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I have not looked at many of the new monsters yet, but needed an NPC for a game I was prepping and checked out the Mage. Looks good so far (although 16 Int seems kind of low for a 9th level mage — at least it has shield, unlike so many a WotC NPC wizard). I particularly like the presentation of...

Where were we? Ah, yes. In developing a new format for an IRON DM contest following the 2020 tournament, we had established a basic structure for the project modeled loosely on various long-form reality TV cooking competitions. So far, it looks something like this: A panel of judges...

It’s finally here, folk! The IRON DM 2021 Tournament begins. Herein, seven challengers will attempt to dethrone the current champion by testing their adventure-writing skills through three grueling rounds (if they can last that long!) of intense head-to-head matches. This year’s judges will be...

At last, the time has come around again! Do you have what it takes to succeed in a tournament that began 20 years ago to test your mettle in three grueling rounds of intense and competitive adventure-writing, in order to become this year's IRON DM? What is IRON DM? The founder says it best...

I’ve experienced a lot of 5e D&D over the years with players of varied play-styles, and at every level. I have never once seen players purposefully wait to heal someone until they drop to 0 hp, nor has dropping to 0 hp ever felt like a trivial matter. It makes me wonder if the whole phenomenon...

It’s finally here, folk! The IRON DM 2020 Tournament begins. Herein, seven challengers will attempt to dethrone the current champion by testing their adventure-writing skills through three grueling rounds (if they can last that long!) of intense head-to-head matches. This year’s judges will be...

The time has come around again. Do you have what it takes to succeed in three grueling rounds of intense and competitive adventure-writing, in order to become this year's IRON DM? What is IRON DM? The founder says it best: That's the basic structure, but times change and the rules evolve. A...

Well, more specifically, not from being quoted, anyway. I do get them from private conversation updates (at least, I hope I still am – they were being sent to my spam folder). Hopefully, I’ll get them from “message” summoning, ‘cause that’s kind of important. Would anyone mind testing that...

I’m having trouble finding some of the really old threads? Also, where did the archived forum go? I know it’s not used anymore, but it still has important threads in it (the old Iron DM threads, for instance, which weren’t always named things that are easy to search for). I had just updated...

For some reason, when I edit a post or post a new one to a thread (the IRON DM Tournament thread in General, if it matters), I’m getting a brief but wierd error message starting “PHP” and then telling me I can’t link to some website that is definitely not this one. It appears three times...

Welcome, one and all, to the 2018 IRON DM Tournament. Eight contestants enter the arena. One emerges as the IRON DM 2018. To keep down the clutter, all scheduling will take place in the scheduling thread. Ingredients, entries, and judgements will all be posted in this thread. As usual...

The time has come around again. Do you have what it takes to succeed in three grueling rounds of intense and competitive adventure-writing, in order to become this year's IRON DM? What is IRON DM? The founder says it best: That's the basic structure, but times change and the rules evolve. A...

Welcome, one and all, to the 2017 IRON DM Tournament. Eight contestants enter the arena. One emerges as IRON DM 2017. To keep down the clutter, all scheduling will take place in the scheduling thread. Ingredients, entries, and judgements will all be posted in this thread. As usual, commentary...

The time has come around again. Do you have what it takes to succeed in three grueling rounds of intense and competitive adventure-writing, in order to become this year's IRON DM? What is IRON DM? The founder says it best: That's the basic structure, but times change and the rules evolve. A...

I like my character sheets free of clutter and with a prominent space for a portrait (when did we gamers decide it was a good idea to get rid of the most important section of a character sheet, anyway?). Here's a sheet; put whatever information you feel is important wherever you want to look...

I've been mulling over how to create a less wacky alternate wild surge mechanic for the the Wild Sorcerer without making things complicated or swingy. Here's what I came up with: Whenever a sorcerer triggers a wild surge (per the normal rules), instead of rolling on the Wild Surge Table, the...

So, for a while now, I've been considering the ramifications of running a campaign with feats, but no ability score increases gained through leveling (possibly in conjunction with the 3d6-in-order-with-one-switch-allowed generation method). Characters would still get racial adjustments and could...

And so it begins. Welcome, one and all, to the 2015 IRON DM Tournament. Eight contestants enter the arena. One emerges as IRON DM 2015. To keep down the clutter, all scheduling will take place in the scheduling thread. Ingredients, entries, and judgements will all be posted in this thread. As...

The time has come around again. Do you have what it takes to succeed in three grueling rounds of intense and competitive adventure-writing, in order to become this year's IRON DM? What is IRON DM? The founder says it best: That's the basic structure, but times change and the rules evolve. A...

Yet another port from deep within a Giant in the Playground thread. Thought I'd share. As per normal, an analysis of my design decisions follows (this one gets a little bit more math-heavy than usual). You could limit this fighting style to Fighters or Rangers for thematic reasons, but...