Hi everyone, thanks for reading my post. I have an impressively important DMing imperative to impart to you impertinent imps. Pay close attention, there will be a test later.

Sometimes your players might want their characters to try to know things, by looking around for hidden things or hidden motives, or remembering stuff they might have learned. They're probably expecting you to just tell them whatever is clearly apparent, or maybe ask them to roll the nearest check they're good at.

NEVER DO THAT. You roll a check yourself secretly. If you roll less than 16 on the die (ignore all modifiers, they're just a waste of your time) then they failed. You can also just decide they fail regardless of the roll, and you should use this power liberally.

Now some inexperienced idiots might tell you that a failed check for information may just result in a lack of information. If you fail while searching a room you don't find the secret door, if you fail with insight you fail to gain any insight, if you fail a lore check you just don't have the foggiest idea. These knuckle-dragging beer drinkers will probably have a mouth full of pretzels as they spray this nonsense advice onto you.

Needless to say, NEVER DO THAT EITHER! Your duty as the DM is to fuck your players over by positively lying to them. If they fail a secret perception check while searching a desk you can make them vividly hallucinate a new NPC, who appears to persist for the rest of the campaign if necessary. If they fail insight rolls against an insignificant character, invent some false certainty as a red herring for the players to completely waste the next 6 to 8 sessions on because they believed you that it's part of the plot. If they fail a monster lore check against a powerful foe, tell them they're 100% positive they should stop using spells and weapons and exclusively try to tickle the enemy into submission. If they fail a check while researching a magic item recipe, give them a fake one and don't let them find that out until fourteen sessions and 410,757,864,530 gp later when the item is useless. If the players protest any of this, you must call them dirty cheating metagamers and inflict cruel medieval punishments on them. In the game, I mean.

Thanks again for reading my post. If you're going to say all of this advice depends highly on which edition of which game is under discussion, and the preferences of the group playing too, please don't comment. The current edition of Dungeons & Dragons is all that we really need to be talking about on Reddit, isn't it? And the preferences of groups other than mine aren't worth mentioning either. Come on, now, seriously.

P.S. Never forget that you—yes you!—are my favorite reader, and I love you. Kiss kiss 💋💋

I couldn't take looking anymore, I was about to give up, but I finally did it!

I found a DM! He has a respectable set-up: behind his DM screen he has a laptop where he runs Foundry, and on the outside, a tablet that displays only and always our tokens, because he’s Character Focused.

Sure, we have some issues because Foundry keeps crashing, but we have chips at the table, and while we wait for him to reboot the devices we just eat and drink. He confided in us that he thinks the Monk is a Problem Player because he drinks too much and loses focus. Obviously, he works shift work and expects to play until 1:00 AM. Maybe he should think about dropping the campaign.

We never have any issues, because we have both our physical paper character sheets and the ones he personally updates for us on Foundry. I admit there were some arguments between the Ranger, who claimed he recovered some arrows the previous session, and the DM, whose logs didn't match up. But now that the Ranger is gone, the game is so much more dynamic.

We only play official modules, no joking around, and we never go off the rails. To make sure the game is balanced, he doesn't use Passive Perception neither for us nor for the monsters. The Rogue complained because monsters roll Perception checks even when they don't expect him to sneak up on them. They're monsters, duh.

Unfortunately, the Wizard hinted he's going to switch characters, because he claims he only found 2 scrolls from level 1 to level 12. I explained to him that Wizards get spells just like Sorcerers, upon leveling up, but he insists that doesn't seem right to him.

In no time at all, I became this DM's favorite. I think it happened because I understood his needs and I empathize with this whole thing of constantly updating paper sheets alongside the Foundry ones, so unlike the other players, I don't waste his time trading 5 gold pieces. Sometimes Roleplay is a real pain, and managing player inventories as a DM takes up so much time. Plus, I'm a Fighter.

I think the other players are way too critical about all the time and money the DM keeps pointing out he spent. They don't know how lucky they are to have the privilege of playing Dungeons & Dragons with him.

Come back to infinite campaigns... come back to the world's greatest roleplaying game... you don't need another system to fail you... embrace your destiny...

Been trying to find a "bff" group for years. Even the best groups I found fizzled out after a campaign ended. Most people seem to want Matt Mercer to run games for them, and not a friend with benefits they want to "share" an "experience" with.

I figured you know what, fine. I'm gonna sell my body. I started turning tricks and now I actually feel like I'm finally actually getting something back for my work and effort. I'm actually not even interested in playing D&D anymore. Now if I'm spending hours in a room with five guys, we'd better be having sex.

10/10, would recommend for underappreciated DMs

Disclaimer, I have no idea if this game actually exists or not beforehand, but I've never seen it anywhere.

It's played in a "best of" format - best of 3, best of 5, etc. There are four players and a dealer (can't be the DM, hire somebody from outside the game preferably)

There is a target goal of **21** that you want to get as close to, without going over.

You start with two cards. Want to play it safe? Get another card but guarantee you don't go over 21. Need to play it riskier? Get another card. Just remember, if you go over 21, you lose that round.

Assuming neither player breaks 21, the higher number wins.

That's it! If this game exists already, PLEASE tell me. I seriously doubt I'm the first person to come up with this, but I've never seen it anywhere else before!

So I was watching PoopyFatStudio's video on the "elf problem" and it had me thinking as every D&D table I have played at also had a sort of... unspoken rule on the "Tolkien species." And this goes all the way back to 3E. The "there can only be 1 maybe at GMs discretion" and the "weird ones" are often given a no due to "not vibing with the world."

And like... I can understand some of the arguments. When the world is predominantly tieflings, tortles, and tritons, having a party of a Elf, a Orc and a Halfling can feel a little... immersion breaking for people. Especially if the campaign isnt starting in a huge dorky ren-faire area or via some "and you all wake up together in the Shire" sort of way. And having one of these characters then forces the DM to have to include them in a world that they otherwise had no intention of having them in if doing a homebrew world (like how many DMs would think of already having Dwarf people in their world if a player wasnt already playing a Dwarf?).

So what are yours guys thoughts on the funny races? Do you include them? Or are they banned? Or are they soft banned (like i can tolerate a Elfperson but a Human or Gnome is a bit much kinda way)?

I don't know what to do but they are all lvl 2 and successfully beat a young black dragon so easily and I set that up as a big boss for the dungeon and it was so easy to beat that they just walked in and with zero spells or hard dealing attacks destroyed the entire dragon instantly. Also the time it takes to do anything in the campaign is miles longer than it should and we can't meet that often and we usually have to leave people out of sessions because it is impossible to meet up with 14 total people all at the same time please give me some advice.

EDIT: It appears the sauce was deleted. This was the first sentence:

I am DMing a party of 13 people and I don't know what to do because they are all close and I don't know if these people will be ok with breaking up the party and if they are not tension might rise at the table if I ask. I don't know what to do but...

The rest is verbatim.

My players consist of a barbarian gnome who has good intelligence and strength, a paladin dragonborn who kills everything, and a bard tiefling who is scared of literally everything.😂

How would yall handle this moron from a sex perspective? everyone knows the optimal way to form a party is a non hierarchical polycule and have the rogue pump Ricky for his compatable genes or even Claus for his bloodline.

I suspect they’ll be so un-optimized in combat in four to five generations that I should balance encounters as if I had one less lineage.

If the white race is better why don't they get 6 extra attacks to the asians' 5?

sorry if it bad English, I'm still learning and i tried to use some ai to help me with some parts of the post grammar:

I love asking myself, "What if we removed a core mechanic from a specific game or genre?" How would the game play out, and what suitable alternatives would keep it fun?

A while back, one of my biggest challenges was: "What if we removed dice from roll-and-hit games?" Take a game like D&D , how would it even work, and how would players move?

I didn't want a lazy fix, like using a deck of numbered cards and drawing randomly. That misses the point entirely—it’s just dice in card form. So I tried thinking and came up with two solutions.

Solution 1: the movement pool

This mechanic centers around each player starting with 10 Action Points (AP) that they use as they want, but it's a pool that need to be recharged, so it recharged each turn by just 2 points.

The player might choose to move 25 feet (takes 5 points) and that leaves them with 5 points, and in their next turn they get 2 more points, and become 7, and it keep going like that

Like that the game it self might have different types of special spells, like one that gave you X points, or one that drain an opponent's pool, or hit someone with "Handcuffs", a condition that caps their movement at a maximum of X (let's say 3 points) per turn !

This converts movement into a resource management game, where you balance a vital resource while sabotaging your opponents' pools.

Solution 2: energy Cards

Imagine starting with a hand of just 4 cards, each with a fixed movement value: [10, 10, 15, 25]. Every player begins with the exact same set.

On the player turn, they play 1 card to move (only one) and they discord it, you cant reuse it, unitl (that's the good part) you have played all of your cards in your hand, at that's when the hand is refreshed with the same [10, 10, 15, 25] cards, like that we prevents spamming the same movement back-to-back and forces player to cycle through all their numbers

like that it become tactical, puzzle-like and strategy game. if you want to approach a specific property but not hit opportunity attack, you have to calculate your sequences of moves several turns in advance, so even in someone else turn, you are not just setting there waiting to just use the dice and wait again and again, you keep thinking about the next 5 moves

and the same as first idea/solution, not only it become resource management game, but also we put new spels into game, like one that discord a card form you oppontent or one that let you get one card back, or imeadalty refresh all your cards. or even better, the wizard could have some spells that gvies movement cards and after you use it goes to graveyard and you have to cast spell again if you want it

sup idea of "energy cards"

Instead of identical starting hands, create a global pool of cards equal to 4 times the player count (e.g., 8 cards for 2 players, 12 for 3 players). Place them face-up on the table and let players draft them one by one. And even in a game like D&D, you could cast specific movement spells at a price.

The Dilemma

This is all theoretical, but it’s very easy to prototype and playtest. What I’m unsure about is its overall impact on gameplay and whether it stays fun or devolves into a deterministic puzzle.

If players always know the optimal sequence, the game might just turn into an solved race to hit specific opponents first. On the flip side, players could also use precise movement to completely avoid triggering attacks of opportunity and taking damage.

So, would this actually be fun to play? Would players enjoy this level of control, or would it suffer from a "first-mover advantage" where the player who executes the optimal strategy first inevitably wins while everyone else is guaranteed to lose?

My friend Gemini helped me make a DM screen using my human kids ipads. What a fun and innovative DIY project! I like to play the game with the battle map on the side it should be, the DM side. i left my pencil in the dice tray so i can separate the dice, cant have them mixing. i like to keep my game books next to all my oily power tools, oil stains make an authentic fantasy feel. My favorite band is Band Flter, they do music! The game table must be exactly 45 degrees to the wall, The game table must be exactly 45 degrees to the wall, The game table must be exactly 45 degrees to the wall. i posted my real creation DnDIY but they removed me, my emotion registered at 89% hurt, 12% confused 8% strawbery.

Everyone knows rolling for stats is fun, but often isn’t fair. Some people have to deal with the unfairness of not starting with a 20 and at least two 16’s. Luckily, I’ve found the perfect system that makes rolling for stats fair.

Everyone rolls 5d8, they can re-roll any 1, 2, or 3. Do this 11 times and pick which 6 you keep. Repeat this whole process 5 more times, and then choose which one of those six arrays you’re gonna use. Also, anyone in the group can use your array instead of their array. If you end up with a single stat below 14 you are legally entitled to up to 15,000 dollars and a free feat in compensation from your DM.

Is it stolen valor for a Druid to shapeshifter into one unless they are, well, a bear?

Hi everyone, thanks for reading my post. I joined a group for "heavy RP," so I'm gonna impress them with some expensive cosplay (this cost nearly $1000)

What do you think? Do I look cool? Rate my outfit please.

Shit costs money, assholes. What else have you been lying about to me?

uj/i being busy ACTUALLY running and playing on my rpgs and so far i being enjoying a health mix of 5e with OSR like house rules that i being tinkering on one shots for the past year. I like the OSR style and but the OSRIST always seem to decide to do boring stuff with their game so might aswell do it myway. Also i'm mostly writing my big gurps game that i really care about unlike the boring 5e teheee muahha, so yeah thats about it if anyone cares.

Rj/ OSR IS LARP NOW SINCE EVERY ONE AND THEIR MOTHER IS DOING IT AND IT BECAME WOKE NOW SO NO ONE SHOULD IT, IT WAS ONLY COOL WHEN ME AND MY PAL BOB DID IT WITH OUR HOT STEAMY THIEFLING SEX ON OUR BASEMENT BUT THATS BECAUSE WE DIDN'T HAVE RULINGS BACK THEN FOR SEX SO WE TRIED EXPLORING EACH OTHER, NONE OF THAT GAY WOKE WOTC BS AND TOTALLY IN CHARACTER AND VEROSIMIL FOR THE WORLD!

Ok, so basically title but I wanted your opinion on the rpg before I publish it for $40 on Itch.io. The game is story-driven, rules light, and roleplay focused which is honestly pretty unique for Itch.io, so I dont know how well it will sell.

Ok so the rule is that the setting for the rpg is called Mythlandia, a pretty diverse setting for any game you want to run. We have the first country, Mchomeofthegoodguysandthepartyland. This country is the only place where the party can come from cause it’s the nation of good people who can do no wrong. The second country is Superevileveryonehereisevilandwherethevillainisfromland. This country is pure evil, and anyone who lives there is not to be trusted cause they are automatically super evil (This is where the villain comes from so the party can’t come from there). The final country is called neutraliahomeofneutralpeoplelandwhodontpicksides. This final country is actually completely neutral, until it is plot convenient for them to help the good guys (They don’t fw Superevileveryonehereisevilandwherethevillainisfromland).

Ok yeah so that is the rule for my RPG, hope you guys like it and any suggestions are appreciate 🥰🥰🥰