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I often fall back on the exhaustion track to simulate deteriorating conditions in my houserules. They’re conveniently built in the system and the penalties stack in a not-too-punishing death-spiral. By RAW they’re a bit too hard to get rid of if exhaustion levels are to be handed out more...

I think what bugs me is that of those 50% who survived the 50-foot fall IRL, I bet that not many were fully capable of functioning unimpeded immediately after. I'm sure there's a bunch of cases where the person got up and walked home with nothing but a bruise, but these are probably...

There's so much to unpack just in that little bit of a sentence here...

But the thing is, they didn’t fall into the lava. They made sure they wouldn’t because that would be game over. The audience wouldn’t accept obi-wan falling neck-deep in the lava river and climbing back up, brushing the slag off his shoulder with the back of his hand, only to keep fighting...

That’s what I tend to do. The most extreme the situation, the more « creative » I tend to be in my description as a DM. However for many players, the description doesn’t match the consequence. Me: the dragon throws you in the lava, you take 10d10 as you hopscotch your way back on solid slag /...

I’ll give this a go too. I’ll try to keep it brief… Started by playing live-action roleplaying games (larp). Then my friends invited me to this tabletop game that was like a larp but without the « live action » part of larp. Turned out to be (A)D&D, with 2E fresh out the presses. I played at...

Yes, most of the « but this shatters my suspension of disbelief!!! » situations happen past level 5 when characters have a comfy cushion of hp

I disagree; things don't need to be realistic to help our brain making enough sense of a situation to keep voluntary suspension of disbelief. When i get close to a very hot fire, I can resist better if i shield my face with my hand. a bigger shield protects me from more heat. That I know...

That is where I disagree though. You can say you raised your shield. You can say you buried your face in your elbow. Heck, you can even say you just turned you back to the breath. Whether this is realistic is mostly irrelevant; you brought a narrative element to help make sense to the situation...

Agreed on the last part. I still believe we have less narrative tools for survival of extreme events, but they are there. I’d even say that the more extreme the event, the more they become important.

In most cases, we can easily imagine a way to protect ourselves from attacks, whether it’s a dodge or blocking or somehow shielding yourself from damage. Part of that is based on our real-life experience, part of it from stories/movies. It’s a lot harder to imagine protecting yourself from lava...

im conflicted about that. One one hand, I’m fine that fall damage and lava are not what kills your PC, because it’s a bit lame to die from falling down the stairs, no matter how realistic or not. On the other hand, falling 50ft or in lava is something your character would be afraid of, or at...

Honestly, I’m less concerned about how one can survive a 200-foot fall than how negligible damage a 20-fall is in D&D.

Quickleaf: "They have square beards!" Personally, i can't get past its perfect gentleman's mustache!

I like the current setting and I think it's very close to my ideal: the 12 current base classes plus (potentially) 1 additional class per setting, like Eberron having artificers.

BPS damage? Gone! It’s weapon damage and that’s all there is. Skeletons can have their own special cases where arrows deal half and maces deal double. Spears and quarterstaves deal regular damage like swords, but big axes act like mauls in that case. XP? Gone! Levelling by chapter, with...

I left in the late days of 3.5 when I felt the system was getting bloated and getting too heavy for my taste. Playing PHB-only helped but there was definitive fatigue. I waited in anticipation for 4e but was turned off by the presentation and linguistics (also, it looked like it had even more...

As much as I hate to admit it, that’s how 5e makes it work best. My my ideal ranger would have low-key magic or talents that borderlines the supernatural, without being overtly or blatantly magical. I’d rather give them a choice of abilities within a list rather than impose abilities at set...

Meh, I like the nondescript, subtle, not-quite-human-but-could-fool-you aasimar. I preferred pre-4e Tieflings too for that matter. 2e AD&D aasimars and Tieflings were best, partially because they were more relatable. I know a lot of people are like « yawn, another fancy human or elf race »...

Ranger is the outdoors-y, self-dependant, resourceful skirmisher. The rogue has warrior-ized significantly since 1e thief, but the ranger still possess as much conceptual identity as paladin and sorcerer vis-à-vis their cleric and wizard counterparts. Paladin does a better job of distinguishing...