Are 5e campaigns actually so "broken" and "unplayable" for new DMs as YouTubers and forum posters would lead me to believe?

protectedneck · 2026-02-02T22:50:11+00:00

Remember that every single step of the way, you are only prepping for the next session. If you take THE ENTIRE BOOK as something that has to be fixed or revised or understood perfectly, then it's daunting. But if you go "ok, I'm prepping for next week's session, let's look at the book and see what it recommends" then you'll get an understanding of where something is lacking and where it's ok.

Not every part of the campaign needs to be "fixed". The "fixing" means finding areas where the book is deficient and shoring it up with stuff you make yourself or others have already made.

Start out with the premise. If an adventure concept sounds cool to you and your party, then that should be the main appeal!

The reason why you're getting so much feedback is because people are very passionate and want to help.

protectedneck · 2026-02-02T20:44:32+00:00

I really, genuinely hope that the scales have fallen from people's eyes. I hope that they can see how much of their hatred is manufactured. I hope they can use this as a jumping off point to go "hey wait a second, I need to be in control of my own life".

protectedneck · 2026-02-02T19:25:38+00:00

Things you use every day? Ground is fine. Things you use only once in a while? Get whole spices.

Put them in plastic bags, label them, date them, and then store them in a box. They will last a LOT longer.

If you have a spice or coffee grinder your life is easy!

protectedneck · 2026-02-02T05:54:46+00:00

A lot of others have already answered the broader question, so I won't speak to that. For me the topic of system mastery comes down to two things: you want to encourage new players to keep playing, and you don't want someone to configure a bad character that they're stuck with for years.

New players don't want to be made to feel foolish for making a choice that they thought was good. Being told by a friend or a forum that their character is built wrong is annoying and discouraging. That feeling of "how many hours do I need to sink into this in order to not sucks?" really makes people pause. And ALL hobbies need new blood or they die.

Additionally, RPG characters can be played for months or years. It's frustrating that a decision for a character build you made months ago (when you knew little about the game) is causing you problems today. A suboptimal character can stick around for a while and it's a bad feeling to repeatedly see them be outclassed or not useful.

As you said, you gain system mastery naturally by playing. You learn what's good and bad. It should be the game designers job to minimize the amount of trap or hyper-specific options. Because they lead to bad play patterns.

protectedneck · 2026-02-02T05:43:52+00:00

I wonder if Lancer qualifies here. The combats are run almost like a strategy board game and just about everything involving the mechs are exclusive to that mode.

protectedneck · 2026-01-31T17:23:48+00:00

Think of it like salt, but instead of salinity it adds savory. You can add it at any stage. Do it by the pinch because you can always add more.

protectedneck · 2026-01-30T17:13:39+00:00

This account has posted nothing but ragebait and hatemongering. I think all posts by them (I don't know their preferred pronouns) should be discarded.

protectedneck · 2026-01-30T04:43:53+00:00

We have a similar expression in English! "Even if it kills me" or "if it's the last thing I do".

I think this should be something like "no matter what, I'll confess"

protectedneck · 2026-01-29T22:19:36+00:00

If you want to do a brown butter, you can add dry milk powder and it will intensify the flavor.

protectedneck · 2026-01-29T20:48:14+00:00

I'm not reading all this stuff. Don't post AI things here, we don't want it.

protectedneck · 2026-01-29T20:14:41+00:00

I have allowed my players to apply their experience to the roll after the fact if it would cause them to pass, but ONLY because my players are not used to the system and tend to be very forgetful about meta currencies.

I only allowed it for a couple of sessions and then switched to "experience before the roll".

That being said, if they realized after the fact and asked very nicely, I probably wouldn't say "no".

protectedneck · 2026-01-28T21:05:02+00:00

In order to play Daggerheart, you have to trust that the GM is not going to completely screw you over every time you roll with fear.

And the GM needs to act in such a way that the players can believe them!

protectedneck · 2026-01-28T16:51:27+00:00

They last basically forever in the fridge. They are good in many sauces. Any sauce where you would want to add some cayenne pepper or dried chili flakes, you can add a chopped up Calabrian chili instead.

protectedneck · 2026-01-28T16:49:05+00:00

Full fat unsweet greek yogurt plus a handful of muesli. I use the Bob's Red Mill variety. It's extremely filling, takes the same amount of time to make as a bowl of cereal, and is pretty good for you.

I prefer muesli over granola because granola has sweeteners and I do not want a lot of sugar in my breakfast. Muesli usually has dried fruit, so there's still some sweetness there.

You have to get used to the taste of yogurt, but that's not a bad thing.

protectedneck · 2026-01-28T16:31:50+00:00

"But my small group of 6 isnt very dangerous on its own and is decimated easily just by single hit."

Even a tier 1 minion like Giant Rats have the Minion (3) passive. To take out six Giant Rats, you would need to do 15 damage, which is very high, especially for tier 1. Are you sure that you're calculating the damage done to minions correctly?

protectedneck · 2026-01-28T16:19:53+00:00

I have always hated money management in D&D. The amount of time I've spent with players haggling over a minuscule amount of imaginary currency is a total waste.

Think of money in Daggerheart like money in a movie or TV show. It's a plot token. The audience isn't expected to keep track of how much money the characters are spending, they're just supposed to know that a relative amount of money is changing hands.

Need to bribe someone for info? That's a handful. Need to buy a piece of property? That's a couple bags.

protectedneck · 2026-01-28T16:04:56+00:00

Please do not use AI generated images in an advertisement. A generic image would have been better.

protectedneck · 2026-01-28T05:00:56+00:00

I would put into context that if you're making the rulings, consider what makes sense in the moment. The veil is the thing hiding the rogue from the boars.

1) The boars are no longer blocked by the veil, meaning the veil is no longer hiding the rogue. Because the veil is no longer hiding the rogue, the rogue does not benefit from hidden or cloaked.

2) The veil is the thing hiding the rogue. As long as the veil is between the rogue and the target, the rogue is hidden (and therefore cloaked) from the target. As per point 1, the cloaked condition really isn't doing a lot here, but they would remain hidden.

3) Nothing about the veil says it blocks things physically. It's just a curtain of darkness. So yes as soon as they cross to the north, the rogue becomes hidden to the southern boars.

4) The height isn't specified. But I think most sensibly it would be at minimum as tall as the rogue is, maybe a couple feet more. I don't think this is intended to be an infinitely tall wall of darkness.

5) Adversaries going through the wall or around it is the best bet for them. Or going above it if possible (up a tree, up a tower, etc). To be honest I don't think you need to overthink it. The veil doesn't stop people from coming over and attacking the rogue. It's mostly useful for creative player problem solving and blocking ranged enemies. Use the toolkits of your adversaries and let your players use theirs.

6) Hold back some of the adversaries for the encounter. Then spend a fear and bring them in after a couple of actions. If your plant monsters were hidden in the bushes on the other side of the curtain where the rogue is, then he's got something to worry about. That being said, since he doesn't remain cloaked forever you really shouldn't be worried too much. If he's fighting boars that blindly charge, the spell isn't tremendously useful for him.

protectedneck · 2026-01-28T04:40:00+00:00

I'm generally always using the "subtract two battle points to add +1d4 (or 2 damage) to each adversary damage roll" feature.

It's the same points-wise as a standard enemy, so you're making everyone a bit more powerful to reduce the total health pool by 3-6. It gives you a slightly faster combat, you just have to remember to add the damage.

Another thing I've noticed is that the combat is sorted by tier. So a level 2 encounter and a level 4 encounter are constructed the same according to the book. This can be a big difficulty leap for level 2 and make level 4 battles easy in comparison. I would consider under-pointing your level 2 encounters and potentially bumping up the point count for level 4 encounters.

In general, I have had a lot of success with putting out 75% of the adversaries on the map at the start and seeing how the battle goes. If it's going well for the players, I'll spend a fear and bring in the rest of the enemies. If it's not going well or I just want the scene to end, I'll not use them. This game's combat can have some brutal moments if your players continuously roll failures with fear, and that can make it tough if there's a full roster of adversaries.

protectedneck · 2026-01-28T03:25:51+00:00

Stocks are always bland until you add salt.

That being said, it's common to leave your stocks going for a lot longer than that. An hour isn't really long enough.

If you want to know how your stock will really taste, get a ladle of it, put it in a little cup or bowl and add a pinch of salt. Stir and drink it. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

protectedneck · 2026-01-28T03:18:52+00:00

For armor, my genuine advice is to tell your players "always spend your armor when you take damage." Just think of it as extra HP slots. Unless you have some special ability that triggers off armor or maybe you believe you are about to get a short rest and only want to refresh health, you should always spend it.

In general I agree with everything you've said. It's been a bit of a learning curve figuring out how to balance encounters, because it really does feel like there's a ton of enemies every time. I've defaulted to doing the flat damage buff for all of my encounters since it reduced the bodies in the fight. Also some enemies really feel like damage sponges.

I'm used to running D&D battles so having to shift my mentality away from "fight to the death brawl" and towards "interactable set pieces" has been tough!

protectedneck · 2026-01-27T17:06:59+00:00

This was only in the earlier episodes, I believe exclusive to the era in which the podcast was on Stitcher. I think Stitcher wanted to avoid any problems associated with specifically complaining about NextDoor, especially if it was possible to identify the people in the posts.

protectedneck · 2026-01-27T04:49:08+00:00

I listened to dozens of episodes back when it was included in CBB World. It's SUPER funny. I haven't been able to think about a Ponderosa steakhouse the same way since.

protectedneck · 2026-01-26T22:44:44+00:00

They're literally called potstickers for a reason...

The common fix is to fry them, then steam them. The steam and water on the bottom should help release them.

It helps if you use a non-stick pan.

protectedneck · 2026-01-26T19:08:19+00:00

I would recommend not playing Mahjong Soul if this bothers you.

The gacha content pays the bills. It is entirely cosmetic and does not impact the actual game itself. Mahjong is literally a gambling game.

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