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Q&A

General Q&A about playing or creating role-playing games. All human-mediated games, tabletop or virtual tabletop, are welcome.

50%
+1 −1
What Dungeons & Dragons content has been released under a CC license?

Wizards of the Coast recently announced via DnDBeyond that they are releasing the "SRD 5.1" under a Creative Commons license. Within the announcement itself, they linked to a 403-page PDF that appa...

1 answer  ·  posted 10h ago by Mithical‭  ·  last activity 17m ago by Cereal Nommer‭

71%
+3 −0
How to handle time when a separated party member enters combat alone?

Several party members are in a dungeon together, but one party member has (perhaps foolishly) run off by themselves, and is now separated from the rest of the party by several hundred feet. This so...

1 answer  ·  posted 13d ago by InfiniteDissent‭  ·  last activity 12d ago by tommi‭

60%
+1 −0
Were V:tM rules intentionally badly designed?

Rumours tell that Vampire: the masquarade was designed with purpose to be a trainwreck when it comes to the mechanics, so that people would not use them. Was this really the case and what evidence...

0 answers  ·  posted 4mo ago by tommi‭

60%
+1 −0
Did Mentzer and Gygax play together?

Did Gary Gygax and Frank Mentzer play together in one more sessions of D&amp;D (or some other roleplaying game)? They worked at TSR and co-authored D&amp;D products. One would expect one of them t...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by tommi‭  ·  last activity 4mo ago by Strider‭

77%
+5 −0
How to survive the spectrepocalypse?

In D&amp;D 3 (and related games), a spcetre can easily kill normal people and spawns other spectres, leading to an exponential apocalypse fairly easily. What reliable means of long-term protection...

0 answers  ·  posted 6mo ago by tommi‭

75%
+4 −0
How can I make a game of D&D5e playable in a Sabbath-observing environment?

Being a person with some semblance of a real life, and the same applying to my players, I often find myself in the position of only having several hours of free time on Saturday - Shabbat (the Sabb...

0 answers  ·  posted 6mo ago by Mithical‭

71%
+3 −0
What does «GM mystery cult» mean and where does it come from?

As far as I understand, the term is sporadically used in the indie community or former Forge diaspora. I searched for it in the Forge archives, but got no hits. What is the source of the term and ...

1 answer  ·  posted 8mo ago by tommi‭  ·  last activity 8mo ago by dsr‭

81%
+7 −0
When did "sandbox" come to prominence as a piece of jargon?

When did "sandbox" become a popular term in rpg discourse? It has been suggested to me that it came from computer games to roleplaying. Was this the case and when did this happen? This thread at ...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by tommi‭  ·  last activity 9mo ago by James McLellan‭

66%
+2 −0
Does a Wizard automatically know how to craft scrolls from known spells?

In the DMG (p. 128) it is stated that to craft a magical item during downtime, a character must have a formula that describes the construction of the item. However, it does not give any more ...

2 answers  ·  posted 10mo ago by InfiniteDissent‭  ·  last activity 10mo ago by Cereal Nommer‭

81%
+7 −0
How can I organize my DM notes in such a way that I have access to necessary information but not too much?

I have a lot of things I need to keep track of for a game: NPCs, monsters, the different cities in the world, the lore and history of the world... Of course, I'm unlikely to need to know the name ...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by Mithical‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by dsr‭

62%
+3 −1
Do you incur the Wish penalties for using Wish for one of the alternative uses outlined in the PHB?

Wish is the most powerful spell in D&amp;D, being able to alter the very foundations of reality with one spell. The description for use of the Wish spell in the Player's Handbook is this: The b...

2 answers  ·  posted 1y ago by Mithical‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by Fie‭

71%
+3 −0
(How) Can PCs use the frosty orb of a one-eyed shiver?

The players in a Princes of the Apocalypse campaign I'm DMing have just defeated Morbeoth, a one-eyed shiver in the Crushing Wave cult. One player saw the magical orb he had in his eye socket and i...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by Cereal Nommer‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by dsr‭

75%
+4 −0
Arcane Armor clarification

The Armorer subclass of the Artificer has this cool ability relating to armor: Beginning at 3rd level, your metallurgical pursuits have led to you making armor a conduit for your magic. As an ac...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by Quintec‭  ·  edited 1y ago by Cereal Nommer‭

71%
+3 −0
In Call of Cthulhu, what's best practice for requiring skill checks when there's uncertainty about which skill would be required?

Looking at the Call of Cthulhu 7E character sheet, I see two "investigator skills" that look very similar to me: "Elec Repair" and "Mech Repair". One is short for Electrical Repair, the other for M...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by Mithical‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by dsr‭

62%
+3 −1
How can I make the Wild Magic Sorcerer subclass more fun in a non-combat-heavy campaign?

In my current 5e campaign that I'm a player in, I'm playing as a Wild Magic Sorcerer. The main attraction of the Wild Magic subclass is the Wild Magic Table, which is a list of 50 random magical ef...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by Mithical‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by Mithical‭

77%
+5 −0
How do I ensure that character death is impactful at higher levels?

In Fifth Edition Dungeons &amp; Dragons, there are several spells available to Player Characters that allow them to resurrect dead PCs or NPCs. These include Revivify, Resurrection, True Resurrecti...

4 answers  ·  posted 1y ago by Mithical‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by Lundin‭

66%
+2 −0
Fighting fantasy rpg and CYOA books

To my understanding, the Fighting fantasy rpg (and Troika! as a more-or-less retroclone) use the same rule system as the choose your own adventure gamebooks of Steve Jackson, Warlock of firetop mou...

0 answers  ·  posted 1y ago by tommi‭

80%
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How important are Sorcerer supplements when running the game for the first time?

Sorcerer has a number of supplements: Sorcerer and sword, Sex and sorcery and Sorcerer's soul, if I remember the names correctly. How relevant are they when running the game for the first time? Is...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by tommi‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by tommi‭

75%
+4 −0
History of Wizards of the coast's forums

The first online rpg community I found, after Johnn Four's gamemastering tips email newsletter, was the forum hosted by Wizards of the coast. This was certainly after the publication of D&amp;D 3 a...

0 answers  ·  posted 1y ago by tommi‭

75%
+4 −0
What and how major are the changes from Apocalypse world first edition to second edition?

Some games, like Call of Cthulhu, have remained pretty much the same from edition to the next (except the newest edition, which has significant changes), while for other games, like D&amp;D the dif...

0 answers  ·  posted 1y ago by tommi‭  ·  edited 1y ago by Cereal Nommer‭

71%
+3 −0
How do I ensure a game is immersive when playing remotely?

I was planning on DMing a RPG - specifically, D&amp;D 5e, although this question applies to a broader audience - in person for at least the first session, after which the plan was to switch to a re...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by Mithical‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by Cereal Nommer‭

75%
+4 −0
How to determine the target(s) of Catapult?

In the D&amp;D 5th Edition Player's Handbook Spellcasting section, under Casting a Spell, we find a loose definition of "target" for spells. A typical spell requires you to pick one or more targ...

2 answers  ·  posted 1y ago by Cereal Nommer‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by Dana‭

28%
+0 −3
Merlin picking a spy in hammer of first mission

This question is about the role playing game The Resistance and in particular one of the versions of the game which is the most popular version Avalon. Suppose we are in the first mission , last r...

0 answers  ·  posted 1y ago by MissMulan‭

85%
+10 −0
"You found a cursed ring!" How do I let the player roleplay it without spilling the beans to everyone prematurely?

In a game I was running, a player tripped a magical effect that would alter his behavior (failed save against compulsion magic). I took the player aside to explain, out of game, what had happened ...

3 answers  ·  posted 1y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by curryandanahn‭

77%
+5 −0
How to find out the purpose of play of a con game?

In a con game, or other one-shot with strangers, I often meet the problem that I don't really know how the game master and the other players are going to approach the game, or would like me to do t...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by tommi‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by dsr‭

81%
+7 −0
What kinds of encounters besides for combat can I include in a game?

I'm looking at starting to DM a game in the near future, and I'm trying to prepare myself as best as possible (I've only played as a player one time, so I'm not the most experienced RPG player out ...

4 answers  ·  posted 1y ago by Mithical‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by tommi‭

75%
+4 −0
What kind of attack bonus does a level 1 sorcerer have with a light crossbow in D&D 5e?

While teaching my siblings the basics of D&amp;D, one of them decided to create, as a first character, a Dragonborn Sorcerer. One of the Sorcerer's proficiencies is with light crossbows, and is par...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by Mithical‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by DonielF‭

85%
+10 −0
How do I make sure I'm not cutting into other people's RP time as a player?

As a player, I enjoy the role-playing part of a game more than combat. My style of playing will often include wisecracks, quips, and other "witty" remarks directed at both other players and NPCs. ...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by Mithical‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by Monica Cellio‭

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