Search results

I played 5e for years assuming that higher ground granted advantage, but eventually realized there isn't such rule 🙃. Then I played very little for a couple years in a row, and forgot about it, so recently once again I granted advantage for higher ground for a few sessions before having a second...

I generally want to make illumination matter, and since it's a complicated topic I typically go back and review the rules frequently, almost every time when preparing a new adventure. But then while running the game I often totally forget about it, and end up essentially handwaving it. It's...

This is a small idea that came to my mind, although I haven't needed to use it yet. It's based on my general fandom of group checks to resolve several exploration tasks, and on the potential worry of players "rounding up" after one of them attempts something and fails. Consider the iconic case...

I finally got around to resuming our Ravenloft family game after a long break since the first session. The PCs had investigated the village of Barovia and started figuring out who the BBEG is, then moved on to confront him (the game is a 5e running of the original adventure so not nearly as long...

A bit undecided about which archetype/subclass might be the best starting point for me to create a "grey cleric" PC that combines the themes of Life and Death. The general idea is nothing special, it's supposed to be a cleric that heals as much as kills (magically), and connects with...

This is not a subject limited to the current D&D edition. Every now and then I ask myself how the game would change if I introduced a more rigid "hands slot economy" (please feel free to suggest a better name) by which every character has strict rules on what they can hold or how they can use...

I didn't have the impression that the 5.0 DMG rules for building encounters of a wanted difficulty and for creating new monsters have been exactly popular in the last 10 years. And now that the 5.5 DMG content is getting revealed, there are already discussions about how once again encounters...

Well I finally got around DMing Ravenloft as a one-shot, except that of course I failed to make it really finish in a single session so we'll need at least a second evening. To my defence, we had planned to have 4-5 hours for the game, but between being late to start and then having kids wanting...

Curse of Strahd is presented as an adventure for 4-6 characters of level 1-10. The BBEG is CR 15 and 13000 XP, making him a deadly encounter for 4 level 10 PCs, which sounds like a DM might want to discourage the PCs from going straight towards Castle Ravenloft too soon, but even at level 10 it...

I have a little more than a month for preparing a one-shot RPG adventure for a new year's eve with friends. We've all played D&D before, but this time the idea is to play something different than classic fantasy. Everything is still open at the moment, and I have a thread where I asked where to...

Where do you go around the web to find sample one-shot adventures for RPGs? I am planning a game for friends on new year's eve but this time I am thinking anything but classic fantasy. It could be a modern story, historical non-magical, historical with magic (but likely non medieval), sci-fi...

With UA being published primarily for playtesting purposes, do you keep using any UA material in your games, even after it has been published with modifications or left seemingly abandoned by WotC? I'm thinking that the only UA character option we've taken for permanent use by some PC at our...

(Useless anecdote first) I started DMing over 20 years ago with 3.0 edition which first introduced feats to the game. I was immediately on board with the idea of plug-and-play abilities that each individual could choose to skyrocket variety among characters, and the system was super-simple to...

Lots of talking about playable character races in the last year or two... what are your preferences regarding the following approaches? (You can specify whether you are answering from a player's or DM's point of view) 1) Few or plenty? Do you prefer having a small bunch of races available to...

Whether you use the DMG chase rules, or your own version of them, how do you exactly switch from the turn-based combat initiative sequence to the simultaneous movements during a chase? The obvious scenario is one or more combatants (or even a whole side) decides to break off and run away, while...

In our family game we're mostly adventuring in the Forgotten Realms (with a bunch of non-FR locations tossed in, due to having run some adventures not set in any specific setting). Soon the PCs will have capabilities to travel to other planes, and being myself a fan of planar adventures I...

Does 5e ruleset define living, dead and undead as mutually exclusive? This is a bit of theoretical curiosity since I don't have any trouble at hand to manage, but I am sure it can have some practical consequences. Narratively speaking, it's normally not a problem to say that an undead is...

I've never thought about this until yesterday... We broke a key inside a lock at home, and we were looking around for methods and tools to extract the broken key. I easily found lockpicking tools on sale online for just a few bucks on legit international websites such as the obvious Amazon...

I am updating my DIY DM screen before we start our next adventure so I am considering what to remove/add on it. I thought I would just ask what people have on their own, particularly if it's self-designed. My current screen is 3 pages, and I am thinking of making it 4 pages, but I don't want to...

As per the title, as a DM what is your approach to DMG material (obviously excluding that which is marked explicitly as a variant rule), do you strictly abide to it or do you use it only as advice on running the game? To anticipate fluid answers by many, saying "I strictly abide to something...