So, I've been thinking over on this one

...and next campaign I'm banning this spell or at least making it level 3

I started off feeling that it's powerful but not too bad, over time....It's become too much for a level 1 spell and the amount it saps from the game - threats and challenges nerfed magical and physical all in one neat package

It can deny advantage, shut down crits, make save or suck spells better or worse - it messes action economy as a reaction can nerf a whole action

Counterspell is a level 3 spell and that can only target spells, and bigger spells it needs more power if can also nerf a whole turn - the barbs is a bit less powerful (AoE spells etc) and a little more limited in some ways, as it doesn't shut them down 100%, but can target saves, abilities or attacks.....I'd say the comparison isn't a million miles off - at level 3 it's a cost/reward trade off that feels fairer, that slot is competitive, at level 1, it's a throw away spell

The other reason is barbs makes things a little unfun, especially when multiple players have it, get a crit off, unless is a trash mob, that's rerolled and probs a 50/50 of losing the reroll, depending on the target. Big moments and threats get washed away and watered down, and as well as that - they get a buff....we've not touched on that, but it comes with a buff too....it's too pokey

Having played with it for years now....I don't want to again I think it takes away moments, to an extent messed too much with action economy by shutting too much down for too little, it detracts too much for too little - and if you get more than 1 player using it it compounds it's self

So a player (Sorceror) has chosen polymorph as a new spell, and I think it might because he thinks he can turn an ogre into a rabbit, which from the spell description seems perfectly valid.

However from the spell description the target gains Temp HP equal to the HP of the beast form, and if Temp HP goes to 0 the spell ends - so after this the rabbit turns back into an ogre?

Is this the correct reading? You can turn an ogre into a rabbit, it's a concentration spell that can last an hour, but as soon as the fighter womps the rabbit you've got an ogre back on your hands? I could see where that could be useful to reduce the amount of opponents in a fight but then the Sorceror is engaged maintaining the concentration spell and can't really do much else.

It feels more like Polymorph could be useful when the party doesn't have a Druid and needs to shrink down a PC to a snake or rat to obtain passage or the like.

So I've come across a bit of a weird issue. I started a campaign with a relatively small section of land as it's core campaign area, but as things have gone it's very likely that I'll need to expand the area. Was wondering if there were any tools or ideas on how to create a larger world map from the little section I already have done. Tried it by hand and it looked atrocious. Any assistance appreciated, thanks!

I started a campaign as a first time DM with 4 players who except for one have never played DnD before. In the 6 sessions we had so far it never happened that my campaign was derailed or they strayed of course. Now in theorie this sounds nice if you have a plan but it leads to a certain "video game like" structure. They do one thing i have planed and move on to the next step and so on. My Question is how do you get your players to stop and try to explore more of your world. I try to give them different options and hint/indicate different things to make the world feel more alive but it seems like they are only going "the right way" and rush through it.

Right I’m coming to the end of a two year campaign and I want to use some really big battle maps with in person play. Up to now we’ve played on a 40 inch TV that’s level with our table for 35x20 maps. The final battle will be a 2.5 foot radius arena, making it a 5 foot by 5 foot physical map. Does anyone know how to physically get a map that size with the details I want? I’ve thought about a projector but a projector and a mount costs a lot of money to make work and I want to know if there are other options before I get to that point.

I’m working on writing my first homebrew world and wanted some advice on making one.

So one of the (optional) sidequests I'm going to present to my Level 2 players is a delivery mission to a nearby town, where the questgiver gives the players a sealed box labeled "DECK - DO NOT OPEN". My players know what a Deck of Many Things is, but I'm not sure the characters realistically would know. The questgiver is going to seem a little suspicious, as he's offering triple the normal rate and won't elaborate on what's in the package but expects it delivered unopened.

The deck contained in the box is made by a toymaker from an ancient and extinct civilization and labeled clearly as a toy imitation of a DoMT, but the writing is in a language none of the players can read.

However, the party's Druid has Detect Magic, last I checked, and I think simply casting that would immediately diffuse any juicy anticipation of drawing a card when it reveals it's completely nonmagical. I really want the players to be tempted to try. Perhaps some NPCs are hired to try and intercept the delivery and they make it clear what a Deck of Many Things is, if the characters aren't seeming interested in trying to open the box or draw a card.

I guess what I want advice on is... is any part of this a good idea? Should I have the deck be enchanted with (mostly) harmless magical effects to delight children, so it still appears magical to Detect Magic? Should I stick to having it be nonmagical? Is this sidequest just going to be disappointing no matter how I spin it?

Hey guys I’ve been a little confused about what exactly pacing is, how to track time within the game and how they correlate.

Most of my campaign time isn’t really a thing unless it’s the time of day, but it’s a little confusing for me when it gets to spells/adventuring.

This is a pretty open-ended question, but as somebody with little experience with point crawls (or even hex crawls for that matter), I'm wondering what everybody else's tips and tricks are.

Some things I've found online that seem to resonate:

- Make sure the players can access (or at least be aware of) a sufficient number of points so it doesn't get too linear.

- New locations that are discovered after visiting other locations are fun, or secret paths between already-known locations.

I'm primarily interested in point crawls for overland wilderness travel between points of interest, but advice for other uses (cities, etc.) is definitely welcome. Any anecdotal stories about how they've gone for you would also be great!

Thanks!

Party will be attending a tourney next session, main quest is protecting a Lord from their hometown.

I have written down and prepped most of the main events, but I also want to fill in some time with chill/fun games that can happen at the tourney, I don't want everything to be high stakes.

Party composition is: Druid, Ranger, Wizard, Fighter and Bard. I would like to do games that can fit each one of them.

I know for example I can go on a very basic route for some of them, the ranger can participate in a target shooting. I am a bit worried about how I can make that entertaining to actual play.

Have you ran something similar in the past, and if so, how did you go about it, what went wrong what went right?

I have trouble keeping in game time, how to determine how much time has passed in encounters and overworld?

I know there's a dungeon and combat time table like: 10 turns in combat is a minute (sort of) or 10 rounds exploringa dungeon being 1 in game hour, I know of the shadowdark 1 real world hour is the life time of a torch, but I don't know how to rule that in npc encounters, point crawl or even hexcrawl...

And, how do you note it? Using dice? Using paper?

Thanks in advance!

This is mainly for female DMs, as I (hot take) think that doing a female voice as a male is easier than doing a male voice as a female, but I’m open to any answers/advice!!

HOW on earth do you deepen your voice to do a male voice? It’s something I struggle with most as a DM, and my male npcs just tend to have quieter voices and all sound the same.

It’s especially pressing because I’m running Strahd right now, and I’m worried Strahd won’t come across as creepy if I can’t manage a lower voice!! I also have male characters in other campaigns that I need to lower my voice for.

I also struggle with remembering what voice I do for certain characters but that might need a whole other post…

Does anyone have any tips?

I started my game as an explore and discover homebrew adventure.  There is a giant conspiracy revolving around 12 Magical Keys.  

It's a big puzzle, because that is how my mind works. I was expecting the players to investigate clues and discover secrets.  

However, they have been stuck focused on one secret group that was a red herring, despite all the clues i gave them.

I keep having to remind them of important details i have even given them in writing.

My initial recurring villain was apparently so bland they forgot who they were durring a big reveal phase.

To compound this, we had a big change over of players recently, so they weren't present durring most of the initial discovery.

I don't think the game I'm running is the one my players want to play. How do I pivot my story away from discovery and more to actions without losing the plot. (In all sences of the word)

Hello! Im a kinda noob dm I have played 3 campaigns the first one was Dragons of stormwreck isle which i think was super cool, then I tried to make my own world building but it was too time consuming for me so we changed it to a world i already knew where we could have complete freedom which is One Piece, we then were having a blast till all of them died (which they knew and they were fine with it) but that was the end of that campaign hahaha and I want to emulate that I would love to know a world like I know One Piece so if they want to go to a bar I can think of one, if they want to go to another city I can think of that, I know what parties exist so I can enrich or improvise a lot and we can build our story together, this experience was the best by far, the problem is I dont know where to start I know that Faerun exisists but is bigger than I thought, maybe I should focus on something? any idea or something where I can start from? thanks :)

Edit: Sorry if my message if a bit confussing, english isnt my native language
As Mental-Ad9432 said I'm basically asking for a dnd world to study or learn so that i dont have to come up with every single place, organization and important npc

Running storm kings thunder, spent the first 20 or so sessions focusing on all the factions, baddies, world building. Just hitting level 7, we’re now at a point that I want to bring in back stories. I’m just looking for some experienced peoples perspectives on my ideas to see if I’m doing too much or not. I also have a player who won’t be available, so tabling the main story for others feels right.

PC 1: I have a kitsune/foxkin rogue (homebrewed, this is their first character and wanted to play a fox). His backstory is that his father was basically racketeering, over taxing farmers in their hometown and taking some off the top before delivering to the main town while telling the town there was more wheat than there actually is. Riley, his son, didn’t like that. There was a farmer he befriended, and when this farmer told him he was being bled dry, Riley broke in to another nobleman’s house and stole some coin. His father found out Riley did that, but pinned the robbery in the robber friend. The noblemen then burned down the farmers house with the farmer in it. Riley was then disowned and ran away from home. He’s conflicted - he really wants respect and love from his family but they are just kind of terrible people.

He has 2 older brothers. The backdrop of SKT is giants are rampaging across Faerun. Riley and the other PCs have been there from the start, getting to the bottom of the giant activity, killing giants, kraken cultists and dragon-aligned enemies.

My idea is one of his brothers, Ignis, is a Lords Alliance officer. His father sent him on the road with a number of soldiers and carriages of wheat. He knew trade routes would be disrupted, so he’s overcharging the wheat. His brother has had an easy time on the road because Riley and the group have been a couple steps ahead, clearing out most of the danger. Ignis is going to claim the glory of all Riley and his group had accomplished, killing nearly a dozen giants. I’m going to have them in a town square, taking people’s money and claiming victory over fights they had nothing to do with.

I’d love if my group confronted them and they got to talking.

From there, the brother and crew will go on the road, but will be ambushed by giant eagles and cloud giants. A scout will run back to town and alert people, ideally prompting my players to go to the rescue and save the day, earning respect from the family.

Questions here: Am I making the brother too unlikeable? Or should I be ok with the group saying “nah fuck that guy” and there being consequences to his brother being killed or taken captive?

PC 2: Sseth was once a lowly Zhentarim courier. One day, he messed up a shipment for a powerful mage. This mage, being zhent aligned, is beholden to Waukeen, goddess of fair trade. The mage essentially forces the pact on Sseth, turning/cursing him into a Yuan-ti. Sseth is a hexblade with a polearm.

I want to have a dream sequence where Sseth is in a black void. He sees a pile of gold coins a hit away with his polearm sticking out of it. As he approaches, he hears a voice - “you’ve finally begun to use your powers. The time for repayment has begun”. He sees the pile of coins recede a bit by the hilt. Gold runes travel a bit up the hilt. As he reaches to grab it, he feels his coin purse get lighter. He wakes up and finds 50g missing, but the gold runes on the hilt remain.

Still figuring out the end game for this one.

Just would love thoughts and ideas for how people mix in backstory. Am I doing too much?

Greetings, DMs!

I need help in an upcoming encounter.

Context: The party has arrived at a council that currently debates whether a railway should be built connecting a capital of the humans with a capital of the eruhi (imagine something between elfs and gnomes). The world is in early steampunk age, trains are still pretty new.

The council has five members, of which two (humans) want progression and infrastructure, thus are pro railway. One eruha and one human are against it (nature and tradition first) and one human is neutral.

Obviously no side is wrong, there are arguments pro and contra the railway - this should also not be the issue here.

The twist: one of the humans was sent by the duke of the human capital, which has a deal with a demon: he uses demonic metal, which is more robust and far more easy to work with. In return, the demons gain more influence over the martial plane by having this metal in the world. Now they want even more from him and ask for human slaves, which he started sending into hell.

This fact is a secret the one human knows. He is charismatic and should have good arguments, so he's gaining influence in the council and will win the upcoming vote if the party doesn't uncover that secret.

Now: how can I make this an interesting investigation rather than just an insight skill check and stealthily finding a revealing document?

So this is a one shot that's designed to be punishing but fair/ beatable, depending on player choices.

I want to include a woods witch (maybe a hag) as a possible interaction/ moral choice situation.

The final encounter has x number of rounds before the ritual is complete. The idea to this encounter is it will cost you time (thereby reducing number of rounds before the ritual is done), but to balance this, it can provide benefits to the party.

The woods witch is unconscious out at her table, alchemy supplies in front of her. Her notes indicate she's working on a remedy to her condition. There is obvious low or mid tier loot in the open, and her notes indicate the potion provided basically a full rest. There's also a magically-locked cabinet that they can't break into, but they can see it contains good loot.

The question for the party is do they take the easy pickings + the remedy and leave her to her fate, or heal her and hope for better loot?

Now, my questions for you are:

• What is this high tier loot? Something like 3 luck dice? Maybe aid they can call in one time? A Potion of Strength + Potion of Maximum Power?

• Should the remedy cost them something? A hit to their max HP? A spell slot (permanently??)?

• Say there's 6 rounds in the final encounter before the ritual is done, as a base number. Now, the cost to the number of rounds in the final encounter due to going to the woods witch:

◦ Going here - does it just cost a flat 2 (?) rounds?

◦ Does it cost x rounds depending on what they do? Like:

▪ Steal her stuff = takes not too long = 1 round lost

▪ Make remedy = time consuming = 2 rounds lost

▪ Is this too complicated?

Quick context: The player this is for is playing a rogue. It's a 4 level 3 party with a bard, a druid and a warlock. The puzzlebox is a kind of will created specifically for the rogue but only made it to her through unconventional means (it was supposed to be given to her but a ship sank, everybody died and now the box is sitting in the mayors office of the town my players just arrived in).

My solution is that her seashell-necklace is the key to the box. Hints would be a slightly curved slit in the bottom of the box, that kind of seashell (oyster) is carved all over the box and one real oyster covers the "keyhole" and a memory flashback to where her captain at the time gave her the necklace with the words that it is the "key to her future".

I have set a DC just in case she wants to try to pick the lock (and a bonus if she correctly identifies the slit as the keyhole).

Now the question to the more experienced DMs would be if this is enough as far as hints go or do I need more/clearer hints. I am pretty confident she won't try to break the box and I am open for any shenanigangs my party comes up with to open the box instead.

Hi folks,

I'm a very new DM (5 sessions in, level 4, started at level 3 for subclasses) but long-time TTRPG player, and I'm afraid of making encounters too hard to the point that I kill PC's. How do I figure out how to balance encounters so that they're still challenging or might have players go down/get low on health, but without outright killing them?

So far the worst a PC has been is on less than 10 health, but that was only because the monster got a crit on them. But in that same encounter was a Banshee that used it's wail, that if it had hit literally any of the PCs it would've downed them, but they all managed to save on it, and it's a 1-time use.

I guess I'm afraid of going too far the other way and just hitting way too hard.

For reference, the party consists of.. An Archfey Warlock, a Moon Druid, a Vengeance Paladin, a Battlesmith Artificer and a (only just joined last session) Life Domain Cleric. All but the Cleric have some form of familiar or pet. Would really love some help here 'cause last session I went in with a mostly puzzle/roleplay session because I'm even getting afraid of building combat encounters >_<

Been running some games recently, mostly Mothership(sci fi horror RPG), and Shadowdark(OSR dungeon crawler)

The sessions end up so very low energy. Nobody cares about anything, people yawning and getting sleepy.

It feels much closer to a work meeting than a fun event. Much worse when I’m playing with people who I know outside of the game to be high energy and they look like they’re waiting for the dentist at the table.

It’s not even that they just dislike TTRPGs, some were regular players of them.

Even in the sessions that went just ok instead of terrible, the only high points were when the players were talking and joking with each other, but any interaction with me the DM and the adventure(exploration combat etc) were dry as bone.

Then of course people stop showing up to future sessions(and who can blame them?)

In the 3rd and final session of a Shadowdark “campaign” that had lost 3 of 6 players(2 of the remaining were my dad and brother who I live with, so if they canceled it would’ve been obvious why) the game was so miserable I had to call it mid session.

I want to run the real dozen+ session campaign I’ve dreamed of for years. I want to make friends. But whenever I get excited to plan something or reach out for players I remember my previous attempts and wince and do something else.

Playing in my games is a boring chore for the players and a humiliation ritual for me. I wonder if it comes down to my incompetence as a DM or perhaps I’m just an unlikable person in general.

Im starting to run my first session and im not sure how could I make the big bad connect properly. I have few players that have played bit more and we agreed that we want to try to aim for the level 20 so really long campaign. Im planning that there will be and evil wizard that is important for one of the players backstory not getting deeper to that but the wizard had promised to keep this one gate to hell sealed in trade for removing one curse. And I have builded the story so that the wizard could easily be the big bad. But id really want an session series that take place in the hell and have some ideas already id really want to try. But not sure how would I make so that the ruler of hell would actually be the big bad. Because it can be sifted so that the players want to stop him as the gate of hell opens, but I feaw it will be too seperate from rest of the story as rn the ruler will be mentioned first time when they meet the wizard.

Last night, I came up with a concept that combines players choices with character skills and dice rolls to result in certain tiers of rewards. I'm curious to see what people think of it.

Disclaimer: I'm unsure if I'm explaining this correctly. It's all mostly in my head and proves difficult to put on paper. Please let me know if anything is unclear :)

Edit: this isn’t meant to be shown to players. Keep them in the dark on this. It’s merely a guideline for the DM to reward players and keep them moving forward.

Skill check |Unaltered situation |Low risk/cost |Medium risk/cost |High risk/cost
No roll |Tier 0: Starting point, players know little to nothing |Tier 1: The players learn something significant can be learnt |Tier 2: The players learn a clue to something significant |Tier 3: The players learn something significant
Low roll |Tier 1: The players learn something significant can be learnt |Tier 2: The players learn a clue to something significant |Tier 3: The players learn something significant |**Tier 4:**The players learn something important
Medium roll |Tier 2: The players learn a clue to something significant |Tier 3: The players learn something significant |**Tier 4:**The players learn something important |Tier 5: The players learn something highly important
High roll |Tier 3: The players learn something significant |Tier 4: The players learn something important |Tier 5: The players learn something highly important |Tier 6: The players learn all they can The idea is that, instead of preparing specifically what players find/learn/receive, where they find it, how they find it, etc., you only prepare these 6 Tiers of rewards. Tier 0 is the lowest, Tier 6 the highest.

Let's say players want to learn something about the plans of the local commander. They can go to their headquarters in the city center and stand outside: that's Tier 0. They haven't rolled anything yet, they haven't attempted anything dangerous, but they do already see something. For example, they see guards are posted outside. They see the walls are pretty high and difficult to climb over. They see a watch tower with 2 guards looking over the compound grounds. All that information is 'free', not locked behind a skill check. We'll call this the 'unaltered situation': nothing risky has been attempted yet.

Next, a player might attempt to gain more information by looking around: roll a Perception check. This is a little bit of risk: if the guards spot the player peeking around, they might start asking questions. On a low roll. they get a Tier 1 reward: they learn something significant can be learnt (there is another entrance/the guards rotate at noon). On a high roll, they actually learn something significant (the Evil Alchemist has entered the compound).

Instead of attempting a Perception check from a safe distance, they might try something more daring: break into the compound. Here, the Tier 1 reward from their first check could help: it allows them to move further into the table above.

Breaking in is a high risk/cost, and your players deserve more rewards for doing it. When they break in, without making any checks or rolls, they're already automatically at Tier 3: the best result they could get from just observing from a safe distance. But now they can make a check, which will result in much better rewards.

Any time players 'unlock' a certain Tier they also know how to move to the next Tier. So when they get a Tier 2 on their Perception check, they know what they need to do to move further in the Medium risk/cost column, since they already unlocked the base Tier for that column.

Risk and cost are interchangeable. Breaking into the compound is high risk but little cost, but casting a high-level spell with an expensive material component, paying a lot of gold to bribe a guard, or spending three days researching a certain topic are all high costs. You as a DM don't have to determine how the party pays these prices, as long as you acknowledge they have spent resources and deserve a reward for that.

This is, of course, only a concept, not a rigid mechanical system you should stick to. If it makes sense for players to start at a later column, or that certain rewards can't be gained at this particular time, it's better to deviate from the system.

Let me know what you guys think!

I sometimes jump into the DM role when our usual DM can't make a session. I'm lucky and play with a wonderful group who are very encouraging, but I'm still very new.

I stumbled into a fun side adventure where the players are exploring a candy factory run by a wizard (if this sounds familiar stop reading if you don't want spoilers for Saturday). In the factory there is a hallway with doors labeled "Volcano" "Chirps" " Fondant Fields" "Bouncing Bonbons" "Black Forest" and "Licorice Town." And my plan is to have a different one shot behind each door. Realistically I realize as a new DM it'll probably be better to direct players to a door where I can have planned ahead, but will probably give them a couple of options of which door to choose.

My problem is that I'm having trouble fleshing out the one shots. Like for "Fondant Fields" I was thinking about having it be a play on "Is This Cake?" And the players have to find/identify objects that aren't actually cake, and then for the twist the noncake items are mimics they have to fight. But I am having a hard time making it an adventure and not a story. Like how to give clues to identify the right objects without just saying "real chairs have scratches, roll investigation you see scratches." I'm planning on finding a pre made one shot to adapt, but wondering if anyone has any advice.

Tldr: I need help making my adventures more than "we need chairs, roll for chairs, you find chairs, fight."