In every long term campaign I've run, my players have ended up with some kind of egg.
A silver dragon egg. A giant spider egg. A zaratan egg.
BG3 has owlbear egg and Githyanki egg.
What kind of eggs should my players find next?
Similarly, I've noticed players who send me backstories or art or other "extra credit" stuff between sessions, their characters (unintentionally) sort of become the Main Character. I just have more plothooks to spotlight them.
Do you think having players create two characters during session zero, so they always have a backup character prepared, makes it easier for them to be braver and risk death?
I definitely feel less bad targeting players who have backup characters as a GM.
Latest issue of National Geographic features a story about spider silk, which reminded me of the time my druid players turned themselves into spiders and had their friends braid their silk to make silk rope.
One of my players is on a maternity leave haitus. The rest of the party is continuing on the main quest while her character got teleported away on a Play-by-Post sidequest.
And I gotta say, as a professional writer and a professional GM, play-by-post is some of the most fun I've had in a while! 🤩
I don't have a point. I'm just reflecting on my players' choices. I'm really enjoying DMing a Cleric right now, because the gods add an interesting layer of lore, and would love more Paladins and Warlocks. And people always say Ranger is the worst class, but MOST of my players have been Rangers.
Fighter is notably missing too, and I wonder if that's a misunderstanding of the class as "boring" or "basic."
Artificer is missing too, but that's not in the core PHB.
Wizard and Warlock are both missing. Do people simply not get that far down the alphabetical list?
No one has ever chosen Paladin or Warlock. Only players steeped in D&D lore from the novels or BG3 have chosen Clerics. I worry people don't want to play with gods or demons simply because they don't understand them. Or they have their own real-life religious trauma or opinions on religion.
I'm a Rogue main, and I probably steer new players towards Rogue during character creation.
Sorcerers and Bards make sense too, because I run roleplay heavy games where social skills are valuable.
Four of the five Rangers joined wilderness exploration campaigns, so that's wise survivalism.
I've been playing TTRPGs for over a decade and professionally DMing for three years now.
Among long-term campaigns and long-term characters (6+ months), my players have been:
ranger -- 5 characters
rogue -- 3
sorcerer -- 3
barbarian -- 2
bard -- 2
cleric -- 2
druid -- 2
monk -- 1
lil grung boi
Season 4 Episode 1 of Stranger Things: I absolutely love the cuts back and forth between basketball and D&D, showing both have equal amounts of passion and teamwork.
Years and years of therapy have taught me that the majority of my existential problems would go away with UBI, universal healthcare, and a house spouse.
Is "hanxious" a thing? Like hungry and anxious instead of hungry and angry?
This is honestly one of my favorite things in PF2E! The action economy is SO flexible but it absolutely punishes you for high risk high reward moves
T-Rex from the first time I ran Tomb of Annihilation vs. T-Rex from the second (current) time I ran ToA. This is what 2.5 years of practice 3d printing and painting looks like! 💪🏽
I just realized that in my latest campaign the Cleric is the horny one, the Bard is the moral compass, and both Rangers take turns being the comic relief.
D&D 5e Hot Take: The whole point of [Class] is whatever Bonus Action they get at level 2ish. Barbarian isn't Raging? Rogue isn't using Cunning Action? Druid isn't Wildshaping? Bard isn't Inspiring? Warlock isn't Hexing? They either picked the wrong class or they don't understand the feature.
Anyway, here's the beast.
So I tell him I'll 3D print a piggy bank. And I ask what kind of piggy bank he wants, and he says green. And I ask what his favorite animal is, and he says dragon. And I am hyped because if there is one place to get a Green Dragon Piggy Bank, it is Auntie's 3D printer.
Nephew told me about pressed pennies at the Zoo. I told him I'd give him pennies from my piggy bank. Then I asked him if he had a piggy bank. He didn't. I was like, You're almost 3! Where are you storing your pennies for the zoo? Your quarters for the arcade? Your tooth fairy money?
character concept: aaracokra based on this guy en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalay...
Wisdom from C. S. Lewis:
If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts.
Every campaign I run starts on the day *after* a full moon. This gives my players 27 in-game days to level up before they have to deal with werecreatures.
It's wild to me that I did this but I have never rescued Orelleum, never found all of Dribbles, and never gotten an Origin run past Act 1.
TTRPG player protip: Tell your GM what spells and abilities you're most excited about, and why you picked them.
TTRPG game master protip: Create situations where your players can show off their super cool abilities (see also: "shoot your monks").
Tower defense games prepared me for homeownership by training the skills necessary to defend a pantry against a colony of ants.
Hey tabletop players who use maps and minis! How do you run invisible creatures, displacer beasts, and other illusions? Do you use markers on the table? Track where the "real" thing is behind the DM screen? Trust your players not to metagame and just put the creature on the table?
IT IS DONE 😭😭😭
If this fog lasts much longer, I'll start to believe Sacramento has been taken over by a certain one of the von Zarovich brothers...
science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-...
