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A player wants to teleport home, grab someone, and teleport back.
There is a creature or object in the room that they player wants to teleport to.

Other spells, using dimension door (PHB pg. 221) as an example, describe the penalties for teleporting into an occupied space.

If you arrive in a place that is already occupied by a solid body, you and each creature traveling with you take 1d6 points of damage and are shunted to a random open space on a suitable surface within 100 feet of the intended location.

Teleport (PHB pg. 293) only mentions a penalty based on a % roll and the familiarity of the location, the worst being a "mishap".

Mishap: You and anyone else teleporting with you have gotten “scrambled.” You each take 1d10 points of damage, and you reroll on the chart to see where you wind up.

Since teleport did not mention anything about teleporting to a location occupied by a person, I took it to mean that when the player teleported they would arrive at the nearest unoccupied space to that location. I took it to mean that if the authors intended for the teleport spell to forcefully shunt players, or cause the spell to fail, it would have said so.

What's the consensus about teleporting into a room that is currently being occupied by a passerby?

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If there were any penalties or consequences of teleporting into an occupied space – like being shunted away or taking damage - the spell would say so.

In contrast to Dimension Door, where you transfer yourself to an exact "spot within range“, Teleport only needs a general destination. It can be more or less anything - a wardrobe, a clearing, a market place, ... The caster only needs to have "some clear idea of the location“, they don’t have to indicate a precise spot. So as long as there (= somewhere within the bounderies of the place) is enough room for the caster and the creatures/objects brought along, the spell works.

It is not quite clear what happens if there is not enough room (for instance, if a chamber is completely filled with creatures or objects or if a Gnoll is now hiding in the wardrobe).

The general rules for Conjuration Spells say that

A creature or object brought into being or transported to your location by a conjuration spell cannot appear inside another creature or object, nor can it appear floating in an empty space. It must arrive in an open location on a surface capable of supporting it.

Although this refers to creatures/objects "transported to your location“ it seems reasonable to say that you also need "an open location on a surface capable of supporting“ you if you try to teleport yourself. Thus, a place which is "full“ is not a valid destination and will cause the spell to fail.

If you ever try to cast a spell in conditions where the characteristics of the spell cannot be made to conform, the casting fails and the spell is wasted.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Do you think that if the place is completely full and you were envisioning place with, y'know, space, a DM might rule it is a :“False destination” is a place that does not truly exist or if you are teleporting to an otherwise familiar location that no longer exists as such or has been so completely altered as to no longer be familiar to you.? \$\endgroup\$
    – Alan
    Feb 2 at 9:37
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Alan No, I don't think so. The location remains the same, regardless of the number of creatures that are currently present. \$\endgroup\$
    – Peregrin
    Feb 2 at 10:18

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