Recent content by Shiroiken

It's hard for players to know if a DM uses a Quantum Ogre, because some DMs like myself design different encounters based on the decision. My party recently chose to take a sea voyage, rather than make the trek through dangerous hills and mountains. They encountered some challenges at the...

Party Order often depends on the situation. Traveling overland, I usually choose who goes where based on the travel actions (navigator up front, foraging lagging behind), putting them reasonably close to each other (within 20 ft or so). In a dungeon or other constrained location, the party order...

I think it's a fine setting, it's just not my cup of tea. I've played in a couple of Dark Sun campaigns and had a lot of fun. As a DM, however, there's too many issue for me. While I'm okay with wilderness survival as a theme, I don't feel that D&D does such a great job of it due to magic...

Longtime DM and player. I run alternating weeks, while another DM runs the opposite. It's nice, since it allows me to enjoy being a player as well.

I find it really depends on the player. My current Warlock player is an amateur author, who always includes plot hooks in her backstories in the hopes that they'll become relevant. While not integral to the overall plot (which is still under construction), I've an entire subplot going on related...

Standard D&D adventure... home invasion for fun and profit.

I tend to start campaigns at level 1, but see the advantage of starting at level 3. I've also run Vecna: Eve of Ruin, which starts at level 10.

I feel it comes down to style of play. Control spells are overall more powerful than damage spells, but due to the limitation of concentration, control spells seldom solve problems entirely on their own (although your allies can often provide the damage necessary). Fireball is among the top tier...

Depends on the edition, but since you mention the word "background" specifically, I'll assume 5E. In 2014 rules, you can custom make your own background as part of the default rules. This allows you to easily make whatever background makes sense, no matter how convoluted. In 2024, however, the...

I think group dynamics are pretty important and the exact method of "the group decides." Unanimous or majority rule? Does the DM get a vote? I have a group of 4, so if 2 players agree to level, they'd probably level every session if the DM doesn't get a vote.

Not a huge fan of the Realms and I've not liked the direction they've taken the setting since 4E. I might get some use out of it for my Greyhawk setting, but I doubt I'll use any of the lore they have.

I homebrewed a magic trident called Ripple (a rip-off of the ultra-powered Wave). When you threw it, you could target a number of creatures equal to the number of attacks you could make. It would then fly to each, bouncing off the targets, returning to the thrower's hand. I did it as a way to...

I like actually detailing out the effect, like in AD&D. Some effects might be easily replicated by the simple conditions of 5E, or even the use of Disadvantage, but trying to pigeonhole things into them does a disservice. For example, in an upcoming adventure (Danger at Darkshelf Quarry)...

I think that the way OD&D, AD&D, and BECMI were designed, level disparity is perfectly fine. When I played, most people had multiple characters of various level, so that they could pick a character appropriate for the adventure. In 2E, we had more story based games, but due to the prevalence of...

I was going to suggest saving a gnome village, but I think I misunderstood the question...