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This really isn't much different than the rogue PC sneaking ahead in most dungeon explorations, except the cost of failure is lower. My group currently has a familiar that they use as a bat to do advance scouting in caverns, and it works pretty well for our group. The players listen to my...

My recommendation would be to keep each session as it's own adventure. Meeting that infrequently is going to make keeping things straight between sessions difficult. Unless you plan to "trap" the PCs with misdirection to get them lost, in which case you'll need to take careful notes at the end...

The encounter guidelines for 5E24 are much more accurate than the 5E14 DMG. I've been running a series of adventures that have many encounters without a long rest. To keep the party from getting whipped, I've been using about half the value of on level Low encounters. By taking numerous short...

Personally I feel that so long as you can't duplicate a bonus action, there's no major issue. Being able to use the same BA twice might cause issues, especially an attack feature like Spiritual Weapon or Flaming Sphere.

I mean, the characters typically get a Long Rest every day, but during adventures that's not very often. Most of my adventures take place over the course of a single day, with consequences for pushing them off. Sometimes the adventure will take place over time, meaning that some Long Rests are...

Likes Mechanics are generally better. I'm not a fan of 3E or 4E, but both have innovations that make going back to AD&D difficult (I know because I tried). Moving away from alignment as a mechanic. IMO it should be an RP tool, not a limiter. Similarly, I really liked the Traits, Bonds, and...

I had to completely rewrite the treasure section, because the amount given out in AD&D was insane. I was mostly able to keep the monsters, but had to radically modify the number to meet 5E's encounter building guidelines. Some monsters I had to make conversions of, but it wasn't too hard. I'd...

I've DMed the following campaigns, but I don't know exactly how long they lasted. Everything I've done has largely been using Roll20 every other week, for about 4 hour sessions. I've also done several one shots IRL, usually running Lost Mines of Phandelver to teach 5E. This also doesn't include...

Sorcerer needs a niche, and being the "innate" caster gives it a reason to be the simple design.

I worked on my own edition of D&D during the D&D Next Playtest. I didn't have enough faith that they'd make a worthwhile game, and really liked some things from the playtest. I think the primary thing I would do is move back towards "Swingy" combat, rather than "slog" combat (where there's...

Typically I run it by the book, leaving it to the players to know what they can and can't see (I trust my players with a lot of things to make sure they're following the rules). Usually the party runs with light sources, even with darkvision, because that disadvantage penalty is pretty severe...

Adventurers in my Greyhawk are commonly despised for all the reasons the OP lists, but also idolized by the young and poor. Many decide to become an adventurer, because a single expedition can provide enough coin to live comfortably for a long time (unfortunately for them, the vast majority die...

It's really if they want to push on and face the master or not. Trying to long rest in the crypts would likely be suicide, because the goblins are certainly going to discover the incursion by the PC and go looking for them before that finishes. Unless they have some information on what the...

I took it as the OP bragging about how much they got done, as opposed to lazy shlubs like me. I managed to prep and run about 25 D&D sessions this year, but thanks to locating a local place that sells old NES and Sega Genesis games, I haven't done nearly as much I should have...

I'm a huge fan of Greyhawk, so I'm obviously gonna shill for that. It's just just enough information available to inspire you as a DM, without overloading you with information. Just ignore the "everything is Greyhawk" nonsense they pushed in the early 2000s.

Since I play exclusively online, I use Google Drive to create a document or spreadsheet that I can share with the group. That way, they can use it when I'm not available. We also make documents to track loot and various notes.

I love the idea of using Dex saves instead of attack rolls for firearms, because it differentiates them from crossbows. However, I'd keep them like cantrips, taking an action to load and fire, and a successful save dealing no damage. Pistols dealing 1d8 damage at a range of 60 ft and muskets...

I haven't played in a while, but the last one I played was rolled. As a DM, in my current campaign I rolled up an array of options for the players to pick from. I made sure all the array options were pretty balanced against each other, and I may keep the same arrays for my next campaign.

I could have sworn they were only 1 turn, but I can't verify that. If they're good for an hour, then they would have been better. It's been so long, I guess I've forgotten.

A lantern is 60gp weight, with 20gp per oil flask, while torches are 25gp weight each. For 1 hour of illumination, you'd need a lantern and 1 flasks of oil (80 gp weight) vs. 6 torches (150 gp weight). The longer you go, the more and more weight efficient lanterns are.