Recent content by Paul Farquhar

From my time as a research assistant, Ruffalo’s Banner in line with a good many scientists I knew at the time. Humorous, witty, sardonic and unassuming. But I agree that he lacks that kernel of suppressed anger that someone with the Hulk inside should have.

Whenever the players are not having fun the DM is wrong.

Yes, sure. Improv theatre is an important part of D&D, always was. What you are doing wrong is pushing everything to extremes. It’s not 100% this or 100% that. It’s a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and a little bit of the other.

They may. One of the reasons for doing the card based stuff is to give people a reason to buy physical copies, rather than digital (printing stuff out as needed). Remember WotC's other line is selling printed cards for a card game. And if WotC don't 3PP can (so long as they remember to leave...

Waterstones had Icespire Peak in stock as of last week. Didn't see essentials kit, but they had it fairly recently.

This is your culture. It has nothing to do with either your physical appearance or your abilities. You wouldn’t write half-German on your character sheet, and I’m sure no one would be able to tell by your appearance. It would be like me writing “Scouser” on my character sheet. Or push it back...

It wouldn’t add anything, because alignment has no gameplay effect. No it isn’t, it has no mechanical effect whatsoever. And, as pointed out, many official stat blocks do not include alignment. The adventures are "inconsistent" because they are all written by different people, who play D&D in...

Don’t even need to say anything. A decent DM pays attention to the emotional responses of the players, and will notice when a player is unhappy and make adjustments without them needing to say anything.

I think some people believe everyone in the world is chaotic evil. But if you believe that, you have already lost. As you imply, I’d doesn’t matter if the rules are explicit, because Dick Dastardly isn’t going to follow them anyway.

It’s not “without qualification” though. The DM has responsibilities. Such as being fair, listening to players, making sure everyone feels included, etc. Pretty much all games make that clear. And even if they didn’t, it’s just a matter of common sense.

Yeah, that’s my point, it’s a social contract. It doesn’t matter what type of game you play, there is still a social contract between all participants to play in a way that everyone enjoys. Quite. Some players prefer a more structured game. That raises the question: how do you handle...

This is entirely possible. I don’t take anecdotes as representative of anything general, and I know my players are inclined to get silly. Which is why it helps to have someone that keeps them grounded in the fictional world. What I’m really pointing at, is what I suspect to be the case: it’s a...

I’m just looking for someone to explain why that shouldn’t happen, to which no one seems to be able to give me an answer. The DM.

Andor seems to have been picked up by ITV in the UK!? I don’t think any Disney+ show has been picked up before.

Rural folk tend to talk more slowly than urban folk in the UK too. And that often causes urban folk to assume they are not as smart.