Role-playing Games Stack Exchange
Role-playing Games Stack Exchange

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1500 questions
44
votes
14 answers

How do I run a maze scenario without using a map?

Inspired by a question on another site, what's the best way to add a labyrinth to an adventure scenario without making the challenges contingent upon player skill at mapping or navigation? I'd like to keep the tension of potentially getting delayed…
Jadasc
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13 answers

Storytelling with lie detection

Most of the fantasy systems I know have a spell to detect lies, speak with the dead, and the like. Imagine how long great movies like The Usual Suspects or In the Heat of the Night would have lasted if the detectives had access to Detect Lies or…
András
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9 answers

How can I run a successful play-by-post/play-by-e-mail game?

I've played in a couple of play-by-post games over the last couple of years, and they've all ended more-or-less unsatisfactorily. Usually posting would slowly wind down until we hit a bottleneck of some kind and it stopped entirely. If you have ever…
Oddysey
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5 answers

How can we make overcoming a language problem interesting?

I am currently involved in a game of Fate Accelerated, and one of our goals is learning the system and experimenting with it. In this game, two characters may have a language barrier to overcome. One is a regular girl; the other only has scattered…
doppelgreener
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5 answers

How can I preserve books, but keep them accessible?

How can I preserve my older, or more delicate, RPG books? My collection includes some older books (from the 1970s-1980s), some of which are in less than stellar condition. They may be paperbacks, have loose bindings, etc. I would like to preserve…
indigochild
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10 answers

How can I convince new players to read and learn the basic rules before sitting down to play?

Everyone in this story works mostly together. Some work friends and my wife were talking about playing D&D, and I was appointed the DM. I've played the game once 20 years ago, so I've spent the past few months buying the resources and learning as…
Scruffy
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16 answers

How do role-playing games avoid lame duck scenarios?

This is effectively the reverse of How can I end combat quickly when the outcome is inevitable? Lame duck scenarios in game design occur when a player cannot win, but the game isn't over yet. They're obviously undesirable, and good game design would…
Allure
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8 answers

How to deal with DM favoritism toward a player who is able to silence other players in order to avoid being constantly overruled by the group?

I've been in a campaign for the past 4 months with a very controlling DM and a player who has been dubbed their favorite. The DM in question is very flexible with anything in their game... as long as it benefits their favorite. Since I don't want to…
britbrodcast
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8 answers

How to play a devious character when you are not personally devious?

I am GMing a low-fantasy GURPS game, and I find that my amoral or immoral NPC's are easily seen through. On several occasions, I have tried to have an NPC dupe my players into being pawns. And every time, one particular player has caught on and…
Ryan_L
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3 answers

Is the Levitate spell supposed to basically disable a melee-based enemy?

We are a group of new players. I feel that I miss some important properties of the levitate spell, as it proved extremely powerful in the last encounter in Cragmaw Castle in The Lost Mine of Phandelver. The party caused an alarm to ring, which…
Nijin22
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4 answers

Our group keeps dying during the Lost Mine of Phandelver campaign. What are we doing wrong?

I am a player in a group running through the starter set campaign, Lost Mine of Phandelver. So far there is no introduction in the gameplay itself or to the underlying rules expectations of characters in order to succeed. All the enemies are so…
JasIll
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1 answer

What do Unicorns want?

I am making a Celestial Warlock who has made a pact with a particularly powerful Unicorn, as suggested in XgtE. One thing I want to do is flesh out the pact and my patron, but I am struggling to find anything that would make a Unicorn different to…
SeriousBri
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6 answers

Does flanking always grant advantage, or is it up to discussion?

The rules packet does not provide any specific rules about flanking. However the rule does say that the DM has lots of leeway in deciding when to give advantage or disadvantage in combat. Should it be understood that flanking always gives…
GMNoob
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16 answers

How does a GM deal effectively with a player unable to lose gracefully?

How does a GM handle effectively a player that overreacts to any negative effects the player's character suffers, like level drain or death?
Stefano Borini
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9 answers

How can I, as DM, avoid the Conga Line of Death occurring when implementing some form of flanking rule?

I’ve heard this phrase being thrown around sometimes on other game tables. Apparently, it describes a straight line of melee combatants on a grid, alternating between members of two opposing groups. This only occurs if the Flanking Variant Rule are…
hohenheim
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