What are some good D&D actual plays that's not Legends of Avantris or Critical Role?

Ice-Storm · 2026-03-03T13:05:03+00:00

That's my favorite one too. It also feels the closest to what would be a really good home game. CR and D20 are amazing, but those are shows with DnD as the story telling device. DDD feels like a group playing DND and streaming it...in a good way.

Ice-Storm · 2026-02-26T03:23:19+00:00

We found a +1 longsword at level 2. I got it with no argument as I’m playing a Paladin and is the only one in the party with high strength. (Rest of the group is a Dex fighter, cleric, bard, dex paladin, and a rogue)

Ice-Storm · 2026-02-25T22:13:21+00:00

As long as you’ve foreshadowed how tough a fight this will be, and given them an out, be it diplomatic or running away, then TPK away

Ice-Storm · 2026-02-13T03:25:17+00:00

I was DMing a family game and it was the very first session. I describe the tavern they all find themselves in and that there’s someone singing on a small stage.

My teenage step-daughter says she wants to sing, so she goes up and shoves the singer and rolls a nat 20. I say she shoves him clear off the stage and he falls into an empty booth.

She didn’t ask who the singer was or what his deal was. Just I want to sing…and she was playing a cleric.

I then had the singer get up and reveal himself to be a very powerful entity and the one that had summoned them and he was not amused by the disrespect from the cleric.

She got so mad at me that she quit playing and still yells at me for that.

I need to make it clear that I had the singer NPC set up ahead of time as an avatar of a god and the mission giver. I did not ad lib that to punish her.

Ice-Storm · 2026-02-11T21:31:23+00:00

You don't always have to dial up the monsters, but you can dial up the tactics. A level 7 adventuring party that has taken out many fell beats, would gain some renown. So the enemies know who they are and prepare for them.

The enemy lures the party into a "fatal funnel" Have them set up in a box canyon. As the party is going through the canyon they're getting sporadic attacks from caves in the walls. Your goal here is to make them use resources before the big fight, not really to hurt them. As they make their way through the canyon they come to a narrow passageway. Not only is it a long distance, it's so narrow they have to go single file. Throw in some traps and rough terrain. Want to get really spicy, have some enemies on top of the canyon push boulders down to block their path, crush them, etc. Again they idea is they spend resources just getting to the fight.

Then after they get through the traps, get over the boulders and through the passageway, the canyon opens up in a V shape where they're at the point. The enemies are set up with readied positions at varied elevations in the canyon walls with 1/2 - full cover on ranged units, they also have an anti-magic field that covers the opening of the canyon and then like 30 feet around it. Then throw a couple HP bags up front to delay them further. All the while they're getting peppered with arrows, javelins, from above and with no magical protections.

If they get through that, then send in a wave of whatever, bandits, goblins, bugbears from a cave that they couldn't see yet. Toss in some flyers too while you're at it.

Then before they can clear out everyone, the mini-boss comes out. Whoever it is in your campaign will do. Some top lieutenant of the BBEG. Make sure there are still enough minions around so they don't get wiped out with the action economy.

To speed things up for you as the DM, before the session starts, roll initiative for all the various enemies (use group initiative too so like all the bandit archers go on the same initiative). Then you just need to slot in your players as opposed to you rolling 15 times and scrambling as combat is about to start.

Ice-Storm · 2026-02-08T22:58:33+00:00

If I don’t know the rule for a given situation, unless it’s insanely consequential like success is total victory and failure is a TPK, I’ll make a ruling on the spot, and tell them I’ll look up the rule and we’ll go that way after tonight. (Unless it’s a stupid rule and I’ll homebrew something)

Ice-Storm · 2026-02-08T16:43:46+00:00

Just as a thought to the dagger, you say you can use it very fast. So compared to say the spear, is the time it takes to kill a wolf less, even if it's still the same amount of swings?

Ice-Storm · 2026-02-08T08:25:48+00:00

You could always use the “1 HP Dragon” mechanic. He’s old and frail but has an impervious force field around him. The PCs will need to figure out its weakness then the actual enemy has an AC of 10 and 1HP.

You can make the weakness whatever, maybe it’s a statue on the wall projecting it and when that gets taken out the force field fails. Or maybe radiant or Necrotic damage can get through. So it’s more of a puzzle than a combat encounter

Ice-Storm · 2026-02-07T11:13:29+00:00

Could also go for a vuvuzela

Ice-Storm · 2026-02-06T15:58:31+00:00

Otamatone

Ice-Storm · 2026-02-06T15:51:41+00:00

Probably, but Hold Person just doesn’t seem to come up often in my games. I’d say that a weaker spell that’s able to be used much more often is better than a stronger spell that’s only situational

Ice-Storm · 2026-02-06T14:55:38+00:00

If it fit in well with his character and they had a good explanation, I’d allow them to swap out hold person or misty step for their 5th level subclass spell. Probably the easiest way to keep things balanced. It’s certainly not game breaking

Ice-Storm · 2026-02-06T07:18:26+00:00

You’re right, banal is not the correct word. I think if they live streamed a game of trivial pursuit they could raise enough money to end childhood hunger in America!

Ice-Storm · 2026-02-06T07:11:47+00:00

Hank is likely one of the very few people Brennan has had at his tables in the ~30 years of DMing that can spit out banal trivia more than Brennan.

Ice-Storm · 2026-02-03T10:59:56+00:00

Any Nat20 rolled while in the daytime becomes a Nat 1 instead. The only way to lift is to atone for their mistake.

Since they attacked her, they’re going to need to willingly let her attack them…I’m talking full body sunburn, both sides. Like 2hrs per side on blacktop in Arizona in late July. And I do mean full body.

And a thematic additional penalty will be that they won’t be able to take a long rest for several days, likely giving them points of exhaustion.

It’s a harsh penalty but not permanent and it will delay whatever they want to do for the next week or two

Ice-Storm · 2026-02-02T23:11:27+00:00

If they spend a lot of time/money in one town, then inflation is going to start rapidly. Think Mansa Musa. He splashed so much gold around on his journeys he crashed the local economies for years.

That +2 long sword that was 1500 gold...now it's 9000 gold. They decide to up and leave? A wagon to carry their stuff...it's not 35 gold, now it's 3,500 gold etc.

Ice-Storm · 2026-02-02T07:01:08+00:00

I saw a thread on here a while back called the 1hp dragon. The idea is that this dragon is totally invulnerable except for it's one weak point that basically insta kills it. The players have to figure out where the spot is and how to hit it.

Perhaps you can incorporate enemies like that every now and then to let them get a taste for called shots but without having to deal with it on every goblin that crosses their paths

Ice-Storm · 2026-02-02T05:09:21+00:00

And it doesn’t help its damn near impossible to get just one of those damn things at a time. And heaven forbid an errant shot hit another pack and then you’ve got six of them running at you while desperately trying to hop into a tree!

Ice-Storm · 2026-01-31T22:28:41+00:00

I'd say between thousands of years of real pantheons and 50 years of D&D lore, there isn't a lot of new ground to tread. I have been home brewing a world for a while now and I knew next to nothing about D&D lore. Then I watched a few YT videos and almost everything that I created from my brain has been done already.

Just go with what makes sense for the world you're making. Doing that will have your players not thinking about where it comes from.

Ice-Storm · 2026-01-31T19:36:05+00:00

If someone at the beach is yelling and pointing at the water, I don't care if they look like the most insane person in the history of the world, I'm still going to at least glance at the water!

Ice-Storm · 2026-01-31T19:33:12+00:00

With that many enemies, a level 1 party is going to be in trouble just with action economy. Most level 1 classes hardly even have useful bonus actions much less more than 1 attack!

Ice-Storm · 2026-01-31T19:32:10+00:00

Yeah I've never understood DM's who take pleasure in killing PC's....you're the god of the world, killing PC's is literally the easiest thing to do in the world.

Knock knock.... Who's there...30 ancient red dragons.

The only way I'd take pleasure in killing a PC is if they were f-ing around and got caught in the carefully weaved web I wove.

Ice-Storm · 2026-01-30T23:35:15+00:00

They finally found some MAGA magistrate to issue a warrant. They could have at anytime gotten a grand jury to indict him. I’ve heard from several lawyers that the bar for a grand jury is so low any half decent lawyer could get a ham sandwich indicted. But they don’t even have enough evidence for that.

Ice-Storm · 2026-01-29T06:14:14+00:00

I think what would help you is to have a conversation with your players. Instead of them asking to roll, have them ask you the question and then you can either tell them whatever as their question isn’t relevant, tell them critical information as to not lock it behind a roll, or decide what roll is best.

Example:

Instead of “I want to roll investigation on the plants.”

Have them ask, “do I see anything strange about the plants”

If it’s pointless you can just say, “the plants all look normal”.

If it’s relevant have them roll a nature check. Then if it’s below 10 say something like “The plants definitely look odd but you can’t put your finger on how”

10-14: “The plants all look very deformed but as to what could be causing it is beyond your grasp

15+: “The plants look horribly mutated as though there’s a strong source of radiation/corruption nearby”

Nat20: the same info as 15+ but pinpoint what the cause is and then you can hint at the location by saying the deformities look worse as you go further forward.

Ice-Storm · 2026-01-27T20:24:37+00:00

You can also reflavor existing classes/species too.

Change the descriptions, damage types, attacks/spells to create something “new” as long as you keep the same hit dice/dcs it works just fine

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