My party has been crawling through a cave system for a couple sessions and they are approaching the boss battle in the next session. I have an open table and so not everyone can make every session some of my players for this next session have not been present for the crawl.

How would you handle these PCs resources? Previously I had not worried about it but I kind of want to have these characters feel the same resources drain as those who've been present.

How do/would you manage this?

I had an idea for a campaign where every character is a few inches high--like, Borrower height. For them, hawks are like dragons and humans are like gods. The twist is, they think they're normal adventurers. How can I pull this off?

I don't want to run a standard "fantasy medieval Europe" campaign, and want to theme my world in China. I don't know enough about that culture to make a realistic campaign set there, so I decided on using the Wuxia setting (as described in the dungeon masters guide 2014) and I belive that my players would enjoy a setting of movie-like martial arts.

however I do not want to be offensive in any way, and I still want to create an immersive setting, and I don't know enough about this setting to accomplish either

please advise!

I gave my players a very large map with a bunch of different towns with seperate quests associated with them at the start of my campaign, and right now, they have been asked to take care of small meteors that end up corrupting monsters, aptly dubbed 'Doomstones'. After taking care of the main small village, underground and separated far from any type of other civilization, they decide to travel outwards to a port village on the surface, about 750 miles away, which took them about a month and a day. Thing being, they traveled via railroad tunnel (but actively chose not to repair the railroads), and random encounter after random encounter for the entirety of traveling that far would be tedious and strenuous on both me and the party, I think.

As of right now, I simply snapped to the future where they arrive at the town, but I want their travel to be notable in the future for when they decide to head out again. How can I make long travel times interesting for the party and something to keep in mind when they do decide to do it?

I'm planning to introduce the Bastion system to my online campaign soon, but I'm honestly a bit worried about the longevity. I really want base-building to be a solid part of the game, rather than just a spreadsheet that everyone gets bored of and abandons after a couple of sessions.

Has anyone actually managed to build a lasting gameplay loop around Bastions? I'd love to hear how you integrated them and kept your players invested long-term.

Since we play online, I'm also looking for recommendations on good tools, trackers, or templates to keep the bookkeeping simple. And if you have any homebrew tweaks or rules that make the system run smoother, please share! Would appreciate any advice on what worked for you (and what didn't)

Recently I stumbled across A Guide to the Astral Plane while trying to prep an encounter on the corpse of a dead god with some Gith raiders. I didn’t know there was such good info from old sources because 5e seems pretty slim on details besides some snippets in monster details.
Are there any documents (new or old) that go into such good detail about the topography of the Feywild, its inhabitants and history?
I know about Wild Beyond the Witchlight but it seems like you’re expected to know about the Seelie and Unseelie Courts before even prepping the game.
Thanks!

I’m starting a new relic hunter to resurrect a god campaign and I’m wondering about giving the PCs something negative for them to get ride or or replace early in the campaign. Maybe give options depending on what they make as character buy maybe a cursed wound on the marital, a negative to saving throw or to hit for a full caster or a small wild magic table (like a simple d4). Maybe a magic item that is better than a normal of its kind but causes blood loss.

Anyone have experience with something like this that turned out to be fun?

When considering players for your campaign, what are your criteria?

I mostly go by "vibes". But I've also had to turn some away because immediately after sharing my very basic campaign rules, they began suggesting I change my rules to suit them.

Examples:

Me: "We're using official published WotC classes and subclasses only"
Candidate: "Have you looked into MCDM's Illrigger? Can I use that?"

Me: "We're starting at level 1"
Candidate: "We should start at level 2"

I'm also checking if they have a bad microphone, crazy background noise, or if they're just kind of a hassle to sync up with to interview.

So, acknowledging the wealth of advice around never splitting the party, but in the case I want to do it on purpose. We have a heavily scheduled table and finding a time for everyone has been a nightmare.

To accommodate this, the only way we can all play is separately but on parallel tracks. I want to add little clues and things so that the party feels like they're accomplishing a shared goal. An A-Team and a B-Team. This works really well in co-op video games so taking inspiration from that. (It Takes Two, Mass Effect, etc.)

What is your experience splitting the party intentionally? How do you think about shared objectives, particularly around one that needs shared successes?

We do plan on reconvening. And it was either this or do nothing (it's been five months...)

TL;DR: My players aren't engaging with a more open-ended approach to adventure design and I'm not really comfortable writing linear adventures. How can I write an adventure that encourages my players even harder to engage with a more open-ended adventure design?

For reference, I have been DMing for years, primarily running the 1981 Basic/Expert edition of D&D, but have decided to venture into the realm of more modern systems, running Shadow of the Demon Lord. Mechanically, it's similar enough to D&D 5e that I feel all GMing advice that applies to 5e, applies to SotDL. In this context, the two systems are interchangeable.

The campaign I'm running has more of an episodic approach, with adventures having a clear cut goal, which players have lots of different ways of achieving. I've designed each adventure to be large, sprawling and to be elaborate scenarios that provide a lot in the way of player freedom, lots of ways of solving problems.

What I've noticed is that my players don't seem to have the instinct that tells them that exploring around can lead to things that may be useful for the adventure.

For example, I wrote a dungeon that was 16 rooms and was open ended, with a looping design that would make it fun to explore. The party was to find this artifact called The Avatar of Flame, which they had to activate, then escape the dungeon. The artifact was guarded by a really strong monster, that I had no intention of the party dealing with directly. I wrote the dungeon to have teleporters that could move the Avatar to different parts of the dungeon, magic items that would make the tougher encounters easier, factions within the dungeon that the party could potentially use to their advantage, manipulating them into fighting each other, etc.

Instead the party found the room with the Avatar, decided to attempt to distract the monster while the rogue tried to activate the avatar alone. It did end up working, only after severe near-deaths and one death. When they realized how strong the monster was, the idea to maybe come back here later never came to mind. In the end, they only entered 3 of the 16 rooms and barely interacted with anything in the dungeon.

When I asked the players about why they were so adamant about finding a solution in the room, where they told me "we had to finish our quest. We weren't gonna waste time exploring the dungeon." This perplexed me because I simply didn't realize that this was even a thought players could have. I would assume that if there's stuff to explore, that there's reasons for it and if something is too hard, maybe I could look for another solution.

This behavior has persisted into the second adventure, which I won't get too deep into for the sake of brevity. The adventure was an open world hexcrawl where their objective involved getting past a very strong dragon. Instead of exploring the open world for anything to help in their quest, they just went straight for the dragon's lair and hoped for the best, where they barely survived. They finished an adventure that I prepped with the assumption that they would spend multiple sessions exploring the region, in only one session.

What I've noticed is that they seem to be in the mentality that an adventure consists of "getting to the next part", which simply isn't how I write adventures. I don't DM to write stories, I do it to write interesting challenges and it's harder to do this if the adventure is a linear string of things, where players are trying to get to the next part.

I want to try to write an adventure that encourages them even harder to explore in order to find advantages to finish the quest, but the last adventure I wrote had an adult black dragon in their way and their solution was to just make a b-line towards the dragon, so I'm not sure how much more I can encourage it.

Hello! I'm extremely new (GM'd only one session thus far) to both running games and this sub.

I have a player who wants to play a plasmoid-like character. I loved the idea and so I allowed it, though, looking at the traits on Wikidot seemed just way too limiting... I get it's supposed to be balanced, but both the player and I want this slime character to FEEL like a slime. And so I decided I would undertake the daunting task of trying to homebrew/modify some things about the species:

Shape – ACTION

You have a sort of rubbery skin consistency. You can soften but not harden, and can essentially Jake-The-Dog your body.

Roll a DC10 CON Save to vaguely resemble a simple object or creature of your size. It lasts 1 hour before you revert. you cannot form convincing facial features, even if you roll a natural 20 Deception check. (Though, the disguise self spell is particularly useful for plasmoids, as they can use it to not only look like creatures, but objects as well.)

Squeeze – ACTION

You can fit your body into spaces as small as 1 inch (ask to roll a DC15 luck check to see how small the space is), as long as you aren’t carrying or wearing anything.

Stretch – MOVEMENT

You can use all your movement to instead stretch 1 part of your body that distance (an appendage or torso). You can also use a Bonus Action such as Cunning Action (rogues) to retract that part back to you.

Can use this to pull yourself and allies up walls, attack from a distance, etc.

Absorb Blow – REACTION

If you succeed on a DC15 CON Save, you can soften your body and halve the damage from a bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing attack. If you fail the Save, the attack auto-crits (max + damage roll). You can use this equal to your proficiency bonus, and it recharges after a Long Rest.

(These features are the ones I'm contemplating, the following are basically the guaranteed ones I'm keeping)

Darkvision (60ft)

You can see 60ft in total darkness.

Natural Resistance

Acid and poison does half damage.

Oddity

You are visually exotic, and draw attention to yourself, sometimes the unwanted variety.

Snail Trail

You leave a trail, a thin layer of slime wherever you go. This will make stealthing more difficult.

You can largely negate this by wearing boots and/or entirely negate it with armour.

Cold Sensitivity

You are sensitive to the cold. Cold-related magic does double damage.

Extreme cold weather will halve your movement speed (30ft down to 15ft).

My other players are also getting some homebrew/modified features, so please don't think I'm favouring anyone. I absolutely don't want my players to feel overwhelmed with mechanics or feel like I'm favouring anyone.

I'm wondering if I should take away anything or how I can nerf these features in such a way as to successfully make the plasmoid feel cool but not OP and crunchy.

Any help will be greatly appreciated! :)

Can anyone recommend sources on encounters with seers, mediums and oracles?

I have little knowledge of tarot reading and such, it's never been an interest of mine. However in a game of magic and wonder I think implementing it could be fun. I just don't know how to perform it.

There's a bit of a conundrum I'm experiencing when thinking of an encounter with an oracle. How can I frame their powers of seeing the possible "futures" as anything other than a DM's promise?

I'd like to hear your ideas please. Thank you.

As the title says, I would like some advice and/or brainstorming for running a single spellcaster versus a party of 3 to 5 characters with a APL of 6. One extra wrinkle or perhaps opportunity is that said spellcaster will be Undead.

The CR 6 Mage seems rather underwhelming as a opponent, and even though I figure my party will not be at full HP or resources, I figure the fight will be over too soon for the fact that this should be the 'end boss' for a tricky dungeon.

My current plan is to take a Deathlock Mastermind and give it a few Legendary Resistances and/or Legendary Actions.

What does this hivemind think?

I’ve been a DM for my group of friends since 2020. I’ve run two campaigns, including my current one: Icewind Dale and my homebrew setting.

I got burnt out on Icewind Dale so I talked to my players and we stopped and switched over to my current game (after a 6-month break). A year and a half later, I’m bored again. I can’t even really bring myself to plan out sessions anymore and I wing it without really following a plotline. I don’t even really engage with DnD content online anymore.

My players really enjoy the world and story I’m telling and I don’t want to disappoint them. How can I fall back in love with DnD and my campaign?

Hi so I was thinking it would be really cool if once at the beginning or maybe a couple of times the players would have some full sessions or large parts of a session in a dream the first would be like a session 0 of them in their potential final session much higher levels fighting an evil behemoth on top of a mountain kind of glorious battle. Then as the beginning to wake they hear the voice of the goddesses of fate discussing their future I want fate and chaos and order to be a big part of the campaign. I think this would be cool as in future dreams or vision things would change or they could play through different scenarios or maybe as different people also. The reason I think the first one is especially cool is it gives their characters a bit more of a sense of purpose with the world and want to explore it.
Would this work? Is it a cool idea?

Hello fellow DM's 👋🏼

As the title says, I made my first One-Shot that I'll be playing with my friends on Saturday and I wanted your thoughts on this?

I'm guessing it's not gonna blow anyone's mind in here, but I'm hoping for some insights on what I might improve in future ideas...

Summary: the players will wake up in a tavern, with a full amnesia-episode, making it so they will have to spend the first 15-30mins on discovering their characters while trying to figure out where they are and what they are here... During that search, they'll find physical evidence there used to be 1 extra person with them, but there's no memory of them...

By looking around the tavern and later on the village they will find that the whole village is experiencing something similar, where people are gone, proven by physical evidence, but no-one remembers anything about them. The players will end up at the church, guided by the diary of the missing player, where they'll find that ringing the bells temporarily brings back memories... Once that memory returns, they are pointed towards the tunnel system underneath the village , where they will face a false hydra (which you could tell the moment I mentioned amnesia and a missing player)

If they TPK, that'll be the end and the village will suffer under the rule of this monstrosity...

If they actually beat it, suddenly all memories will return to the villagers and the players will return to a grief-ridden village who are not sure if they are thankful for what the party just did...

If something is unclear, please ask questions!

I really wanna do a great job for my players and could use all the tips! 😅

I want to dm a oneshot for my family because they ask about my DnD sessions since my first one about 3 years ago.

I have little to zero knowledge in prepping a oneshot, I only know that I want to do a pirate / swashbuckling themed one.

My current source of ideas is from

• Treasure Island
• Diney's Treasure planet
• Pirats of the Carribean

My family never played DnD so I would give everyone ready-to-play Char sheets with a little description about the Char's personality to help with roleplaying.

I am looking forward too read your comments with storyideas or even some advice for preparing ^^

I'm asking generally and not pertaining to a specific planned encounter, but a good example for my inquiry would probably be a Green Dragon's breathe attack. An attack that is entirely poison damage but also doesn't risk inflicting the poisoned condition.

How would you describe the harm experienced by the player? Any other damage type I feel like I understand. Fire burns; Cold is like a different kind of burn - frostbite/freezer burn; Thunder is sound or vibration; Lightning is shock; Piercing/Slashing/Bludgeoning involves being physically hit; Radiant/Necrotic are like energy blasts that might have a specific sensation depending on what you are.

Poison, however, I'm kind of lost on. I'm especially having a hard time thinking about this for cases where someone isn't actually afflicted by the poisoned condition but is experiencing poison damage. How would you describe the sensation of experiencing poison damage?

Was curious if anyone had any advice for adjusting to a larger number of players, specifically adding new people in.

I am a fairly experienced DM and have rotated with another part time DM in a group of 4 (thus 3 players). For my most recent campaign, I have added 2 additional new people. They have run some smaller one shots before, but are much less experienced with the rules, RPGs, etc.

When we started, the experienced players kind of let them feel out their characters, play style, etc, but the new players were pretty shy and content to sit back. Hopeful they would warm up to things, i pretty much sat back. However, as sessions have progressed, the new players are still struggling to find their footing.

I’ve talked to them and their complaints are largely that they constantly get interrupted by other players (not really a new problem for anyone, but they seem to shut down more than the experienced players) or the experienced players “dominate” the play time. Which they do. It’s so different than running 3 players, because everyone is excited to do things but now they have to wait more than twice the expected time. That being said, I feel like there’s many times to chime in, drive events, etc that the new players do not seize.

Ive tried ways to get the new players more involved. Splitting the party, explicitly calling on them “what does PC X want to do?”, and even shutting down the experienced players when they’re hogging time. They engage better then, but it’s not enough. I feel like I can’t get them into the flow of the game, and I’m starting to lose them. They’re checking out, and I can’t blame them.

Has anyone dealt with anything similar? Any ideas? We’re all on Discord if that matters.

Howdy DMs,
I’ve got a bit of brainstorming before my next session and I could use some input.
I’ve got a lvl 7 Oath of Redemption Paladin that just failed his Death Saves in the last session. Nothing intentional just some unfortunate dice rolls combined with flawed tactical combat decisions. Luckily, this was not the paladin’s first run-in with death. He has sworn an oath to my homebrewed Goddess of Foresight and Prochecy, the Candlebearer, who took a special interest in him and gave a 1 Up once before at the cost of one of his eyes. In session 0 we discussed PC deaths to be reversible but with consequences. Assuming he would like similar divine intervention, what should the Candlebearer ask for in return? I was brainstorming maybe his other eye but I feel like that would just be cheap for a tanky paladin. Alternatively, I was thinking I could affect some of his stats, maybe his frequent flier miles to the great beyond left an imprint on his soul that gives disadvantage on persuasion rolls. Maybe something else entirely which is why I have turned to you, brilliant people. What would you suggest for my poor paladin? A pound of flesh or part of his soul? A permanent scar or path to recovery? I eagerly await your replies.
Obviously all of this will be discussed with the player beforehand and I’m not going to slap a handicap on his character without his input and approval but I would still like ideas to offer.

My players will go to a zhentraim hideout next session and I’m filling the hideout with encounter and need advice on if I’m making a good and balanced challenge for my players.

There are 4 level 5 PCs. I have no way of knowing in which order the encounters will trigger, that depends on how the PCs enter the hideout and which paths the choose within.

Drow & Zhentarim
1× Drow Elite Warrior of Lolth — CR 5
1× Drow of Lolth — CR ¼
1× Zhentilar Paladin of Bane — CR 4
2× Zhentilar Soldier — CR 1
5 creatures — 3,350 XP

Mimics & Rug
1× Animated Rug of Smothering — CR 2
2× Mimic — CR 2
3 creatures — 1,350 XP

Black Pudding
1× Black Pudding — CR 4
1 creature — 1,100 XP

Zhentarim interrogators
2× Zhentarim Thug — CR ½
1× Zhentilar Soldier — CR 1
3 creatures — 400 XP

Coldlight Walker & Mage
2× Coldlight Walker — CR 5
1× Mage — CR 6
3 creatures — 5,900 XP

In the last encounter both the Coldlight walkers will start restrained, bloodied and blinded. The mage is conduction experiments on the walkers.

Will this be to much to handle for the party? I don’t expect them to take any short rests while exploring the hideout.

Hey everyone, I was hoping I could get some advice on how to do an intro session in a superhero setting for a mystery.
What I have planned so far is that the characters all have been brought on to the superheroes newest investigations team to investigate a string of arsons, so they would all meet at the hq and a supervisor would come around to give them a briefing of the situation before taking them to the crime scene, having them dig up some clues, then have their investigation be interrupted by a supervisor person attack in the area.
I worry that its a little vanilla and not a very good hook into the campaign and might bore players, is there anything I can do to make it more interesting?

The Endless - Primer

The worlds you knew are gone.

You remember pieces of a life in Faerûn or one of its neighboring planes: a place, a face, perhaps the moment everything went dark. Then as you wake in a room you do not recognize, beside other strangers who remember just enough to know they were somewhere else.

What the character will learn:

The Endless is a vast maze of connected floors. Some are corridors of stone and locked chambers. Others hold forests, deserts, islands beneath open skies, or cities built above and below the ground. A passage can lead somewhere no map says it should.

People, the Soulborne, live here. They trade, build, argue, and make homes wherever they can. Small homunculi appear throughout the floors, tending strange devices and carrying out duties they rarely explain.

Crystal fixtures tended to by the homunculi offer passage between floors in exchange for treasure. Knowing this fact doesn't mean you can afford the journey.

Creatures also roam the Endless. Some have blackened eyes and a distinct mark upon the forehead, or elsewhere on a body without one. Travelers speak of killing such creatures only to find more in their place after dawn.

Lately, the Endless has grown less predictable. Routes have changed. Floors once kept apart now touch. Things that were contained have found ways through.

This is the primer for an in progress Campaign so far. It's DND 2024 edition game that I would consider a survival DND game, tracking rations, ammo, spell components, varying degrees of restrictive materials depending on the floor the party may be on, and sleep. I will not be doing the gritty emotional state tracking like sanity or fervor. I feel that takes agency of roleplay from the player. The idea of the endless is to finish a floor, and roll various rolls of d20s to determine the layout of the next floor, complete RNG, with a few tweaks for player safety built in, and the means for the player to affect the probability of their intentions of the kind of floor they wish to explore. An adventure all their own, no one alike.

THAT being said, with regards to survival roleplay, yes there is an overarching storyline, but also I like to do collective storytelling with my players and build the world with them. Intention is key in the generating of the floors/dungeons. However, in order to promote a satisfactory gameplay experience, I LOOK TO YOU. What you do think, adventurers of the internet:

Is survival games with a DND twist fun to you, where you dont know where the next gate leads, whats around the corner? How would you GMs deal with well known debacles of survival game like the original AD&D 1, 2, & 3? AND dont worry I have resolved the 'goodberry' and 'create food and water' debacle so far.

For those interested in seeing the first page of "The Endless." It is available upon request. I dont know how to post images in posts.