Spotting A Wildshape

Having a druid turn into a mouse and scout out an area is fine, but it can make for difficult DM calls.

If you make the mouse roll a stealth check, and they fail, do you just decide that every person has a mouse aversion and freaks out. Even if it is somewhere mouse would reasonably be? That might seem unfair to the druid, or unrealistic for you, so here's a proposed solution:

What makes their wildshape look different from a regular beast?

Decide that in your sessions 0. Perhaps the animal of a wildfire druid has heat waves coming off it, or is covered in soot?

A moon druids shape always has the sharp teeth of a carnivore, or eyes like a full moon.

When a wildshape fails their stealth then in a place it would be reasonable for them to be in, that's what the person notices.

serious d&d DM question, how do I tell a player that they are acting more like a co-DM/DM than a player and its not working for the campaign. (Explanation under cut) Any advice would be appreciated.

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So I am currently running a dnd campaign and one player refuses to share their character backstory with me or anything else that they want to incorporate into the story, which prevents me from adding it to the story like they want. So when it comes up in a session they interrupt me to take the story-telling reins for themself, effectively stopping me and the other players from continuing with establishing plot together. And its annoying me (And other players) a lot because I know nothing of their plans and in the past when I've told them that certain things couldn't work because of plot I've already established, they have gotten angry at me.

Most recently they have been setting up something (A trap or monster? I'm honestly not quite sure) within a house they are staying at in game (They have told me nothing of this prior and interrupted me during game to explain what would happen) and they expect me to go along with it when I have expressed that when they interrupt me and try and bring the players on their own side plot is not a cooperative playing style. This player has also attempted to leave the party several times already which everyone has expressed displeasure over.

I don't know how to approach the topic with them gently (I'm not very good with tone) and am not sure how they would react if I told them flat out. I feel a little out of options, advice is welcome.

Help TTRPG community!

I'm a small DM looking for alternatives to character sheet management from DND Beyond as I am planning on cancelling my subscription due to the OGL nonsense.

Changing systems is out of the question for the game we are running, so I would rather focus on minimizing giving Wizards money.

The qualities that are most important to me and my players are:

ease of use (i have first time players in my group)

Ability to easily add custom items with stats

Custom feats and abilities

spellbook

dm access/editing for party character sheets

works on both mac and windows

Hey, Monster of the Week players!

The Pararomantic guide book has a move where one of the options a player can choose is "receive a gift from your Guide" after you spend quality time with them.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with this particular mechanic? I'm a Keeper and one of my players chose to do this. I have an idea of what the gift will be, but I'm not sure what to make it do, mechanically. Any ideas? Anything you've done or received as keepers/players that went well? I want it to be rewarding for my player.

Any advice is helpful! And don't be afraid to give me ideas even if you haven't played MotW, but have experience with TTRPGs in general. Thanks!

How do you run a combat encounter with a group being split. Last session I(the DM) had to run a combat encounter for my group when the party was split over half a mile of ground.

Should you do group A's combat and then group B's combat or should you try doing both at the same time. I tried both at the same time because it sounded smart but it was hell to manage.

As always love your work

This is a really good question, and a situation I’ve found myself in quite a few times as well. Obviously it depends on what works best for your group size and personal style of DMing, but here are some ways I try to handle these tricky combat scenarios

1. The Domino Effect: Consider the enemies that your separated groups are fighting, and start with the group whose enemy is the weakest and/or whose fight will take the least amount of time. Run through the encounter until either A. the enemy is defeated, at which point the players can either rejoin the other group and help in the next fight or continue doing whatever it was they were doing before the encounter started or B. The players go down. If this happens I generally switch to one of the other groups and either allow them to run through their encounter or I give a convenient plot related excuse for one of the players (usually the healer) to escape their fight and save their downed teammates. (Of course if you’re playing in a more ruthless campaign this might feel like a bit of a cop out.) While one group is fighting, those not involved can take this time as a break (especially if you’ve been playing for a while) to get up and stretch, use the restroom, or just check their phones for a bit.

2. The Tennis Game: This method generally involves switching between encounters after a round (or a few) of combat. This method relies pretty heavily on the DM to not only keep track of both enemy stats in various encounters and the players level of entertainment. For my players I usually switch between encounters after 2 rounds of combat or I feel the other group is getting antsy to play again. This method works best for smaller groups with enemies that are similarly leveled or your players have relatively low attention spans (like mine). Like I said before, this method relies pretty heavily on the DM keeping track of fight details for the groups, so it can be very taxing if the fights go on too long.

3. The “How’re They Gonna Know?”Method: This is personally my favorite and most used method in my current game, because no matter how many times I tell them not to, my group always splits the party in the most inconvenient places. This method basically revolves around either giving the separated parties incentive to regroup then trigger the fight (loot, plot, etc.) or if that fails only allowing one of the groups to start an encounter so the other players can rejoin them as back-up. Of course, this method also has its issues (mainly that the players can also initiate combat) if both groups have decided they want to start combat still separated, I refer to the two previous methods. Otherwise. unless it’s for plot, or just the general vibe of the game, I’ll only initiate combat on one group at a time.

So these are my most common methods for dealing with split encounters, certainly not perfect by any means but they work for me. And don’t be afraid to mix and match the methods, if you start out with one, but your players aren’t feeling it, don’t be afraid to switch back and forth as needed. And don’t forget, you’re a player too! And if you have issues with the split party encounters don’t be afraid to talk to your players about it. The best conversation is an open one after all and you deserve to have fun too!

fellow DMs I have a question. how do you guys deal with it when it feels like half your players don’t care about the campaign or making it to games?

players dni

(looking for ideas for an encounter)

so in my current arc, I want to do a final battle that is just a "survive for 10 rounds" type thing. The crux of it is, is that there is a spell going off that has inadvertently summoned a space worm (eldrich bbeg for later). The wizard who cast the spell needs to keep up concentration while the party holds off the worm and its minions for the duration. The setting is on top of a skyscraper, in the equivalent of the 1920s. My need for help is what are some good lair-action-like complications to happen during the 10-round combat? I want this to be very deadly, and it's a high-level party, so don't hold back.

Things i have so far are: -the building crumpling, the no1 thing to manage as if the building goes down, the spell is canceled, and very bad things happen.

-the worm picking up and throwing PCs off of the roof

-third parties getting involved on the side of the worm and/or against the mage

I feel like I need like one more major setpiece for the 5th round to keep things spicy, but I'm pulling a bit of a blank. Any ideas would be great thanks!

im a dm and I need steeds that you can ride through the snow please help this is where im at rn

Gotta ask about One D&D

The change from "race" to "species". I understand why they want to get rid of the term "race" in the game, I get that it is a charged term, and the discussion around this term in the real world these days gets pretty ugly. I understand that it can be triggering to people that need to deal with that shit all day, and want to unwind with a fun little TTRPG, but oh here you gotta think about race again, the nightmare never stops. So i am not against removing the term "race" from the game rules. But to my mind, the change to "species" feels terrible, and more insidious. It reminds me of those colonial scientists that robbed graves and examined skulls to prove that all those other people in places they colonized were a different species of human, and it was okay to exterminate/enslave/subjugate them. I know that's a stretch, but species to me is a hardline seperation, it sounds too scientifict for a fantasy game. It sounds like people trying to find a scientific justification for their hatred towards other groups of people. I also think "ancestry" would be a much better term, especially for a fantasy game. It sounds more fantastical, and it implies a cultural difference, rather than a genetic one. Feel free to tell me if I'm talking crazy, but I need to share this, i just want to know if I'm being irrational in my gut response or if I'm onto something. Thank you

true dnd

Did I write this before?

EVERY RANDOM ENCOUNTER TABLE NEEDS AT LEAST ONE DRAGON ENTRY. GIVE IT A NAME, IT IS A SPECIFIC DRAGON.

EVERY DUNGEON NEEDS AT LEAST ONE DRAGON. A DIFFERENT SPECIFIC DRAGON. GIVE IT A PERSONALITY.

EVERY WILDERNESS AREA NEEDS AT LEAST ONE DUNGEON.

EVERY CITY NEEDS AT LEAST ONE DUNGEON WITH MULTIPLE FLOORS AND ENTRANCES.

People talk about correct way to play D&D and they are all wrong this is literally all you need to be playing TRVE DONJONS AMPERSAND DRAGONS. But if you don't have it you're not a poser or anything you're just basically plugged into Plato's allegory of the matrix and this is the bit where I just woke you up to the truth you're welcome.

Does anyone have any tips on how to run initiative with large groups of attackers? I have a party of 6, and I want them to fight a herd of 14 monsters, but that combat seems.....bleh

Hey everyone!

A lot of our mods have been struggling with issues lately and we've been late posting Twice, so post day is being moved to saturday. Last day to vote is still Wednesday.

As an apology take this random fantasy setting generator courtesy of head mod saph (@cryptidkittii ):

Go ham. You can use it for ttrpgs or books or just silly shit. Also I'd appreciate suggestions for more genres, themes n gimmicks to spice it up a bit

Declutter Tumblr

The new layout it a whole mess. Thankfully Xkit can already help with a bunch of this! I'm sure it'll give more options soon.

Vanilla Tumblr:

(I have marked in red what can be removed. The tabs can be set not to stick, so you will really only see them at the top of your dash. Empty box on the left for hidden notifications and shop sparkle, i just didn't have any. I'm EU so no Live for me).

Xkit Rewritten Tumblr:

The settings I use:

How do you go about calculating loot for encounters and from chests?

For example, a Hill Giant for a group of three lv2-3 players?

haven't DMed in a bit + homebrew world so uh. if anyone has any tips for a dude going into his first Big Campaign as a DM I'd appreciate them!!

Sobbing uncontrollably reading through a dissertation about the college experience of students with ADHD. It is like reading a report about my life that just says over and over "My experiences are real. My hardships are real. I am not lazy, I am not dumb. My struggles were not my fault, and they were not a moral failing. The failure was with the system, not with me."

Here's a line that got me in particular:

"Hotez et al.(2022) compared the health, academic, and non-academic capacities of a nationally representative sample of U.S. first-year college students with ADHD and without ADHD. Students with ADHD self-reported lower academic aspirations and more feelings of depression and overwhelm, ranking themselves lower in their general emotional health. The fact that students with ADHD scored in the highest 10th percentile for many non-academic traits, such as artistic ability, computer skills, creativity, public speaking, social confidence, self-understanding and understanding of others, compassion, and risk-tasking, suggests that this population has strengths that are frequently underappreciated in academia."

(the paper is a thesis called "Understanding the Collegiate Experience for Students With ADHD" by Gia Long, 2022)