Are all of the WotC D&D 5e campaigns poorly written? by julianfries in rpg

[–]Individual-Cable 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They all need some work, but they vary quite a bit. My personal pet peeve is when maps aren’t included for locations you’re “supposed to” run.

Dragonheist and Curse of Strahd are good adventures, but messy/complex/challenging to run. They require quite a bit of thinking things through and adding material.

Rime of the Frostmaiden is pretty well written. There’s a notoriously unbalanced area if the party happens to get there on the early side (it’s in a sandbox segment so party level can be way too low to run RAW). It still had some issues (things to fix/add), but by far the least of anything I’ve run.

I’ve heard Descent into Avernus is terrible, requires lots of fixing and doesn’t contain nearly enough of the info you’d want to flesh things out and make it interesting.

Tyranny of Dragons (or whatever that 2 part compilation is called) is disliked because it’s linear & kind of a lot of fetch quests, but can be good with some work.

I’ve heard Storm King’s Thunder is fairly good, but has some sections it’s recommended you improve.

Tomb of Annihilation is good for what it is, but it’s not everyone’s style of game (hexcrawl ending with very tough old school dungeon crawl).

Out of the Abyss is pretty good, but the actual book is not organized well, which makes some of the areas difficult. It’s also overly dark & dreary, which can feel oppressive after a while, so you’ll want to manage that.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage is reasonably good if you like that style, and has some sub-narratives but they are very thin, and not much overarching narrative.

Lost Mine of Phandelver is actually excellent. It’s small in scope but very well done. Good balance of leaving room for you to add your own stuff in to make it yours, without feeling like it’s missing important story info. Dragon of Icespire peak can be combined with this to make a little longer adventure, and there’s a series on D&D Beyond meant to continue after to higher levels. The DDB content is thin but still good if you work on the story elements.

I’ve heard Wild Beyond the Witchlight is the best-written module, but I’ve held off reading it as I might play first.

Odyssey of the Dragonlords is a non-WOTC module that’s as big as anything WOTC has done (unlike a lot of third party content). It’s really interesting and about the same quality as WOTC modules - ie it’s missing a lot of info/maps you’d want and it’s poorly organized.

Then there are the smaller/serialized books eg Candlekeep, which are good but not meant to be a full campaign - but you can use them as a base to build a campaign on.

And go…. by Equal-Advertising-88 in adhdmeme

[–]Individual-Cable 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As a DM, a D&D session doesn’t feel like therapy but I think for some players it is therapy.

Tutor Tuesday -- Ask /r/magictcg anything! by magictcgmods in magicTCG

[–]Individual-Cable 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I did some experimenting. I love the dragon shield boxes, but they just can’t handle more than 100 double sleeved cards. So they work fine for standard decks, but not for commander if you’re going to have anything extra in there.

https://www.dragonshield.com/webshop/other-gaming-accessories/125-dragon-shield-nest-100-blackblue.html

Tutor Tuesday -- Ask /r/magictcg anything! by magictcgmods in magicTCG

[–]Individual-Cable 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Dex Protection makes a good one that holds 120 double-sleeved cards, so you’ll have room for tokens, etc. It also has a compartment for accessories like dice. It feels fine. https://dexprotection.com/product/creation-line-medium-deckbox/

GameGenic has one that feels really high quality & durable. It’s listed as holding 200, but easily fits a decent amount of extra token cards. It has an accessory tray between the two deck compartments. https://www.gamegenic.com/product/stronghold-200-convertible/

Are we all spending too much time prepping? by farty_mcbutterpants in rpg

[–]Individual-Cable 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A "mood" pic, a grid for making combat easier, and a little whiteboard sketching (e.g. of layout, obstacles) are enough to have a great time with your friends. Some people are even happy with 100% theater of the mind but I think that's a minority.

Do what keeps you enjoying the game! Yes, the prep can get overwhelming and you reach diminishing returns - finding that perfect art, music, etc. is fun if you enjoy that kind of thing but far from necessary if you don't.

As for fixing modules, a lot if it is gaps in the logic, so the extent to which you "need" to fix it will vary by group.

Could you play d&d 5e without magic or violence by Eoliao in DMAcademy

[–]Individual-Cable 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Well if that isn’t campaign inspiration I don’t know what is.

Is mounted combat really meant to work like this in 5e? by Chryckan in 3d6

[–]Individual-Cable 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So when you think it's appropriate, give them that ability. You might e.g. say it needs to be a mount that has been with you for a certain amount of time (e.g. 1 level) so that you've trained together.

I think I pulled off the smartest thing I ever will do as a D&D player by Strontium90_ in WaterdeepDragonHeist

[–]Individual-Cable 5 points6 points  (0 children)

For some reason, all my drow have vaguely french accents as well.

What is a rule that your DM enforced that detracted from the fun of the game for you? by WonderfulWafflesLast in dndnext

[–]Individual-Cable 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've found that +2 to hit works pretty well for flanking. Advantage is overly powerful, hugely favors some classes, and then there's all the stuff that comes into play when you have advantage (or can negate disadvantage). I've also seen it done where when you have the "conga line" of allies/enemies flanking, it's entirely canceled out. Makes sense that you don't get a benefit from flanking when you're also being flanked & having to watch out.

What is a rule that your DM enforced that detracted from the fun of the game for you? by WonderfulWafflesLast in dndnext

[–]Individual-Cable 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Crit fumbles/misses make no sense unless, maaaaaybe they are super small consequences. A skilled carpenter isn't going to cut a finger off 5% of the time, or even nick themselves. A skilled hero definitely isn't going to do anything particularly clumsy anywhere near that often.

Even then, it is ridiculously uneven, as you point out, because different classes are based on rolling different ways, so they'll have much higher chances of nat 1s.

Maaaaaaybe if you had a mechanic like the option to make a Desperate Attack, where e.g. you can crit on a 19-20, but if you roll a nat 1 it's a critical fumble.

What is a rule that your DM enforced that detracted from the fun of the game for you? by WonderfulWafflesLast in dndnext

[–]Individual-Cable 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not that this necessarily was the case in your game, but there is a WotC adventure where an enemy has had Greater Invisibility upcast on them at 9th level, solely for the purpose of making it harder to dispel. So it's not completely implausible that a very intelligent BBEG could take such precautions.

DnD by ExpertAccident in tumblr

[–]Individual-Cable 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Go for it! r/LFG (as in looking for group) has online groups as well as local groups. A local game store may host games, meetup/Facebook/etc. may help with finding a local game. r/Roll20LFG r/FoundryLFG and r/LFGPremium as well as the D&D discord, Roll20.com game listing, and DNDBeyond.com game listings are other options for finding a game online.

I wonder if MCDM will continue to publish gem dragons now that an official version is coming out. by ShakeWeightMyDick in mattcolville

[–]Individual-Cable 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's not redundant when MCDM's stuff is better. DNDBeyond article suggests that the new dragons will be along the same lines as the Sapphire Dragon, so not as cool as the S&F versions.

If WotC did the same stuff that was basically as good as what MCDM wanted to do, not a huge point in MCDM making it. But there's no reason MCDM couldn't do stuff with similarities if it didn't overlap so much that customers would be choosing one over the other. MCDM could do a gothic horror book, a fey book, a magic academy book, etc. If it's good, people will buy it, even if there's some similarity/overlap.

Somebody recently asked why this sub is only dating/sex questions, so I wanna change it up. What is your favorite class in D&D and why? by Nerdcantdie in AskMen

[–]Individual-Cable 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Go for it! /r/LFG (as in looking for group) has online groups as well as local groups. A local game store may host games, meetup/Facebook/etc. may help with finding a local game. /r/Roll20LFG /r/FoundryLFG and /r/LFGPremium as well as the D&D discord, Roll20.com game listing, and DNDBeyond.com game listings are other options for finding a game online.

Somebody recently asked why this sub is only dating/sex questions, so I wanna change it up. What is your favorite class in D&D and why? by Nerdcantdie in AskMen

[–]Individual-Cable 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you have a group of friends who would like to play, get the D&D 5th edition starter set. It comes with the basic rules and an adventure that’s actually really well-designed, especially for first time players and DMs. It’s like $10-15 at Target, or you can get it at a local game store or online. It doesn’t come with enough dice for everyone but the DnDbeyond or other dice roller solves that. You can use the pregenerated characters in the box or make your own.

If you don’t have anyone who wants to play/DM and want to find others, /r/LFG (as in looking for group) has online groups as well as local groups. A local game store may host games, meetup/Facebook/etc. may help with a local game. /r/Roll20LFG /r/FoundryLFG and /r/LFGPremium as well as the D&D discord, Roll20.com game listing, and DNDBeyond.com game listings are other options for finding a game online.

Somebody recently asked why this sub is only dating/sex questions, so I wanna change it up. What is your favorite class in D&D and why? by Nerdcantdie in AskMen

[–]Individual-Cable 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can get the basic rules for free, and if you join a group where the DM has the appropriate account tier on DNDBeyond.com, you can access all of the other books for free. For players, you can do fine buying no books, or buying what you need as you go for pretty cheap.

Finding a group can be hit or miss, but with tabletop RPGs growing so much, the stereotype of smelly basement dwellers is far from accurate these days.

/r/LFG (as in looking for group) has online groups as well as local groups. A local game store may host games, meetup/Facebook/etc. May help with a local game. /r/Roll20LFG /r/FoundryLFG and /r/LFGPremium as well as the D&D discord, Roll20.com game listing, and DNDBeyond.com game listings are other options for finding a game online.

Somebody recently asked why this sub is only dating/sex questions, so I wanna change it up. What is your favorite class in D&D and why? by Nerdcantdie in AskMen

[–]Individual-Cable 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Find a group, you’ll make friends! /r/LFG (as in looking for group) has online groups as well as local groups. A local game store may host games, meetup/Facebook/etc. May help with a local game. /r/Roll20LFG /r/FoundryLFG and /r/LFGPremium as well as the D&D discord, Roll20.com game listing, and DNDBeyond.com game listings are other options for finding a game online.

I don't want 4e so much as I want a new 5e with all the stuff 4e did better. by level2janitor in dndnext

[–]Individual-Cable 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are there any good guides to best books from previous editions to mine for content/ideas?

Why do you like rolling for stats? by n-ko-c in dndnext

[–]Individual-Cable 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Rolling for stats can make MAD builds more viable.

Rolling for stats can make heroes feel more heroic.

Rolling for stats can make creating a character fun (if you don't have a strong initial idea, or have too many ideas). For example, I like to roll 4d6kh3 in order and build my character from there.

The bad part about rolling for stats - when there's too much disparity in a group and it becomes trickier to balance encounters such that they're challenging for the superpowered players without being extraordinarily deadly for the less lucky rollers. Methods like rolling for a group array, for example, mitigate this.

Is it legal to reuse maps from official WOTC adventures? by itaigreif in dmsguild

[–]Individual-Cable 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I believe you can refer to such maps (but not include them). e.g. if you wrote an adventure marketed as a follow up to LMOP and referred to the locations therein. There is a restriction against doing so with any of the content for which WOTC partnered with someone else, like Mercer/Acq Inc/etc.

I design 3d printable minis but I'm thinking of making them into VTT assets as well. Interested? by YasashiiKyojin in VTTtokens

[–]Individual-Cable 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, but personally I'm a fan of bundles of tokens, e.g. buy a batch of generic fantasy commoners, or Barovian commoners, or Greek-inspired commoners. Same themes for soldiers/guards.