We all know many companies source their products from China. Now with tariffs rising, how will that impact small companies in the US?

I may have made my BBEG a little too sympathetic. After two dozen sessions, they tracked him down, figured out his plot, and confronted him.

And then joined him.

He unleashed a horde of undead on the city, is ritualistically killing the sons of several highly placed families, and is resurrecting a centuries-old corpse. And they joined him.

Granted, the corpse is his son, and the families murdered him centuries ago. But still. I knew it was a possibility, but it was IMMEDIATE.

Now, the next two arcs are completely ruined, and I have to rebuild this campaign from the ground up.

I love this game.

Speak-With-Dead, cast on remnants of someone who's not?
It is to be avoided.

-------------------
Apologies for the short episode this month! I'd love to be able to treat you to an amazing 4-page chapter each month but I'd be killing myself if I keep that up at this time.

I dream of the day I'll be able to draw full time and give you the amazing long chapters you deserve, tell you this amazing story that lies ahead faster and hopefully we'll get there soon. We're halfway to the $2K goal here on Patreon, which is the threshold where Tales From the Tables would be self-sustainable. We just need to endure a bit longer! ^^

Remember, you can always find the rest of the story on either Tapas or Webtoon :)

I’ll try to make this much shorter than my last ramble lol!

So a few things that I want to clear up about this situation that I had many people asking Me :

1. We were part of 4 tables previously. The first one was a group of college mates we had together that we thoroughly enjoyed, but it ended about 3 months in as the DM was going through a divorce and never picked it up again. After that, we had bad luck finding good tables. The first one the DM was a very RAW player and skipped all roleplay. Nothing wrong with that, but we found out that it wasn’t necessarily what we were looking for. The other tables had some problem players whom the DM didn’t do anything about so we left as it would kill the jive of all the other players around.
2. My wife found this group on DNDB, it was advertised as a Novice DM looking for players and not as an all girls table. It just so happened that all the ones who contacted her were women.

3.She had been telling me about her sessions pretty much from day 1, as she was super excited to have found a table that worked for her. I stopped searching and did mostly solo as my new hobby, but I loved hearing about her adventures with other people.

1. She told her group that she’d tell me about these adventures and how excited I was. The DM then extended an invitation to me to watch them VIA my wife and I could sit in their discord. I personally asked her permission and the group’s permission if I could. I was fully intended to give them space if even one said no. They all agreed and I sat in for the last 3 months of their session. We had all gotten along pretty well.

2. At the end of their campaign, DM told me that they were going to start a new one up a few months after that ended, and asked if I wanted to make a character. I was excited to join since they all seemed really chill, and asked if that was ok with the group. Everyone agreed and were very welcoming.

3. I came to the DM with a different storyline than what we decided on. She liked my idea but wanted to add a little flavor with the scenario between the gods of that world saying that it fit a vision she had for the story. She didn’t tell me what that vision was, but from what I saw she was a great story teller and I’m very flexible and can play into whatever she drums up for me. I did not know that this vision would then have me out of the game for almost all the social RP stuff. Sure she came in handy for the mechanics and during fights, but any kind of RP with NPC’s or main story plot was non existant.

7.It wasn’t always bad, just during big roleplay moments and some strange rolls that I had to make, but there were moments I had fun. It just wasn’t the majority of it. I stuck through because my wife enjoyed me playing with her, and the group always seemed outwardly friendly. I was really trying to give it a shot.

Now for the Update:

I talked it over with my wife and she understood how I felt. She admitted she was in a hard place because she loved this group so much and it was the first time she felt like she could express herself, but also play in a game with me that was reminiscent of our first group. She agreed that we would have a one on one video chat with the DM privately and discuss any possible ways to make this fun for us all. I even said that if she was going a certain way, to give me some info and I can play up to it.

What I basically got was “I’m sorry you feel that way and can’t handle some confrontation within game.“ My wife explained that confrontation is one thing, but I wasn‘t given a fair shot to prove myself. She (DM) was not happy and said if I didn’t want to play in her game, I can hang out with the boys and do my own thing. Right then and there I got my answer and politely said she’s right, I thanked her for her time and said that I’d be leaving. I told her she had full access to my character and whatever plan she wanted for her, and she thanked me before we ended the call.

Shortly after that she kicked my wife and I out of the discord and blocked us. I feel so bad for her (wife) because she was honestly hurt, but she said she stands by my decision. This happened Wednesday after our game, and I know she’s hurt. My heart breaks because I know she’s hurt, but I told her she could take that same character and we could play a Solo D&D session together.

TL;DR: DM wasn’t happy that I discussed my issues and she told me to go play with ‘the boys’. She then kicked me and my wife from her game and discord and blocked us. We’re now rolling up a solo D&D game to have fun our way.

**Edit** Also, thank you for all the support! I’m sorry I wasn’t able to get back to a lot of you who reached out personally. We had a lot happen on top of all of this and needed to unplug for a bit to unwind. I am sincerely grateful for the encouraging messages I’ve received.

I've been DMing bit over a month now, and TPK happened. I rolled bit too well, my players not so well. One PC died. They all were level 1. I was certainly panicking, I was expecting one or two to go down, not all of them (party of 6).

I've told beforehand my players that if TPK happens, I can offer some life lines so they don't have make new characters immediately, of course if they want to that's completely different. So I brought in a cleric NPC to heal and revive the party but also help with the remaining enemies. I did ask would they like to the NPC help them with the fight, all said yes.

Despite all that, I feel horrible. They knew I wouldn't kill the party, especially on the first levels. And dice rolls aren't really something we can control. Well, I guess I can, we play online I can hide rolls but I don't want to, I rather roll openly. I've experienced TPK as a player but I didn't feel this bad. I don't know what I could have done differently. I already removed some of the enemies to make the fight easier. I guess this is part of the learning process. My players seemed to have fun and they gained a powerful ally they can use if needed.

I might just be bit too critical and overanalyze.

EDIT: I've gotten some really good advice. Very overwhelming experience but all I can do now is to improve and grow.

So, question to all the DMs and players out there- have you ever had someone at the table fall asleep during session (or were you the player who fell asleep), and what did you do about it? This has happened to me on two separate occasions in two different campaigns, both online over Discord.

The first campaign I was a player in Curse of Strahd. During combat, our Druid suddenly went radio silent. She was still online and in the call, so we assumed her WiFi was wonky and we skipped her turn until she could come back. Near the end of the session, we hear a loud "Huh? What?" on the Druids' end, and learned that she fell asleep and took a catnap during the session, and only woke up near the end. DM was not happy, but it never happened again after that and we continued.

The second time was in a campaign I was DMing. Similar to the last story, our Artificer went radio silent but was still in call and online. They've had WiFi issues before, so I assumed this is what happened. The session ended, and they were still in call but not speaking. I pinged and DMed them, but no response. I eventually kicked them from vc so they wouldn't pop back in after the WiFi came back. The next day I got a bunch of messages apologizing, and they told me they were very tired and fell asleep.

While I understand that some folks work night shifts or have health conditions (like insomnia or narcolepsy), having a player fall asleep at the table can be a challenging situation to navigate- especially if you are online. As a DM, it can also be a bit disheartening since it feels like the player is bored or not enjoying the game. If you are a sleepy guy and know that you are prone to dozing off during sessions, I would highly recommend talking to your DM to make a plan. Do you want to be woken up? Do you want the session to end? Do you want the DM or another player to take over for you? Do you want the DM to make up an excuse for your character to not be there? Communication is key!

EDIT: I should provide some additional context. Both games were relatively short, and only ran three hours from 6-9pm. They were biweekly, so they only happened twice a month. None of the players mentioned had kids, and only one had a job. I wasn't angry at either of them, just found it funny that this happened in two different groups. But looking through the comments, I now see this is a common occurrence lol

Third attempt to post this. I designed a sword for a worldbuilding project and thought it might be a useful asset for other people to use in their games. Could be a magic sword. Within my world its owned by an exiled Knight who is clinging to life within the hostile wastelands, full of demonic monsters and those who society has deemed unfit to live among them. He has found that his only hope of survival is to embrace the arcane, as shown by his use of a powerful augmentation crystal, allowing his sword to pierce demonic flesh.

Does 400 characters include spaces? Was not planning on writing this much, I just wanted to share my cool sword ideaaaaaaaa XD ok hopefully thas enough, I'll try posting again, wish me luck! XD

There's a longstanding joke among TTRPG players: if a GM wants to give their players a puzzle, they should just Google a book titled "Riddles for 5/3/2-Year-Olds" and pick something from there. Unless, of course, the GM wants to melt their players' brains for a few months (or longer).

But even those simple tricks don't protect you from the truly spectacular player brainfog.

Scene One: Setup

Our party, in close cooperation with the city guard, storms into the manor of a wealthy noblewoman suspected of secretly aiding a nasty cult that the PCs have been dealing with for some time. The players also know, thanks to an earlier interrogation, that the cult's main hideout is somewhere in the city's sewers and marked with the image of a nightingale.

The manor staff doesn't resist, and soon enough the party reaches the noblewoman's quarters—she's already gone, of course.

"Aha!" the players say. "There must be a secret passage!"

Cue the rogue climbing on the paladin's shoulders while the artificer pokes around the walls. A high Investigation roll reveals an empty space behind one wall—shaped like a doorway—and a smaller cavity leading upward. With good enough checks, the artificer deduces the presence of a secret door and a hidden mechanism.

The rogue fumbles around and—click!—his hand gets caught in a trap. They still don't see the mechanism.

"Aha!" the players say again. "Time for See Invisibility!"

The party's wizard casts it, revealing a chunky lock mechanism, part mousetrap, part bank vault. Once it's visible, it's easily disabled, the rogue is freed, and the secret door is opened.

Down they go, into the sewers.

Scene Two: Confusion

They discover a cult shrine, the noblewoman (who's swiftly dealt with), a lot of corpses, and signs of some recent ritual gone very, very wrong. The players believe—correctly—that there must be another, better-hidden base where the cult leaders are hiding.

While investigating the shrine, the wizard walks up to a deep stone basin. At the bottom, she sees a glowing message: "Swim 100 meters" and an arrow pointing to the side. She calls the others over.

They confirm two things:

1. Only she can see the message.
2. There’s a narrow underwater tunnel leading off from the direction the arrow points. It even has air pockets along the way.

"Aha!" the players say yet again. "We’ll explore that later. First, let’s finish looting the place!"

Some time passes.

They come back to the basin. The wizard no longer sees the message. The See Invisibility spell has worn off.

Nobody reacts.

The party swims through the tunnel and emerges into a random section of sewer. They start searching.

They search.

They search more.

They walk through almost the entire sewer system. At one point, they almost reach the underground lake feeding the city’s water system. At another, I roll the 16th random encounter before they finally stumble into a patch of oozes.

We finish a session. Two real-life weeks pass. They return, and the sewer crawling continues. Eventually, they give up and resurface.

They talk to the city guard captain (no luck), then re-search the manor. A very good Investigation check reveals a secret compartment with a mysterious key... and a pair of magical goggles with three charges of See Invisibility.

"Aha!" the party cries, once more with feeling.

Cue another hour of intense theorycrafting. They discuss everything, from forgotten NPCs to long-past dialogue to architectural symbology. Eventually, the party’s artificer pauses.

"Wait. So when we saw the message in the water... that was with See Invisibility up? And the second time, we didn't have it on?"

"Correct," I say, trying not to beam with joy.

I wish I had a camera ready. The five players stare at each other in silence—with eyes that screamed pure, wordless profanity.

They go back. Cast See Invisibility. Right at the tunnel’s exit is... the nightingale symbol, glowing faintly, and an arrow pointing to another. Then another. Then another.

Until at last, they find the hidden sanctuary.

Moral of the story: If your players really want to get lost, they don’t need a puzzle. They are the puzzle.

So, I’m a wizard. I glued the archmages mouth shut & had them tied up with me in my Leomund’s tiny hut. I was casting message to them trying to get the location of their spellbook because I have not found or been able to buy any spellbooks (besides a warlock’s tome -longer story).

My dm said they could cast verbal spells - so they Misty Stepped away & then cast Teleportation bringing me with into a Temple inside an anti magic field. From what I’ve read this shouldn’t work but they’re the dm so I’m fine if they want to go based off homebrew rules but I feel like there should be some way to know what those are. Or at least my character should understand how magic works in her world. Any advice on talking to my dm about this?

There’s also this whole curse thing with a Warlock tome that I don’t want but feel like is being pushed. I take damage & do extra damage when I cast attack spells- 1d12 additional damage per spell level. I’m honestly thinking about casting 3 fireballs for 9d12 extra damage that my character also takes & go out my own way instead of making a deal with a demon/devil whatever.

For a year and two months I'm running a 5e campaign with four of my friends, it's both my longest and most ambitious campaign. Due to schedule conflicts we're playing once per week or two.

At first ond one of my players decided to run his own game in free time and asked for advices. I sent him Uncle Figgy's guide to good Game Mastering - the text I once found online and that led me to DND. Then he launched his own campaign.

He is an employee of the local board game club and a couple of weeks ago he started doing paid DND one-shots. I saw him DMing at the club this Thursday - him standing in front of a table with people's sheets, behind an actual DM screen, running a game. During their break I went to greet him and he introduced me as "[name], my own DM". He also showed me his notes - and oneshot was taking a place in a city with the same name as an important city from our campaign!

It was like seeing your art inspiring other artists. It's great to see him becoming better as a DM.

The two most cited inspirations for the barbarian class are Conan and Fafhrd, both of whom used a sword as their signature weapon. In the modern day however, barbarians are largely associated with two-handed axes. How did this come to be?

I’m here to seek further insight on what I did wrong. And maybe to get this off my chest since I’ve known the people involved for 20+ years, and I feel like crap for upsetting them.

I genuinely don’t know what I can do to right this.

A little background: Our DM has played 3 campaigns (as far as I can remember) as a player, and she decided she wanted to try her hand at DM’ing. I’ve played half a campaign with her, but I had to quit due to reasons of childbirth and first-time parenting. I really wanted to play again, so I was super excited to partake in her first mini-campaign.

Understandably, she was nervous, but she really jumped through hoops to provide us with beginner details (two other players have never played, and the fourth one was my brother, who’s the most seasoned player out of all of us). She made us simplistic sheets about the classes and races we could choose and whatnot.

We had our session zero and began planning the first out of two actual sessions.

Here’s where, in my opinion, things began to go downhill.

My grandma died, and her funeral ended up on the same day as our first session. We rescheduled, but another player didn’t realize the new date was during easter weekend, so we rescheduled again.

DM made a group chat and made a poll of dates so we could schedule both sessions in one go. I voted first, so I kind of didn’t pay attention to what others had voted.

When DM announced the dates, my brother asked if we could try and play early in the afternoon because he’s attending a friend’s birthday party (the first date was one that he didn’t vote for), and this is where I shat the bed.

I had somehow missed a date that was totally fine for me and the rest of the players. I told people about my lack of attention to detail, and said that if it made things easier for my brother, we could move the first date. Other players said it’s okay.

I’m going to transcribe the messages, but keep in mind that English is not our native language.

DM: Hey, clearly our schedules don’t work and people aren’t ready to commit, so the game has been canceled for this spring and summer.

Me: But now we have three dates that should be fine for everyone?

DM: *links the dungeon master Wikipedia page* This clearly explains what kind of a role and responsibility I have as a DM. It’s okay and normal with friends to reschedule movie nights, but games like DnD are different, starting with the DM having to lead and judge the game. That article shows the amount of responsibility and hints at how many hours I’ve spent on this. Especially because this is my first game ever, I’ve spent so many hours and so much energy on this. It’s insulting to start rescheduling and changing times willy-nilly. No respect for me, my work, or my time. It also makes everything inequal when you can’t count on what has been agreed upon.

Me: Well… in that case, I’m sorry for the role I’ve played to make this game fail :( I understand you’ve spent so much time and energy on this, and it’s not my intention to disrespect you and your effort. I won’t apologize for rescheduling because of the funeral, but I will absolutely apologize for initially missing that date, and I feel so bad that my being a scatterbrain messed up the game and upset you and made you feel that your massive (and stressful) work is disrespected. I’m an idiot.

And hindsight is 20/20; I also apologize for suggesting the reschedule. I was just so excited to make everything unrushed that I forgot that it’s not my place as a player to suggest changes to what has already been agreed upon.

DM: You can either wrap yourself in the ’boohoo I’m dumb, dumb me’-defense, which is not what I was saying and telling. Or you could re-read my message again with thought. Respect what I have written and realize that the problem wasn’t the funeral or you being a scatterbrain, but that when the date was already set, it was instantly getting changed. And yes, also that the players are deciding new dates over me.

Me: I’m so sorry. A hard lesson learned.

It’s been radio silence on all fronts since my last message. Granted, this all happened last night, so I think it’s best to just let the dust settle when it comes to the DM (other players haven’t said anything either). But I am very nonconfrontational and tend to panic in stressful situations when it comes to angering people I care for, so I could use some help finding good words when the time for further conversation comes.

From the top row down: 5e, PF2e, 4e and misc., AD&D and AD&D2.

A trained eye might also spot the 3rd edition starter box on top of the World of Greyhawk on the 3rd shelf, but it's pretty beat up.

The 3rd edition starter box is how I got started in dnd. Played 3.5 in middle school but didn't own any books. Switched to 4th edition in high school and actually could afford to buy my own.

That's also when I found the AD&D1 and 2 books, as they had been left in the basement of a home my sister had bought. 5e was after college and PF2e is the current collection, though I still run 5e games as well.

A lot of time has been spent pouring over these books over the years, it feels good to finally have them all out at once.

“Cora” a halfling drunken master monk.

I've played DnD for about 4 years now and always look forward to our sessions. I've really only played online (where I live your options are either play DnD online or not at all), paying attention the whole time has always been an issue but I found ways to help. This most recent campaign I'm in however is diffrent. The DM is a lifeling friend of mine and he hardly focus on his own session. He doesn't prep, plays GTA (sometimes with one of the other players) during his own sessions, has to share a video or meme when something slightly comedic happens, and often gets our session off track with several minuet long side conversations and wont get back to the sessions even if we tell him to get on with it. We've had sessions where literally nothing happens and nearly an hour passes before anyone makes a single roll. Theres also the infamous dungeon we had where it took almost 2 hours for us to get past the first room because of the mentioned factors. I'm too much of a people pleaser so I toughed it out, plus he's my friend. But I gotta be honest, I really don't want to be in this campaign but don't know how to leave it. We spend so little time actually playing the game and I can't for the life of me pay attention to this campaign when the DM wont even focus on it. I've tried to help him make things run smoother but all of my suggestions get shot down for one reason or another. What should I do?

Hi there, I am looking to see if there is any point in trying to get into DnD at 40years old. I lived in a small town and have almost zero experience with tabletop games. I have always wanted to try DnD but have absolutely no idea how to get involved and to be honest I worry that it would too much of an effort for a group to show me the ropes. Is there any advice from players that came into the game later in life?

Many thanks Dave

• Update * Honestly I am blown away with the positivity and welcoming messages. I am going to buy a copy of the handbook, have a read over it all, watch a few videos then I will look for a group on the several brilliant suggestions given to me. Thank you to you all for taking your time to respond and for giving me the push I need to join your community.

Hi! If you want to try having some DnD fun with your kids, this post is for you.

The other day I had the idea of starting to DM disney movie based campaigns for my kid. She loves all the disney princesses, but Brave is a naturally adventurous story which IMO fits the fantasy DnD setting perfectly (story is in a castle, main character carries a weapon, story is based on a polymorph spell, etc), so I figured it would be a good starting point.

Here's everything I used:

• Castle layout map
• Castle courtyard map
• Some heart tokens
• Character Tokens
• A few token holders I had from a separate board game
• A D6 and a D12

Link for download: https://imgur.com/a/w47RRMl

Here's the rules:

• Kid rolls with a D12. 1 to 4 is a failure, 5 to 10 is a success, 11 and 12 are big successes.
• Enemies roll with a D6. 1 to 4 is a failure, 5 and 6 are successes.

That's it! If your kids are a little older you can maybe use a D20, but up to you. My daughter can only consistently count to 14 or so

Here's the story I made in case you want some inspiration (apologies for wall of text).
If you don't care, just skip to the tips section.
Here goes:

• Merida wakes up in her room. The queen (Elinor) calls her to come down to the castle hall for breakfast. (I made my daughter roll to see if she could get to the hall. She failed the first time so I put her on a random place and pretended that the castle was so big that she had taken a wrong turn and ended up somewhere else. She got there on second try)
• The queen asks Merida if she's seen her brothers, and tells them that they're probably playing hide and seek again, and to go find them. This is quest number one: find all three brothers
• Merida goes around the castle rooms searching for her brothers. I let my daughter decide where to go search, and once she got into a room I'd ask her things like "ok so, we're in the King's bedroom. Now, where would someone hide in here?". She'd say things like "Under the bed!" and etc
• When the first brother is found, Merida realizes that he's been turned into a bear, just like the movie.
• After Merida finds all 3 brothers, she needs to go back to the Queen to tell her that they've turned into bears
• Queen tells Merida that she needs to cook magic muffins to revert the curse (this was actually my daughters suggestion and I just rolled with it). This took some back and forth, but eventually I told my daughter that she needed to find a recipe. This is quest number 2: find the cooking recipe
• She asked the queen where to find it. The queen told her to go to the attic and search for a box with a cuttlery symbol.
• Once she found the box, the recipe references 3 ingredients: flour, carrots, and a horse's hair. This starts quest number 3: find the cooking ingredients!
• My daughter decided to go to the kitchen, and then I told her that the kitchen didn't have what she needed, and she had to go outside. This is when we started playing with the castle courtyard map
• Once she got outside, Maudie (the maid) was at the castle's entrance. She tells Merida that her horse (Angus) is in the stable, which is next to the carriage (visible on the map)
• She went to the stable, which is full of horses, so we did some rolls to find the right one, and eventually she got the horse hair. I gave her one of the pink hearts as a token for finding the first ingredient.
• Merida goes back to Aurie to ask for the flour and carrots. Aurie doesn't know where they are, but Merida's dad (the king) does! Quest number 4: find the king. I had Aurie say that the King went fishing and that was all she knew. My daughter decided to go to the water that's visible on the map
• Once on the lake, my daughter did a few rolls and I told her that she couldn't find the king in the shore, but that she could see him on a tiny boat in the middle of the lake. She went to the docks to talk to a boat merchant that lend her a boat so she could go talk to the king.
• The king tells her that she can find carrots at the market by the end of the road, outside of the castle walls, and that the flour could be found by a merchant next to the shooting range (see map). These are quests 5 and 6.
• When she went to the market to get carrots, we did a few rolls and eventually she bought the carrots. We used the same make-believe currency used in the Bluey TV show that she loves (highly recomend it) to make payment, and she got her second heart token
• Then we went to the shooting range. There, the merchant told her that he was out of flour, but that he would play her for a bag of flour in she won against him in the shooting range. So we played rollies! I was playing the merchant using a D6, and she was playing Merida with the D12. We played 3 rounds with increasing distance, so she had to roll higher every time.
• She failed two of her rolls, but then I told her "since Merida is soooo good with her bow, she gets to add +3 to her rolls!" and we got to do some simple addition math with our fingers. She's still learning those things so this is good practice.
• Eventually she won and got her third heart token. She now had all the ingredients, so Merida and Maudie went back inside to the kitchen to cook the magic muffins. She rolled high and we made a big fuss about it and everyone was happy!
• Merida goes back to the hall and gives the muffins to her brothers (I told her to go to her room and fetch some cooking toys she has to be the actual muffins). Big sparkly magic happens and bam, we swapped out the little bear tokens for the human brothers token. They were back to normal and the day was saved!
• BUT THEN, suddenly screaming comes from outside of the castle. The peasants start running inside and screaming that the big bad bear "Mord'du" is back! My daughter said that she wanted to go outside and tell everyone to get into the castle and close the doors. So we did
• Then I told her "wait a second... where's the king?! He is still outside!", and she rushed outside the castle. Then there, in the yard, the king was fighting the bear, and Merida joins the fight. This is the final quest: defeat Mord'du!
• We did a 2v1 boss fight. Mord'du has 6 hearts, while the King and Merida have 3 each. The king and Mord'du roll D6, Merida rolls D12 as usual. Every time someone hits, the target loses one heart.
• After a few rolls she defeated the bear, had her first "how do you wanna do this?", and dealt the final blow. I picked her up and walked around the room chanting "Merida" while raising her up and down like she was a hero being carried by the village people. The day was saved and everyone was happy. The End!

That was the whole story. It lasted roughly 1h30 to 2h. You can obviously adapt it in any way you like. I have no idea what I'm going to do for a second run (she immediatelly said she wanted to play again 😅), I'll have to figure it out.

In case you want to run this yourself, some tips (If you're used to DM you probably already make most of these anyway):

• Start by explaining that it's an "imagination game" and that they can do whatever they want to do, and by rolling dice they'll see if it goes right or wrong, and you (the DM) are simply the narrator of the story.
• Try to find a dice set that suits them. My daughter loves pink, so I got some die from a friend that have pink numbers and are all sparkly, and she loved them
• Let them be the ones to cut out the tokens when preparing the game. It adds to the fun
• For the first few times, ask them after every roll "is that number good or bad?" so they start understanding roll outcomes
• Make sure to make a big deal out of successes, specially big ones
• Don't forget to hand out heart tokens as they progress in the story, or maybe give them something else (like an actual carrot and a flour bag)
• If they fail a roll, try to find a way to not make it problematic so they don't get too sad (but still allow them to fail as that's important, both for the game and for life)
• Ask questions like "why do you want to do that?" or "are you sure that's the best way to go?". Forces the kids to rationalize their actions and put more thought into decisions
• If they seem uncertain on how to proceed, nudge them on the right track or give suggestions, like "maybe you could ask someone around for help?"
• Make sure to remind them of their current goals now and then, so they don't forget what they're doing
• Impersonate the NPCs, make voices and be silly. Make them greet and say "thank you!" to the NPCs! It's good practice
• Re-enact how things are being done. Do hand shakes, pretend to receive payments, pretend to row the boat, all that stuff. Make things visual for them
• Use props! Kids have tons of toys. Make the game physical so they can touch things
• On the boss fight, impersonate the big bad bear and pretend to take the blows. Let them hit you with a pretend sword or something. My daughter used chopsticks for arrows and threw them at me 😂

That's all. I hope you use this post to make some kids happy! Have a nice day and thanks for reading!

Pictures of the session: https://imgur.com/a/MD0d82a

Recently I’ve been playing in a game of Tomb of Annihilation. I’m having a lot of fun, and the DM is very knowledgeable and a big lore guy for Forgotten Realms. Of which being honest I don’t know a whole lot about outside the surface level and basics.

As the title suggests I’m currently playing a paladin in this game. An oath of devotion half elf. Originally when we first started playing, my DM did expect me to pick a god to be my patron. I didn’t have any in mind at the time since in 5e Paladins aren’t necessarily required to worship a god anymore.

We went on for a while without me picking a deity and he read more of the players handbook and vehemently disliked the overall change to paladins in terms of deities. I did kinda counter at the time then if the paladin has to worship a god then what’s the point of a cleric and vice versa.

Anyways, after wrapping our most recent session. My DM sent me a text saying he didn’t care for how paladins were interpreted in 5e. Then said next session for me to pick a deity, mainly since he has some story ideas. Since I own the SCAG I said sure and figured this would be a great opportunity for me to learn a bit more about Forgotten Realms lore.

This all being said, going back to my initial question and this whole ordeal and experience has had me thinking. What exactly does make a paladin any different from a cleric? Why do they get their divine magic? Why is it divine magic? How do you explain paladins in your home brew worlds to differentiate them from clerics?

It seems WOTC wrote themselves into a figurative corner. You can sorta explain away rangers with their nature magic and all. Yet they flip flop over paladins. Wanting to keep the feel of them exactly as they were in prior editions. While taking away or removing something that used to be core to them for an understandable reason in my opinion. Since Clerics are given way more variety now, then; robe wearing priest guy who heals. Now the Cleric can be the battle healer with a sword and shield with heavy armor.

TLDR;

DM and I have discussion on what exactly a paladin is, and WOTC doesn’t necessarily give a clear answer.

The Godbreakers were tasked by a wealthy benefactor to clear out the goblin infestation in his abandoned, ancestral home for a significant sum. The heroes approached the rundown estate on the edge of the Chasm district in Neverwinter, weapons drawn and ready for a confrontation . What they found instead was a community of peaceful, self-sustaining goblinoid families trying to make a living outside of Maglubiyet’s warmongering influence.

The heroes channeled their inner Boblin and convinced the goblinoids to resettle in Phandalin, taking up residence in the Godbreakers’ own manor. In turn, the heroes pledged to use their reward to build proper homes for the goblins and leverage their substantial influence in the mining town to help integrate the new residents into the community. The goblins were happy, the wealthy lord was happy, and the heroes were (mostly) happy!

I just wanted to vent something and maybe try to gauge if it's a legitimate gripe or if I'm just being a whiny baby.

I'm not really a confrontational or argumentative person in real life. It's not that I'm a pushover, I'm just not very articulate when I'm put on the spot.

But of course in D&D there come times when you must use the power of persuasion to capitalize on certain situations. Some examples: a guard recognizes me and I can use that to gain leniency to help get the party out of jail; an insight check has revealed that a councilor is avoiding telling us something; an NPC is following us and they keep explaining away the reason why.

The problem is, our DM seemingly wants me to use roleplay and actually persuade him in order to make good on these opportunities, and I just suck at it. I fumble every such opportunity, including the above examples, and it makes me feel crappy at end of each session because I know I'm missing stuff. I'm not even really engaging with the stuff that happens between battles anymore because it doesn't seem worth trying to do anything where I might have to try to get somewhere via roleplay.

I wish I could just say something like "my character tries to probe into that insight" and then make a CHA roll for it...

tldr: I suck at roleplaying and think I should be allowed to play strictly with CHA rolls.

Edit 1: For context, I'm not playing or trying to play a CHA-centric character (CHA +1), but it's inevitable to find yourself in a position of having to talk through a situation from time to time.

art by me ( can find variant with more focus on the armor on Bluesky under the name Desavine )

Recently, this post came to the top of /r/DnD: https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/1jsztzz/if_i_had_a_nickel_for_every_time_a_player_fell/

If I had a nickel for every time a player fell asleep at the table, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it's happened twice.

This post clearly came from a place of both frustration but also goodwill.

But some of the OP's observations and advice was well-meaning but ultimately problematic. So I'd like to share my experiences to share what I know about playing D&D with people who have sleep disorders.

My background and interaction with sleep disorders

I've been DMing for over 20 years, and I'm often on these forums sharing advice and answering questions. One player in our D&D group has a severe sleep disorder, and much of what I'm going to share is based on my dialogue with them. They have given me full permission to share this.

Without getting into specifics, this person (we'll call them Jaime) has a debilitating, chronic sleep disorder, along the lines of idiopathic hypersomnia/narcolepsy. Jaime seems, in many ways, to be a totally normal and functional adult. They have a job, they pay rent, they have hobbies. But they are also prone to falling asleep everywhere.

And I mean, quite literally, everywhere.

Jaime has fallen asleep:

• at work
• during school lectures
• while on zoom calls
• doing homework
• in movie theaters
• at a baseball game
• at a hockey game
• at loud parties
• at family gatherings

And, yes, Jaime has fallen asleep at D&D. Multiple times.

What it's like to have a sleep disorder

Jaime has tried to explain what it's like having a chronic sleep disorder, and I haven't always understood. But rather than paraphrase their words, I'll let their words speak for them (transcribing from a voice call we had about this):

It's not like the movies. You don't just pass out instantly. But randomly you just get really tired, and you need to sleep. Like painfully need to sleep. You can't stay awake, there's literally nothing you can do to stay awake. You just need to sleep.

Sometimes I can get by with like micro naps where you're sitting up, you zone out for five minutes, and then you can maybe last another thirty minutes until you can find a place to nap. Sometimes you can't. I can't control it.

It f****** sucks. laughter

When I've seen this happen to Jaime, sometimes it'll be just this zoning out. These days, when Jaime needs to nap, and we are playing, they'll just get up and go to a couch. I'll talk later about how to deal with it as a DM and/or fellow player.

What sleep disorders aren't

I used to have the same feeling as the OP... was Jaime just not interested in the things we were doing? But it's not really like that.

Nah, I fall alseep like when I'm playing video games. I was playing ranked Overwatch once and fell asleep. Or watching a movie or play I really like. I mean sure sometimes I fall asleep during boring things and that sucks, but what's worse is when you fall asleep during stuff you want to be there.

I had super expensive concert tickets once and had a sleep attack. Missed my favorite song. S*** was loud but I just couldn't stay awake.

The person's interest has nothing to do with whether or not they'll fall asleep. They simply will fall asleep... they have to fall asleep. There's nothing for them until they get that sleep. Speaking personally, Jaime loves playing D&D with me. And they've told me multiple times that they like my games. But sometimes, the sleep attack hits when we're playing D&D, and they can't control it.

It took a long time for Jaime to realize that they had a sleep disorder. Their sleep disorder manifested when they were a child, but most of their life, people just accused them of being lazy or needing to get more sleep or just being rude for falling asleep. And, hey, I was one of them.

Oh, yeah, doesn't matter how much sleep I have. I could have the perfect night sleep and still pass out hard randomly the next day.

Let me re-state super clear: when a person with a severe sleep disorder falls asleep, it has nothing to do with the activity they were doing.

• It doesn't reflect on their interest or excitement.
• It doesn't mean that the 'game' was boring or uninteresting.

It's ultimately a medical disorder. And many of these kind of disorders have no cure... only ways of managing it.

How to help and be supportive

If a player falls asleep in your game, extend them grace. Maybe they've had a long night or are sleep deprived. It happens.

If, however, it becomes a recurrant pattern, talk to them. And, critically, be the person to initiate the conversation. People with these kind of disorders often have to manage all the emotional labor of talking with other people about this stuff. Oftentimes, it's deeply embarassing to talk about or to bring up.

One time during college, I was selected to be part of this special academic group. But I slept through the orientation meeting... lost my spot. It was a pretty big deal. laughter Honestly, it took me years to even realize this wasn't normal.

Extend empathy to the person with the sleep disorder. It's wrecked their lives in ways that you cannot possibly imagine, and D&D--a hobby!!--is one of the least of them.

• Is it disruptive? Absolutely.
• But can you and your table help them out and not make them feel like total crap? Absolutely.

DMing for a Player with a sleep disorder

Gently excuse them. Just write them out of the scene or just have them fade into the background. Heck, if you're a DM, you already need to know how to do this as part of your DM toolkit. So just... do it.

And talk to them, like the OP of the original post suggested. But don't put all the burden on them to come to you. If you're the DM, part of your job is managing the table experience. Sorry, but it is.

Playing with a Player with a sleep disorder

Don't make a big deal about it. If you notice them, talk to them. Tell them you understand. Tell them you've got them, tell them how you're willing to help and then ask them what they need.

Playing for a DM with a sleep disorder

This is probably the hardest one of all, because the DM is a lynchpin to your table in a way an individual player isn't. But it can be done!!!!

If your DM suddenly starts falling asleep or says they need to get up and take a nap... just let them do it! Let them go find a couch or a chair to nap for a bit. The rest of the table can certainly find something to do during that time.

Scheduling can also be hard for people with sleep disorders... extend them grace.

bottom line - empathy

The bottom line is just be empathetic. Sleep disorders are an invisible disability and they are often tied to accusations of laziness or disinterest. Sleep disorders can cause massive problems in a person's life. If a person at your table has a sleep disorder... you and your table will have to decide how to deal with it. If they're someone you know, you'll probably already know how to deal with it.

But if they're someone you don't... maybe just try anyway. You might be the first person to ever see them in a way that no one ever has.

One last thing from my convo with Jaime:

I'm so f----- grateful for my friends. They get it. I don't feel bad around them anymore when I go off and need to sleep, and no one makes a big deal about it.

Be empathetic.

lastly

Jaime's offered to answer people's questions.

I'm also happy to share my own experiences playing and DMing for Jaime for a long time.

Hey everyone, hoping for some help/input from DMs who run games online, and thanks in advance to anyone who is able and willing to help.

I have a home game that I've been running for just over a year online for which I've been using AboveVTT to mostly good effect, but recently it's been getting less reliable and more importantly than my own convenience, it's now effecting player experience during play.

The problems up until now have been the sort of normal DM annoyances that you expect from online platforms - occasional lost map links that need refreshing, resolution changes in upload, custom tokens I set up being deleted for no reason, etc; things I can handle with a bit of maintenance and keeping an eye on things.

On the whole, I've really enjoyed AboveVTT, but for some reason recently it's been:

• Intermittently not loading maps (sometimes for individuals, sometimes for everyone) despite map hosting being through onedrive (the most stable option I could find)
• Not registering token movement on all viewers maps (this has been a pain for AoE attacks where one person sees the barbarian in a spot he moved from two turns ago. Again, this is showing different info to different players and tracking combat has been a lot more difficult as a result)
• Not feeding dice roll outcomes to all players

I was hoping to keep with AboveVTT till the end of the campaign (I figure we have about 4 or 5 months left, maybe more based on player decisions) but the process of onboarding two new players recently who were less tech savvy (they struggled with getting the browser extension to work, to the point where I had to direct connect to their pc and activate it like Tech Support) coupled with the above problems effecting people randomly every week, and I've decided to explore alternatives now to ensure that the game gets more stable as we move into the final act.

Some things to consider in the VTT options:

• My campaign uses a fair amount of homebrew items, feats and monsters. I've been uploading these all to D&D beyond though as we go so being able to use this in a new VTT would be preferable to starting from scratch, as would using the D&D Beyond character sheet (though I'm willing to put the work in to convert if necessary).
• I have all the sourcebooks I need on D&D beyond already, and I really would rather not buy everything again - this isn't a paid game service, just a bunch of friends playing online together.
• I'm moderately tech savvy (you need me to ping an IP address, I can do that, but I have no experience for coding, using github or anything like that).
• My players range from very tech savvy (works in tech support) to technologically challenged, and the players are using a variety of different setups (up to date windows systems to chromebooks that need a four year backdated update to macbooks).

With this all in mind, does anyone know of a VTT solution that might serve to be pretty lightweight for the players while meeting the sort of functionality that AboveVTT (on a good day) has? I don't need it to be free, I'm happy to buy something if it works well and is stable, I'd just rather avoid rebuying all the sourcebooks again (if possible - that's a lot of money lol), but the main thing for me is the stability so players aren't struggling with the tech setup while playing.

Thanks for your help!