Terror Island writing tip: Specify that characters have names. This makes them more relatable. (That’s the title text for that comic.)

I’m imagining something like:

Player: I ask the NPC for his name.

GM: He tells you his name.

There’s also online fantasy name generators. Which basically just do that, but you don’t need to bother with tables.

Elppin is a valid Troll name.

I like this version better, though I admit it’s less relevant to the meme.

What annoys me is when they don’t have weapons have distinct special abilities, but they do have different damage dice. You end up with a situation where some weapons are just better than others, and if you think a greataxe fits your character better than a greatsword, you have to choose between dealing less damage, having a weapon that doesn’t fit your character, or houseruling that weapons that don’t have other differences deal the same damage and ignoring all those stats.

Depends on the magic. Fireball was used in the seventh through fourteenth centuries, so that’s not anachronistic. But if you want to do elemental transmutation, that wasn’t discovered until 1896. You could have it in steampunk.

That’s still way more imaginative than anything I can do.

That’s what all of it is. They just started naming everything after D&D monsters because they play D&D.

I’ve heard stories about players finding clues that the DM never intended to leave. Either stuff that wasn’t supposed to be important or plot holes. I think it might be good to have a rule that if the players find a certain amount of evidence, then regardless of the intended answer, they’re right. Honestly, I think it might be fun to not have an intended solution, and just keep making up details until they find enough plot holes.

I’d think of it as once to set up Chekhov’s gun, and once to use it. I think that’s a good rule, but it should be clarified in session zero.

Also, if anything depends on the environment, you don’t need rules like this and you can directly control it to make sure it doesn’t happen often enough to get boring.

Legally, they can’t keep you from publishing 5e content. You can even publish the 5e rules in their entirety so long as you change all the wording and pictures. I think they can keep you from publishing stuff involving their settings and characters, but you can still use their system.

A common explanation is that there’s easy ways to ward against guns. But now we’re just doing Rowling’s job for her. Honestly, probably better than letting her do it.

That’s based on the idea that vampires are weak to silver, right? In D&D, they don’t seem to have that weakness. It should be werewolves, devils, wights, jackalweres, wraiths and night hags that don’t have reflections in silver mirrors. Also, the mirror in equipment is steel. The only way to get a silver mirror is to learn Sanctuary and have a component pouch.

And it does 1d4+strength damage, regardless of how big it is.

You can only make one object. I could understand if it was a big pot of soup, but I don’t see how this counts as one object.

Here’s how I’d use Fabricate to cook:

1. Fabricate plate mail.
2. Sell the plate mail.
3. Use the money to hire a chef.

Context?

Fail but barely? You hear one of them say he needs to use the chamber pot and head towards the door.

Back in 3.5, there were specific rules for dying of old age. 5e is less clear about it.

Wouldn’t he starve to death before dying of old age?