it's HUGELY popular, but by all accounts, nobody had any indication that it would be. So many kids this year are dressing like Rumi for Halloween and finding a wig is not easy! IMO, a Dungeon Meishi-inspired Monster Manual Cookbook...

I personally think the whole skill subsystem needs to be yeeted. It's such a weird little grab-bag of verbs that all do such different things. 5e24 has Actions for almost everything, and part of me wonders if that's a better foundation for these little character distinctions. And, I think there...

That's where I think examining monster design would help. D&D5e has legendary monsters, but the design logic behind them is opaque, there's not enough, and they're a little one-note (ie: they're the ONLY solution used regularly by 5e to handle boss encounters). Additionally, long combats get...

ALSO: The rest issue is significantly mitigated if a long rest requires 10 days (or a week or a month or a winter or something) instead of 8 hours. The overnight rest recharge is a question worth revisiting in D&D, I think: resting should be a more significant choice than just "okay, reset your...

It's weird that so many people are caught up in the rest cycle without taking the time to examine monster design. If you want a "boss monster," it clearly needs to have different rules than a regular monster. 4e understood this OK. 5e Legendaries get at this, but have a problem in that there...

Tracking is one of the better use cases of Survival, but in practice, it's not super critical to have the skill to do the thing. If the DM WANTS you to find the tracks, you won't need the skill to do it. Or the DM might use Nature or Perception or Investigation or some other skill to make it...

S-Tier: Take these if you can. 1. Perception: Solve mysteries & avoid traps & thwart ambushes. 2. Insight: "Tell me what this NPC is REALLY thinking." A-Tier: Pretty good. 3. Persuasion: "I tell them to be my friend." 4. Deception: "I tell them to be my friend, but I'm lying." Riskier than...

First full ep of CR I've watched and it was a pretty good time. These are all theater kids, of course they'd spend 4 hours doing very little GAME, but a lot of work on the voice, attitude, appearance, etc. Still, there were clearly elements of things being revealed on Nat 20's or high rolls that...

ADEU was over-used because it was the structure of EVERY class. Slots are probably over-used in 5e, but at least you CAN (if you are CAREFUL!) avoid them. :) Power points don't seem hugely distinct to me. They're just a more granular way to account for "do magic x/day." The X doesn't even...

1) Reduce options. It's OK to have pregen characters, as long as you can sum up what they're "about" in a sentence or two. That said, you might want to let them make one or two choices (even just "what's your name?") when they start - the sense of ownership gains a lot from a little thing. 2)...

For better coverage, maybe Zoe is a Rogue, Mira is a Fighter, and Rumi is a Paladin, and they all have maxed out Charisma/Performance skills and there's a mechanic where if they all take a Bonus action on their turn to sing they can do something like a Channel Divinity / Turn Undead (but more...

It's probably smart. And I could see it taking the game some interesting places. I've long been a fan of integrating Final Fantasy in my D&D, I've worked Dark Souls-esque things into it, etc., etc. It's smart for Wizards since it's easy to build on the MTG relationships -- "Hey, we had a lot of...

A new MMO would be an insane thing to do in The Year Of 2025. But, given this is a Business Talk, I'm guessing that they are absolutely thinking of some kind of live game or something that fans can pay $20-30/month for in perpetuity since subscription models are really great money factories...