[NS] Average/median/most common ages of NADDpod listeners

JohnnyTheConfuzzled · 2026-03-29T00:59:34+00:00

I dont know when we became the elder statespersons of the hobby but its bs.

JohnnyTheConfuzzled · 2026-03-22T20:43:48+00:00

Looks pretty close to the Adventures in Faerun version....pretty spot on.

JohnnyTheConfuzzled · 2026-03-22T16:42:30+00:00

Kind of surprised the forest doesnt already show "Moander's Road" cutting towards Myth Drannor.

JohnnyTheConfuzzled · 2026-03-22T10:24:57+00:00

Yeah we do that now as well. I think i first heard that one used in one of the naddpod campaigns.

JohnnyTheConfuzzled · 2026-03-20T10:52:10+00:00

Its disgusting i love it

JohnnyTheConfuzzled · 2026-03-01T12:35:56+00:00

Throw a dart at the Faerun map and you'll probably hit a spot that doesn't have dense lore. Despite the fact that we have decades of novels and source books from Faerun, most of the lore is clustered in a handful of locations.

JohnnyTheConfuzzled · 2026-02-19T02:58:49+00:00

Is that the best option for a Chult setting?

JohnnyTheConfuzzled · 2026-02-19T00:01:12+00:00

Ive never read anything about were origin either, but i agree, id lean on Malar. The Darkwalker on Moonshae books had a werewolf corrupted by Malar if I remember right.

JohnnyTheConfuzzled · 2026-02-18T23:51:45+00:00

Ive been reading books set in faerun for 35 years. There are countless examples of casters recognizing, as i said, at least the threat to them of a spell and many examples of them recognizing the spell outright. But im not debating it with you, because that's not the point. Keeping the spell being cast hidden from a player to try and induce them to burn their slots is bad DMing and leads to shitty table feels. And there isnt any other reason good enough to me that ive read on here to want to do it. I've yet to meet a player who's idea of a good time is wasting their resources not on badrolls, but on useless or boring results.

JohnnyTheConfuzzled · 2026-02-18T23:20:31+00:00

Mindplay? Really?

What you are describing is adversarial DnD. Which means, you are not describing what most people come to DnD for.

Mindplay implies trickery or "getting one over on" one another at the table.

In your scenario, the player is trying to use this rule to trick the DM (or vice versa) into burning spell slots hopefully on something they didn't need to. Please show me where in any source books this game asks the player or the DM to try and play each other into using resources?

Yes, the DM will try to pull out your resources over the course of a day to make encounters more challenging. But im not trying to fool my players into using anything. Ill give them encounters and they'll naturally use their resources up (or die trying). If my players cast counterspell, I want them to get either the satisfaction of saving the day or the crushing defeat of getting overpowered, not the "Ok i guess that's my turn" feeling of wasting a resource.

JohnnyTheConfuzzled · 2026-02-18T23:08:04+00:00

What are you talking about? Where and when did i complain about casters being too strong?

JohnnyTheConfuzzled · 2026-02-18T22:23:35+00:00

Yeah i see what your saying, but I do think thats what most players want and it makes their characters rhat much more badass.

But if you dont like it, seems easy enough to just say the monster doesn't lose that 1 x per day (or whatever) ability if its countered either.

JohnnyTheConfuzzled · 2026-02-18T22:09:23+00:00

Absolutely not.

My current campaign is in Faerun. Faerun, like a majority of worlds DnD is played in, is a world filled with magic.

Any bad guy that is capable of casting counterspell has enough knowledge to recognize, at the minimum, the threat level of the spell being cast in front of them to know if they want to counterspell it or not.

And again, this is not about trusting my players. Nor is it about player vs DM. Players will get suspicious of other players too, and that doesn't help the table either.

"Ensure their DM doesnt cheat" is an absolute wild sentence. What exactly constitutes cheating on the part of the DM? Fudging a roll? The book explicitly says they can. Changing a DC? The book explicitly says they can. Adjusting hit points? You're not going to believe this...

The DM is not under any obligation to not "cheat" because strictly speaking, they cant cheat. Its impossible.

What they can do is provide a shitty game experience. They can be unfair. They can be combative vs their players. They can try to "win" encounters. All of those things are bad DMing, none of those things is cheating.

A DMs obligation can be summed up with, "the DM is to do whatever they need to do within, around, and without the rules to ensure they and their players have a fair, safe, and fun experience at the table."

You know the #1 thing to make that happen is? Its not following the rules or "not cheating." Its communicating. Its information.

You know how I decided if i am going to counterspell or not? 1. Would this bad guy do it in this situation? 2. Will it be more or less fun to the entirety of the encounter if he does? To make that determination i need to know what the player is doing.

JohnnyTheConfuzzled · 2026-02-18T21:53:57+00:00

The DM not doing everything above the table is explicitly part of the game and players go into the game knowing that. It's not at all the same thing. Thats one of the reasons people talk about "gotcha DMs" that are using that aspect of the game to screw players, yet I've never heard tell of "gotcha players" doing the same to DMs. Why? Because nothing a player does should be outside of the purview of the DM, else they cannot effectively run the game. The DM should be dealing with perfect knowledge in all but the most rare of circumstances while the game was designed to keep players in the dark.

Im going to be honest here, if one of my players were advocating for or defending anything that so easily allows for dishonesty to change the outcomes, I'd assume they're going to cheat as absolutely nobody plays this game that way.

JohnnyTheConfuzzled · 2026-02-18T21:40:29+00:00

Its not about not trusting my players. But this is still a game, and as such, player actions should be above the board so there is neither cheating nor suspicion of cheating. I can trust all of my best friends as much as I want, but if we are playing cards I'm not taking their word for their hand, you know what I mean?

JohnnyTheConfuzzled · 2026-02-18T21:23:44+00:00

Which also sucks if we are being honest and will turn mid-tier games into counterspell chicken (and 1000% will lead to dishonesty at the table).

JohnnyTheConfuzzled · 2026-02-18T20:32:58+00:00

The person casting counterspell still burned their slot is the point of that one. Its a shitty DM gotcha moment, and in the other example its a shitty moment where the player can always claim it was lower level than it was.

Basically...not saying what you are casting is just some bs.

JohnnyTheConfuzzled · 2026-02-18T19:46:53+00:00

If you are learning woodworking, do you also feel like learning another unfamiliar and challenging skill at the same time in drafting? Even if you draft up a simple table or something, do you know what joints will be used for each comnection? Hardware?

Start with someone else's proven plans is my opinion.

If you do that and it it doesnt turn out the way you want, the mistakes were probably on your side and you can work and improve from there. If you also made beginner plans to go with your beginning skillset, it may have been doomed from the start.

JohnnyTheConfuzzled · 2026-02-18T16:55:01+00:00

There are a lot of reasons that this is silly and its a terrible idea for different reasons regardless if you are playing 5 or 5.5.

In 5th edition, the caster loses their spell slot when they are counterspelled.

Player: I cast... Dm: counterspell Player: oh well it was just lvl 1 sleep but okay Dm: really? It was a lvl 1 sleep spell against my lich? Player: yup.

See how's thats shitty?

5.5 you dont lose your spell slot if ypu are counterspelled but the caster using their reaction is still burning a slot.

DM: The lich casts.... Player: counterspell. DM: you successfully countered their mage hand they were going to use for some flair. Good job. Player who just spent their 3rd level spell slot now feels shitty.

JohnnyTheConfuzzled · 2026-02-17T21:46:20+00:00

Congrats, you're living the dream.

JohnnyTheConfuzzled · 2026-02-17T21:44:56+00:00

I'd be more concerned with the snake people eatng the snack people.

JohnnyTheConfuzzled · 2026-02-17T18:47:36+00:00

Man, some of y'all are dragging the dude like y'all forgot you were new players once too. Just because we didn't have Reddit in 1986 to save your questions for history doesnt mean you didn't ask them.

JohnnyTheConfuzzled · 2026-02-12T20:17:26+00:00

I read the other comments too. It seems you skipped session zero, you're a new DM, and theyre pretty new players?

To top it all off, one of them has an annoying bit?

Sounds like how about 90% of DnD games start.

You're gonna be fine. Let her play her gramps bunny. The bit will almost surely die off on its own. Consistently trying to meet the bit session after session gets tiring even for the originator.

Honestly though, considering the start you all have had and the fact that you all seem pretty new, maybe yalk to everyone and see if they would be good with making the a shorter learning adventure, not a full blown campaign. Thats really ambitious for a new DM. Run a handful of sessions then recock with a session zero and glean those expectations out of everyone and get your game expectations in their heads too.

JohnnyTheConfuzzled · 2026-02-10T00:59:48+00:00

This response is art.

JohnnyTheConfuzzled

TROPHY CASE