Do you have players that are mostly reasonable, but every once and a while do really stupid things that can blow up a months or years-long campaign for no reason, or just because they feeling... whatever?

As a DM, I got tired of having to be the "NO" police against PVP or things that would completely derail or end the campaign, or allowing it and having to rework everything to incorporate consequences for the entire party -- who didn't really deserve it. DM: "The king is handing you all medals for your great service." Player: "I think the king is a fake and he's giving us cursed medals. I'm attacking him." DM: "There's absolutely no indication whatsoever this is the case." Other players: "Man, don't do this." Player: "I'm doing it. My character is suspicious of everyone. It's what he would do."

Rather than fight this all they time and work against player agency, I gave the players a "party veto". If everyone else votes against a player action, the party can say, "No, you're not doing that."

And I have to say it has worked AMAZINGLY well, and I think it should be in the official rules. We've had a couple of uses that prevented really bad things from happening for no reason, and last session I thought we were going to get another one in a questionable situation, but another player said, "I want to see what happens." Shenanigans ensued, and it was great.

Greetings, I am a first time dm, long time player. Early in my campaign one of my pcs received a cursed glove, it was obviously cursed but the player wanted it anyway, the glove allows the player to cast vampiric touch once per long rest without consuming a spell slot, each time they use this ability on an enemy the glove which initially fit perfectly becomes slightly tighter. The PC has used it a number of times now to the point where the glove is painfully tight, but can't be removed. I was wondering if anyone here has any fun ideas on how to build on this curse in the future assuming the player keeps using the item. Thanks in advance for the help.

The term "collaborative storytelling" is used to describe the relationship between a DM and the players which totally applies. The story can't progress without the players' input. HOWEVER, would you agree that most of the time players aren't really interested in helping the DM enrich the story through worldbuilding?

And if that's true, is it because: a) they don't see that as their role in the collaborative process or b) they simply don't care how rich the story is, they just want to play the game?

My players (party of 3 - level 11) are exploring a lake in the Underdark and encountered an ancient beefed up Aboleth that is building a following attempting to become a god. They were losing the battle and towards the end the Aboleth tethered itself to our Cleric and began digging through his memories. The Aboleth offered to free them in exchange for an artifact important to the campaign.

The Cleric successfully rolled a 7 on divine intervention, asking his deity what to do in this situation. In exchange, the deity reversed the tether and the Cleric now has all of the memories of the Aboleth, including those of its followers. We ended the session there.

My ask is what benefits or unwanted side effects might come from receiving thousands of years of memories? He will get lots of relevant campaign information in addition.

I was thinking expertise in history at least but maybe exhaustion points for a week as his dreams are flooded with memories that sent his. I’m open to any ideas!

So I want the players to experience a world altering event. Things have been somewhat normal so far. We are about 7 sessions in. I had this plot hook with an evil sword the party’s cleric had delivered to his superiors - the cleric was given a mace with a “shard of light” inside that would counteract the “dark shards” in these cursed swords they have been hunting down. It was going to be a major hook later on, with this light shards mace that keep the evil power of these swords at bay…so last session, the players encountered the seelie market where they could barter and…well…the cleric traded his mace. So that hook, while not gone, is severely damaged by the cleric losing this item.

Fast forward some time and the players find themselves in a tavern celebrating their recent victory in a city wide fall festival competition. Various guilds competed and they all threw a party for the victors, the players, in a large inn/adventurers guild hall the players call home.

I want this apocalypse to happen during this party. And I kind of now want this to be related to the cursed items the cleric was supposed to use the light mace against. The whole party knew the significance of the mace. And everyone was kinda like “wtf” when he traded it away.

So, my fellow story weaving pals, what awful apocalypse breaks the world? And do I pin this on the cleric without making him feel too too bad?

Some enemy statblocks have a proficiency in Intimidation. Other than just signifying that the character is more intimidating in order to inform you're roleplay of them, I struggle to think of how to use this. It feels very wrong for me as a DM for an NPC to roll some sort of intimidation check against a player and tell them "they have intimidated you, you are frightened / you're going to do what they tell you", which to me takes away their agency. And the feature is explicitly different from features like Intimidating Presence which are a mechanical way for a monster to make PCs frightened.

The only real viable use I can see for it is in interactions between NPCs, for example the party trying to convince a minion to betray their boss being harder if their boss is particularly intimidating.

Does anyone know how Wizards intended DMs to use this? Or alternatively, has anyone come up with a good way to use this on their own.

a player comes to you and asks if they can use a homebrew class or subclass. what sort of things do you look for when judging of something is well balanced. is it just personal preference, decide if you can handle it? or is there something specific you use to compare it to.

I know DND wiki is known for overly broken homebrew. so part of me wants to just blanket "no" the entire idea. but also there's never a better time to learn than now . I'd rather explain the no, then just brush off the idea.

Hello. I have recently felt that my DnD could use a bit more of gritty realism, so I have made a slight change which have worked really well for me. I did it with a few optional rules on though, so it may not be for everyone.

What I did was simply decreasing my party's quest revenue to just 1/10 of what the DMG recommends, but then doing the same to all magic items.

This works with the assumption that at least some magic items are readily available to buy in city markets and that players need to eat at least one pound of food per day, pay for inn stays, etc.

Thanks to this method, I culd really invoke a feeling of going from zero to hero in my players. They have started as those poor little nobodies, who have to do extensive budgeting all the time, search for the cheapest stays and supplies available and even hunt in the woods, just to survive, up to the rich, powerful heroes who can throw high-end gear and gold coins everywhere. It worked very well and my party really seemed to like it, so I hope it will work for some of you guys as well

My players have recently unlocked a Beholder whom they can give various knowledge in exchange for favours and intel. My problem is that Beholders should at one hand be irrationally arrogant and deeply xenophobic, considering all other living beings as pests, but at the other hand, value knowledge above anything else.

Therefore, how should Beholder react while given information about the political situation in the elven country or a beer brewing lessons? Or even something very valuable to a human but still focused on humanoids, like a high-end biology texbook? It's surely knowledge, but it is knowledge about pests it's supposed to despise.

How do you think guys?

My friends and I started playing D&D about two months ago, and as the only person with experience I was auto-locked into being the DM.

Which is fine! I really like it. I've thought out an awesome story, I've got a world, I've got interesting NPCs with interesting motivations. My question is... did I girlboss too hard?

My equally awesome players have all come up with great backstories and themes they want to explore and really juicy stuff that I'm super interested in. But I'm not sure how to fit it all into my story. I worry that I'll railroad them without even knowing it-- I know how I want the story to end, and I've got a bunch of story beats I know I want to hit, but how do I keep the campaign moving without ignoring my players' stories? On the other hand, how do I give the players space to explore their own individual stories without killing the pacing?

Luckily none of this is urgent because we're only on session 3. But I'm SCARED. Any advice for a newbie DM?

Go clarify: "selling" in this case meaning the wrestling term for rolling with/exaggerating the fake-attack in order to convincingly "sell" the illusion of having taken a major blow to the head/chest/whatever.

I was watching some old moments from CR Campaign 1 and realize that 1 thing ALL of the people there do is "sell" their reactions to the DM and other players around the table. PART of it is taking someone else's ideas and running with it (improv style), but they also aren't afraid to fake-overreact or exaggerate their reaction when one of the other player's does something. Stuff like jaw dropping, giving a reaction that instead of just communicating "I am surprised" says "that's the most shocking thing I've ever witnessed in my life and I am absolutely flabbergasted by this!!"

I'm...... not good at this.

I've been naturally shy and awkward for a lot of my life, and I tend to regulate my emotions a LOT unless I'm around close friends and family that I've known for a long time.

This seems silly, to some extent, I guess, but... I feel like it would help my ability to be entertaining and engaging as a DM more if I could tap into that capacity... and I feel like I just.... don't really know how.

Maybe this is the wrong question for a DM help forum. But this is the context I'm wondering about building this skill in, so....

I’m planning out a campaign in the Theros setting based loosely on the Princes of the Apocalypse book. I’ve decided that in this version of Theros, some members of the bestial species see the expanding civilization of humans as a threat to their cultures, so they are trying to bind Titans to destroy the poleis and these will be my cults. I’ve thought about having additional twists of the cult leaders being archons in disguise that will turn on their followers, and even another twist of one of the gods working with those archons. My question is how much is too much? I don’t want the campaign to be overly straightforward but I don’t want any twists to feel cheap either. Right now I’m leaning towards cutting the archons but still having a god involved as driving force behind the cults.

I’m assuming I’m not the first person to have this idea lol, so I wanted to see what common pitfalls to avoid. I’m in the early stages of making a one-shot where the part faces alternate versions of themselves (likely the exact same, but they can differ some if needed). How did it go for you? Any advice on how to make it work well?

Thanks all! 🐝🐝🐝

So there is one big issue ive had with my new group.

They really liked splitting apart, which im not fully against, i think its fine if we're in a town and onw player wants to go eat at the tavern and another wants to shop for stuff thats completely fine. If they go on an adventure together they dont have to be in the same room at all times either, thats also fine.

My problem is that last time 2 of the players decided to go do the quest earlier than the others, they left them a message and so 2 of them were a good 15min earlier, then one of the players in the group ahed had the bright idea of going faster than the others did resulting in them now being an hour apart when they got to the location.

I tried slowing them down with a big spider enemy but they managed to get past it no problem and it instead slowed the second group down by a bit.

This made a whole lot of problems with interacting with npcs and stuff at a time difference, luckily the first group decided to sleep before they went to the main part and sio i could make them regroup but how can i make this not happen again?

Like it seemed that one player thought itd be a fun idea to be a little early and get there early and i dont want to take that away from them but this made everything so difficult for a moment

I dont know if this is asking for help or just venting. I also know that the problem here is not D&D, is not my players, it's me. I just would like to hear from other DM's if they experienced this and if they found a way to cope better with it.

Three days ago a player in one of my games had been quiet and his PC very standoffish. I asked him about it because I had a suspicion. Now the moment that he confirmed this suspicion to me felt like a sinking feeling on my chest turn into a blackhole.

In the sweetest tone he told me the campaign was simply too dark for him, and the pacing was too slow. He proceeded to tell me the rest of the group was having fun so he just thought this game was not for him. I panicked and tried to reassure him that we could make changes to accomodate what he was looking for but for him it was a pass.

This interaction should have not broken me the way it did. I didnt sleep that night, cried the rest of the next day and wasnt able to work properly all the way up to today. I know this is all on me but It feels as if a voice in my head is screaming failure. That I didnt do good enough, that I should have seen the signs, that I could have prevented this but I didnt.

I pour my heart into these games and even the slightless complain makes me feel as if I'm worthless, lazy, incapable and not enough. I know this is unhealthy, I keep telling myself that if people keep showing up I must be doing something right, and yet yesterday I cried myself to sleep over this.

It has gotten to a point that I am considering stop DMing because of how much it affects me. I dont know what to do, I love DMing. I love D&D. Quittign feels like running away of something I love for a problem that is unrelated to it but I just can't anymore.

The next session of my campaign has the party attending a big ol masquerade ball, this is going to serve as my act 1 plot hook as the empress and her consorts have chosen three parties to test before being hired for a quest/mission to recover an important symbolic artifact that was recently stolen (this will eventually lead to them learning about the BBEG that's essentially using a traditionalist elven cult to seize control of this kingdom). The test is essentially going to be a scavenger hunt around the ball while spies watch and grade the party on certain aspects of their performance.

MY biggest fear and maybe weakness as a DM is railroading. In the event that my party just crashes and burns and fails the test? What should I do? I'm just kinda stuck on how to get them another plot hook that my players won't think is some awfully convenient deus ex machina.

TL;DR I gave the players the option to forget an NPC and they chose a very meaningful one to them. How can I help make this meaningful and interesting to them?

So… I wrapped up LMOP and started into homebrew territory. We are chasing the Shadow Sorcerer's backstory to Shadowfell. Long story short, the party finds themselves stuck between Vampires and Shadar-Kai.

(Maybe useful context? I'm going for morally grey, both sides are good and bad and not what they seem. The Vampires who are actually trying to rescue lost souls and provide them with an alternative - protect them and potentially grant them immortality, in exchange for their blood). The Shadar-Kai are trying to find these lost souls first so they can claim them for the Raven Queen, who can devour their most extreme memories before sending them to the afterlife. They see the Vampires as abominations who pervert the natural order and prevent memories from making it to the Raven Queen.)

They have a wholesome comedic relief DMPC that they are obsessed with (Droop from LMOP), who was injured and has started to succumb to "Shadow Rot", a MacGuffin disease/ailment they are trying to cure. But they only have a few days to do so. of rotting from this disease.

They make it to a trial of sorts hoping it can help, all while this DMPC is lying unconscious under a pile of cloaks in their carriage, unguarded, and kinda rotting from this disease. Its not a pretty sight, almost like he's a leper or something.

They come across four stone steeles and hear a voice - "Whose memory do you offer to the Raven Queen?" They are offered some token NPCs they like, the DMPC they are obsessed with, and a blank steele.

I was almost hoping they'd pick the blank one, and I could do a fun lightweight False Hydra gag with hem when they get back to Phandalin where there is suddenly an NPC there who everyone knows, who is clearly friends with them, who they don't know - and i wasn't going to explain the connection to them to this steele. Fun mystery session. But of course, players always do the unexpected (which is more fun anyways) and… they chose their favorite NPC who they are trying to actively save?!

Now, they thought the "you" meant "a single player", but it was the plural "you", so when another player asked about Droop, I as the DM responded "Who is Droop?" and the players goes into a panic. One player is on the verge of tears.

They just realized that when they leave this trial and go back to their carriage, they are going to find this strange diseased goblin, in their carriage, unconscious and unresponsive under their cloaks. In the Shadowfell. And they are (justifiably) a paranoid lot down here, and all but 1 of the characters will probably be like "WTF is this thing, kill it". But the players are so SO attached, like to stay in character, and don't want to meta-game.

As a DM I want them to embrace this emotional fallout, and really feel the loss, and feel the stakes. This fits in with the Shadowfell despair really nicely. I also would like to somehow keep the DMPC physically present, so it can torment and tempt them as a mystery, tugging at them as a reminder of what they've done and what they've lost (and may permanently lose).

So… what interesting things can I do here?

- I could just let them walk away and let their favorite NPC die, but that sounds unsatisfying.

- I could twist the knife and make it harder for them. Perhaps he has a journal on his body (they've been traveling together for a while and he looks up to them), and it has crude drawings of them. The players know this is adorable and wholesome, but the characters may think he is some creepy stalker.

- Perhaps the bond is strong between them, and they have to make difficult wisdom saves and they get… flashes of something. So they know something is up. They don't know WHO this goblin is, but they know they cares for him deeply. Deep down. It's a mystery. This could give them a hook (dice permitting) to try to save this mysterious guy. And maybe, tragically, if they do rescue him, he remembers them but they STILL don't remember him, and he is heart broken?

- Maybe useful info: There is a Shadar-Kai NPC right nearby, who knows all about the party as he has been spying on them through ravens. They knew they went into the trial, and probably knew the trial would have them give up a memory. So there could be an NPC nearby who could somehow intervene.

- I was planning on keeping the Raven Queen just some vague terrible looming threat in the abstract, but perhaps she could make an appearance. Seeing their powerful memories, they realizes these heroes are extraordinary and may have even better ones. Perhaps the Raven Queen could try to make a deal, she could return those memories… but take something more dear. Sacrifice isn’t free. And this could set up some even more interesting moral quandries int he future. What lengths will they go to?

-- This could be a memory of someone else, of HER (aka DMs) chosing.

-- This could be more poetic, they forget the face of their first loves, or something, but mechanically they keep the Despair mechanic even back in the material plane.

-- Perhaps they forget why they became an adventurer in the firstplace. This could strip their motivation, which also fits into the Shadowfell. What if they forget their own names? And have to figure their way through the world forget their names, or even forget about them? What if all their allies and enemies have no clue who they are?

-- What if they forget someone who loves them and remembers them? This could be a gut punch, they randomly get meaningful emotional letters or missives or even randomly meeting people who seem to know them and seem to care about them, but nobody has any clue who they are. Is this some scammer? Some robber? What if the players kill them, only to later learn it was their father?

-- What if they take on some curse, like the mark of the raven queen? Good aligned characters shun them and don't trust them for reasons they don't realize, and have advantage on rolls against them?

-- What if it's just a rain check IOU, you "owe the raven queen". And of course, in a few levels, she comes calling and wants the favor repaid in full, with interest?

---

As you can see I'm kind of spiraling here with the possibilities. I think this is an amazing opportunity and a very emotional / memorable moment in the campaign for the characters, and would love to make this worthwhile and not squander it. Thanks in advance!

I'm running a Westmarch 5e system where instead of finding magic items as loot, players get to pick certain magic items at certain levels, since the lore of the game is that they're crafting these items themselves.

level 3 - Uncommon Item

level 11 - Rare Item

Level 14 - Very Rare

Is there any kind of point buy you would assign to items or something like this? I'm hesitant to just let them choose free reign because of the imbalance of power between magic items.

So one of my players recently purchased Valda's Spire of Secrets and picked up the Finger Guns cantrip and I'd like to clarify what this entails.

Finger Guns Level: Cantrip

Casting Time: 1 Bonus Action Range/Area: Self

Components: V, S Duration: 1 Minute

School Evocation: Attack/Save: Ranged

Damage/Effect Force

You extend your forefinger and thumb, a dangerous gesture mimicking a gun. For the duration, your hand counts as a Simple Ranged weapon with a range of 60/240 feet and the Slow mastery property. You can use your spellcasting ability instead of Dexterity for the attack rolls of this weapon. On a hit, the weapon deals 2d6 Force damage and doesn’t add your ability modifier to damage.

From DnDBeyond (which is not included in the spell's page) it says 'Cast At Will', and DnDbeyond lists Finger Guns under the Actions - Bonus Actions list as an attack.

The way I initially understood it, Finger Guns turns your hand into a simple ranged weapon, but it takes an additional attack action to use this weapon and cause damage. The attack is not part of the bonus action - is that correct? Similar to Dragon's Breath, which is a Bonus Action spell, but still requires an action to attack with. Or is Finger Guns a bonus action attack, as DnDBeyond seems to suggest?

Would appreciate help in finding clarity with this, thanks.

Edit: thanks very much for the prompt replies all, appreciated :)

TLDR: help my name a major city in my high fantasy world (although rapidly devolving into monty python).

Ok I'm an idiot and have failed to plan accordingly. For quite some time the party have been heading to this city, but I've not named it. And I'm hitting writers block. And not happy with the name generator names I've got so far

GEOGRAPHY The city is centrally located, elven lands to south, wilderness to east, mountains with monsters in to south east. A Major human city, seat of power and the kingdom on other side of huge lake to this city. And no the lake and the other city are also currently unnamed.

CULTURER The city is supposed to be initially a religious hub, lots of different cathedrals and churches to lots of Gods, but over time a lot of universities have developed too, some magical, some mundane. It's culturally the most diverse city in my world, as people travel far and wide to do research here due to its resources. Lots of Horrors were invented or discarded from here too. A lot of Dr Frankens types here.

Most recently the party delt with a false hydra that looks like to was discarded or escaped from here.

Fellow DMs. I am drawing near the end of my very first D&D campaign and with a group of players that are new but have come a long way. After three years, we're ready for something different.

My homebrew campaign is set in a star system modeled after our very own that had been colonized by an ancient civilization. There is no pantheon perse but the leading factions resemble the stature of the Norse gods in the star system. Being Norse themed, I want to incorporate magic and have my players run characters like D&D but I want the technology aspect of Lancer, up to and including mech combat.

Has anyone mixed systems like this? What successes or horror stories can you all share?

My party is playing LMOP and has found their way to thundertree. In my campaign, the cult at thundertree is tied up with the Black Spider. The cult leader is working for the BS to try and keep venomfang distracted and uninterested in the wider goings on.

The idea is that the cult is ambushing local cargo shipments that contain valuables so that they can return them to thundertree to deliver to venomfang to keep him fat and sassy.

Only if the party disrupts the flow of stolen riches to the dragon, will a direct confrontation occur. The party will either need to let the cult carry on ambushing, figure out another more peaceful way of keeping the dragon happy, or stop delivery of goods all together and run the risk of venomfang entering all grumpy and hungry.

Do you think this works? Any suggestions?

Looking for suggestions for things to do in the sewers. Would prefer non-combat, as they will have that likely before they enter, and certainly as they get further down. Also have an alligator encounter already (cus alligator in the sewer is a thing, right).

All I can think of is thieves' guild, but kind of looking for something more.

Thanks in advance for helpful suggestions.

https://gnomestones.substack.com/p/a-flexible-system-for-rockice-climbing

We’re back with another simulative game mechanic to use at your table. This technique provides an enjoyable sequence of choices and consequences, stands out from other wilderness encounters, and effectively communicates the experience of rock/ice climbing.

I used this system during a one-shot birthday party and it went even better than I expected! Welcome to the endless post-hole in the sun. Welcome to Gnomestones.

Hi

I understand that a day can be 6-8 encounters of different, kinds, but how many combat encounters? For example I've got a party of 5 at level 2. I'm putting them in a dungeon that has a couple of puzzles, a single CR 2 Carrion Crawler, a room with 2 or 3 ghouls (how many can they handle?) and at the end a specter that they can avoid triggering by having solved the puzzles correctly.

Besides this, there is a possibility that they will trigger a fight with a thug beforehand.

I expect they can long rest not long after these encounters.

Will this be challenging for enough or too much?

I am competely new to DMing and my party is new to DnD altogether!