Pretty basic questions, what do you guys do to get into character? To find the little quirks and extras that make roleplay fun?

We are a few sessions into a new campaign and I think for the first time I choose to build a character that is very very removed from my own personality, especially in terms of extroversion. I have been playing DnD for a while but my longest running campaign is still with my first character ever which was a lot of self immersion, so it was very easy to get a well rounded rp experience.

We are a role-play heavy campaign and I do like characters that have their edges and weirdly specific quirks and characteristics so I was curious what methods and approaches some other people take to make a character really come to life!

i am going to keep this short and to the point.
’m legit not sure how to deal with this situation. played with my group of five for four years online, and a new guy joined a few months ago. our group is mostly open, with a moderate spectrum of political views but nothing abrasive.
Fastforward to now, and the dude turned out to be extreme right, and fascist. several of us are not okay with this, but others don’t quite see his behavior and statements the same way, especially the person who invited him to the group. our group doesn’t have a dedicated dm, so we don’t really have a “boss” per say. I don’t know what to do, but I’m deeply bothered by this situation and even considering leaving the group.

the heck do you do in this situation?

Hey everyone,

I’m creating a human fighter with an INT stat of 9 and I wanted to come up with a way to this out in RP. The solution I came up with is that he acts normal but mentions that he believes in conspiracy theories and random dumb stuff.

The only thing I’ve come up with so far is that he thinks all cats are female and all dogs are male but I was hoping someone could provide a more DND related one.

Guys,
Our party is trapped in a repeating cyclical scene of a campaign with no clear way out. Without writing an entire encyclopedia of the premise here the TLDR is; we are private investigators looking for a stolen museum artifact. The assistant director of the museum is also missing. This artifact controls time in some way. She uses it to open portals. We followed her in the material plane and she sent us all to a desert realm outside of a city. In the desert realm city we play the same 12 hour cycle over and over again. Events in this realm play out exactly the same no matter what we do. At the end of the 12 hour cycle we all die and respawn in the desert to begin again.

We have spent several sessions toiling in this loop getting nothing but more confusion from speaking to city dwellers and trying to be in the right place at the right time. We finally tracked down the assistant director lady and she basically told us - 1) things cant be changed here, 2) but actually they can, 3) stay out of our* way and let us do what we need to do, 4) fix the 8.

Her and another character are using these time loops for some unknown reason she wont tell us. The 8 refers to 8 repeating symbols we keep seeing.

29 sessions. We have no information from this all knowing assistance director lady. We have no way to translate the 8 symbols. No one in the city knows what the symbols mean or the language their texts are written in. Each day events play out in the same exact way, a slow destruction of the city. If we go to the areas that are destroyed we die. If we stay in the safe areas we die.

We dont know why we were sent here. What to do here. It appears nothing we do affect what THEY are doing to ‘save the world’ or whatever. We are totally checked out.

All of our party members have great backstories and are all played by veteran players. But we are fully ignoring all of the characters origins while stuck in this time loop. So the backstory related RP is just not possible, at least organically.

With none of our choices apparently affecting anything, and no ramifications due to the respawn mechanic we are totally checked out.

We’re sometimes thrown a bone through some respawn vision or similar small revelation. But even these often just contain vague words or more indecipherable symbols.

What would you do here? Mechanically or otherwise?
Do we just murder hobo since nothing matters?
Do we try to find a mechanic that can help us escape this place?
Or do we tell our DM how unfun this situation is and hope he lets us out lol

Advice is appreciated.
For context our party is lvl 6; 5.5e
Elf rouge, Elf rogue, Changeling warlock, Human barbarian, Aasimar wizard, Aasimar Bard

So I’m having a lot of trouble with my part when it comes to gold, they always want more, they demand payment from literally anyone for anything, they always search for some everywhere they go and they always ask me to give them some more as loot. However whenever I present opportunities for them to spend such gold they absolutely refuse to spend a single coin, for example, they visited a tavern and they wanted to buy some alcohol, the barkeeper told them it would cost them 50 gold pieces, they started to complain about how outrageous that was and demanded a discount, the barkeeper asked them to deal with some thugs in one of the tavern’s corners and if they managed to make them leave he would reduce the price to 25 gold pieces, they instead started a bar brawl and kidnapped the barkeeper. Another example, some time after that they started to go on a journey to some mountains they decided to make camp, I told them that all the supplies they needed to make camp had cost them each 5 gold pieces, they then proceeded to loudly complain about how unfair that was and refused to do so, instead insisting that with the druids powers they could command the trees to make them beds, give them food and timber for the fire (all of this only using talk with plants) and that using leomund’s tiny hut all the party (6 players plus, 3 knights and the kidnapped barkeeper) could fit and use it for an impenetrable shelter, the lengths they’ll go to not spend a single coin baffles me.

So after all this I’m very confused and lost as to what to do, they always want more gold but refuse to spend it, I recently introduced a magic item shop in the campaign so I hope they’ll at least be civil trying to spend gold there, however I was thinking of introducing lifestyle expenses to the campaign now that they were on the road but given their response at simply paying some camp supplies I fear I might cause a riot. Any tips as to how to deal with this? Or any ways I can make them spend that gold on something?

Edit: forgot to mention the reason the alcohol cost so much is they were asking for dozens of barrels and way too many bottles on a very exclusive tavern they knew was very expensive

I had never thought about it before but people really like Hex it seems like, I know that I do quite a lot. And it gives a lot of feeling of marking a target for dead. But it got me thinking, outside of the disadvantage on a particular save, it isn’t all that different from Hunter’s Mark. However, the largest criticism of 2024 ranger is the reliance on Hunter’s mark. So I am wondering, what makes hex fun and hunter’s mark so unfun if they are both trying to fulfill the role of “mark a target to die”.

Functionally the ranger should really enjoy the fantasy of “picking a target to hunt” but instead it just receives nothing but flack. I am really trying to look at this to understand this little bit of game design because these have ended up on such different parts of the spectrum

Okay so, this is kind of a weird edge case, but essentially I’m starting a campaign where characters are warped somewhere to be entertainment for an alien god. The characters aren’t supposed to know anything about each other, but I’d work with people if they want shared backstory.

This got me thinking: would it be okay to have players pick race and class before session zero just so there IS a sort of randomness? My thought process is just: “well if random warriors just got pulled from their respective universe, you wouldn’t have people filling roles as players, etc.”

Let me know what y’all think!

Edit: To clear up some confusion, we’re a group of highly experienced players (newest player has 10 years), and my players know each other well. My players are super nice to each other and end up filling roles to make a stereotypical party. Additionally, I would never do this without my party being on board with it. I’ve been playing for 2 decades and won’t be a jerk about things. The main idea is to let my players be selfish and play whatever they want. This is my way of letting them break out whatever character they really want to play, especially if there’s never a “good time” to play that character. I promise this isn’t some weird DM power trip lol

I created a smallish dungeon for my party. They were after a group of raiders who massacred a small village and stole a mcguffin. I decided that there wouldn’t be a ton of enemies; a handful of minions, a rock-head Oni, an admittedly powerful cleric, and instead of a third mini boss the last leader would be weak, but very intelligent.

So I hyped myself up, littered all kinds of creative traps; a weapon rack with one spear tied to some explosives, a tile that dumps excrement on the triggering creature, a magic mouth that just screams insults, etc. One trap was the only one I was sure would go to waste. A pitfall with a fake floor being held in place by an immovable rod.

it ended up being the only trap that went off correctly. The party beat the Oni and drove the smarty into retreat, but instead of looking around and finding the illusory wall the mage was standing behind or going through the courtyard they chased smarty down a hall until he stopped.

Every single one of them placed their characters onto the false floor and they began their threats and negotiations while the bandit is just standing there like…. no way??

One rolled high enough to see the floor had two slightly different heights and that he was suddenly feeling confident once he got into the spot where the floor drops about an inch… and then nobody checked. the bandit just held out and kept talking as one by one the players all moved into the hallway, including their npc recruit.

He pressed the button. The immovable rod fell, and the floor it was supporting swung down with them. Everyone got a dex based on how close they were to the ledge and only the bard escaped. The bard looked at the bandits and ran, realizing he was surrounded.

That’s how tonight’s session is opening, with everyone but the bard captured and trapped. i cannot wait.

What is your favorite trap you’ve ever made?

So we’re only two sessions into a new campaign.
Session 1 I prepped my ass off — went fine.
Session 2 I forgot to prep at all — went way better.
Apparently I’m a wizard when I panic.

One player has a backstory where he’s wanted by a faction that owns the starting town. They check the guild for wanted posters to see if they are looking for him, so I pretend to check my notes (there are no notes) and make some up. I mention a halfling thief with a small bounty.

Later they go shopping. It’s been too quiet so I roll a d20 on my nonexistent encounter table and say the party’s gold holder needs to roll Perception. He fails. Another player rolls and succeeds.

Boom: chase scene. Dex saves, parkour, the whole thing.

They ask who they’re chasing. First thing that pops into my head: halfling. The table immediately assumes it’s the halfling from the wanted posters.

I say it isn’t. They decide she must WORK for the halfling on the poster.
Sure. Yes-and. Let’s go.

They interrogate her, follow leads, and suddenly we’re in the headquarters of a previously non-existent halfling crime organization having an awesome fight. One of four players gets absolutely ganked by thugs with pack tactics and goes down. The rest end the fight on fumes and barely pull it off.

They loot, heal, and find a door. Rogue asks if it’s trapped.

It wasn’t.
But now it is.

He rolls Investigation. Success.
He rolls to disarm. Success.
The table erupts. I pretend to be annoyed they “saw through my clever trap.” They feel like geniuses.

Session ends. Everyone tells me they loved it.

They will never know I bullshitted my way through a 6-hour session on zero prep. I am the king of bullshit sitting on my throne of turds.

Anyone else accidentally build entire plot arcs from a single failed perception check?

I have discovered my newest favourite useless item, the Ring of invisibility. When the ring is worn(either on a finger or anything else), the ring turns invisible.

Absolutely Hilarious

But I’m curious

Please Give me your most creative and DM-infuriating uses for this item

I feel like this has some potential but I’m drawing a creative blank

Sorry, guys, gals, and tieflings. This one isn’t a happy one.

I’ve been playing DnD for 10 years, and DMing our group’s current campaign for 3 years now, this campaign being almost exclusively on discord due to distance. 2 years ago, one of our newest members joined the campaign through me telling her about DnD while we worked together. She became a beloved member of the party, being the punk purple half-orc fighter with blonde hair, who carried too many daggers and made bad dad jokes, who just loved getting into enemies’s faces as she axed them questions (see what I mean? Dad jokes)

Today, I found out that she passed away last week in her sleep. She was in her 30s and it was alcohol related.

I would…like to hear your stories about how you carry on after having lost a player, and how you honored them in your campaigns.

I(19f) had a campaign with all of my best friends and my ex(19m) who cheated on me was the dm for said campaign. Ever since we broke up we have not played but I truly fell in love with this campaign we built and it was getting to a heightened part! I also am a newish player so it sucks that the only “practice” I can get right now for dnd is finishing baldurs gate 3..😅

I dont know what to do because this guy literally cheated on me, should I just start a new campaign with the rest of my friends? I dont know which route to take!

We’re preparing for a siege in a coastal area, and I thought Plant Growth would be helpful since it’s instantaneous and forever-lasting. But DM says that since its Winter the overgrown plants will wither after 30 minutes to 1 hour. Is this the DM being harsh or fair? To let you know the DM thought there was a limited duration and to me it seems like he was finding an excuse to still make the siege harder for the players.

Basically the title. I’ve seen the topic of choosing IRL cantrips come up a lot, and obviously the very high-leveled spells can have world-altering consequences, so let’s keep this relatively street level.

Let’s say you can choose one 2nd-Level spell to cast in real life. You can cast it a few times per day (I’m not sure what would determine your IRL proficiency bonus), but cannot change the spell once you choose it.

Which spell do you choose and why?

EDIT: I initially tagged this post as “5th Edition” because that’s what I’ve played the most of (I learned on 4E, but everyone just gives me grief for that). If you want to pick a spell from a previous edition of D&D, you may do so as well. Just explain why for the whippersnappers like me!

Hey everyone,

I’ve been working on a passion project for the past few months and after my partner convinced me to share it, I’ve got it to a point where I’d love some feedback.

I run inperson games and if you’ve DM’d, I’m sure you know the pain of juggling DnD Beyond in one tab, ambient sound in another, some random NPC generator, my notes… etc etc. Half my brain on tab management instead of the game.

And soooo I present this browser-based (works offline), all-in-one DM toolkit with a dark fantasy UI.

It’s got:

• Combat tracker (initiative, HP, conditions)
• NPC generator for when players inevitably talk to someone I didn’t plan
• Quest/storyline tracker
• Spell and monster database (SRD)
• Built-in ambient soundscapes (tavern, storm, dungeon, etc.)
• Session notes tracking with NPC linking

It’s free, no account needed, and works offline once loaded - so no wifi dependency mi session, but please export your campaigns to be safe.

I’m still actively developing it and would genuinely love feedback on what would make it more useful.

Thank you!

dungeonconsole.com

I’m a first time DM of a group of 3 with all fairly new players. We’ve been running my campaign for about 6 months now and a few days ago we had our first session together after the winter break. Before the break they defeated a vampire and rescued several NPCs, one of them joined the party and who is gonna tag along for a while. Since the last session we had was a while ago I just wanted to do something calm, to get back into it. They just had lunch with the mayor and then started traveling to the next city to follow the BBEG.

Now to my problem: Even after half a year of playing this campaign my players characters have barely built an interpersonal relationship. They hardly talk to each other or my NPCs. I offer them multiple opportunities to talk to each other each session but they decide to “walk in silence” or “sit here and don’t answer”. Two of them play characters from the “dark-past-loner-don’t-trust-anyone-but-myself” archetype and I feel like the third one is also getting frustrated with carrying every single interaction.

I’m not sure what to do. I don’t just want to have them silently walk from puzzle to battle to puzzle all the time, I want to watch them develop their characters. Should I talk to them? How can I insetevise/nurture in-character conversations in my session?

Any advice is appreciated :)

PS: Sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes - English is my second language.

For context. I’m a teacher and an avid D&D Dungeon master and I love playing the game with my students at an international school, so far that I have already two campaigns ongoing. I’ve started the newest one just this year and we had three sessions already.

As a DM and Player I love writing recaps for my players to remember what happened. I’m not a good writer, so they are usually quite meh with a little scent of Terry Pratchett’s humour. Usually 3-4 paragraphs per session.

My student told me that she enjoys our recaps, and she read them to her smaller sister and her parents as a good-night story. I can also see that she seems so much happier as soon as we play D&D at school, and I kinda realize how important it becomes as a part of it.

He’s nearly 8 and she’s 4, and I’m trying to figure how old they oughta be before I try running some family games with them and my wife (she’s not a player otherwise but she’s on board). Anybody got experience in that area?

I am a DM in a Faerûn setting. I have an NPC that’s going to be doing a stand-up set as part of a wedding between two of my player characters and I’m looking for some inspiration or ideas for some jokes. The kind of jokes that would fit in a standard D&D setting, especially around the Sword Coast, but any suggestions would be appreciated.

… and it was one of the best compliments I got so far for my campaign!

Context: Every now and then I hand out a single page mock-newspaper to my players, so their characters learn in other parts of the world - mostly if it’s important for them or the story, to give hooks and to show good and bad consequences.

A few sessions ago, they defeated the nemesis of the group’s paladin and ascending evil guy, and got him imprisoned. After that they left the city to start collecting the macguffins they will later need and because they realized they cannot stop the demon invasion into the city because no one really believes them.

From a distance they see the invasion, but they decide to carry on.

Now, another few sessions and a month in-game later, they read the newspaper handout and see the twist: the nemesis guy ascended to demonhood and got placed as governor of the invaded city by the demon lord.

While they were reading the news, I saw their faces going from “aha, yeah, ok” to “holy shit, that bastard!”

Two of them tore apart the newspaper and I knew I nailed this returning villain.

What was the best compliment you got for your campaign?