72
votes
Accepted
Player character wants a gun in a prehistoric campaign. What to do?
You are the DM, you can say No, although "No, but ..." also works
You are not required to change your world to accommodate a single player. What are the other players creating, as ...
- 144k
65
votes
Can you run D&D 5e in a post-modern setting without magic?
You're trying to force a round peg into a square hole
Could you play in a post-modern setting with D&D by just using non-caster classes, non-magical feats, and redefining some of the other classes'...
- 135k
54
votes
Accepted
What tabletop setting (if any) is this 1980s map from?
That is a map of Middle-Earth showing the south and east along with the traditional map section from the novels.
As noted in the listing for this Middle-earth map on Geographicus.com, this map was ...
- 652
48
votes
How can live fire exercises be made safer?
Use Faerie Fire as a surrogate for Fireball
Advantages:
Faerie Fire is non-lethal.
Like Fireball, Faerie Fire uses a Dexterity saving throw.
Targets who fail the save light up, making it easy to ...
- 6,871
47
votes
Accepted
Are there guidelines for punishments for crimes?
First, there are no lists of punishments in the rules.
Second, the default D&D 5e setting is a fantasy medieval one, as such, imprisonment is an inappropriate punishment. Imprisonment as a ...
- 216k
47
votes
Does Forgotten Realms setting count as “High magic”?
The primary question here, to me, is, what exactly constitutes “high magic”? D&D itself supplies a definition—but I don’t think it’s a good one, it doesn’t capture, to me, what people mean when ...
- 361k
39
votes
Accepted
A witcher and their apprentice…
Actually, the master don't have to be better at everything. For example he may have been targeted by a curse which makes him unable to use magic/less good at combat. Maybe despite all his years of ...
- 21.5k
38
votes
Player character wants a gun in a prehistoric campaign. What to do?
There's nothing inherently "bad" or "unreasonable" about limiting your players' character creation.
You as the DM have the responsibility to create and populate your world. It's ...
- 8,140
35
votes
I'm feeling like my character doesn't fit the campaign
Given that the DM seems to dislike the idea of a change of cast, you are not feeling like playing this character like you're playing it now and your friend seems uninterested in changing his ways to ...
- 35.5k
34
votes
Accepted
Does Forgotten Realms setting count as “High magic”?
The Forgotten Realms is not "high magic"; it represents D&D's standard level of magic (DMG p.9, p23).
While magic is somewhat commonplace in the Forgotten Realms, this is really the ...
- 84.5k
33
votes
Can you run D&D 5e in a post-modern setting without magic?
I've run D&D without magic. It technically works, but there's a lot missing.
TLDR: The easy way is to cut all classes/subclasses/races/subraces that are too magical for your setting, and to fluff ...
- 14.2k
32
votes
Accepted
What would it take for a villain to get his domain transported to Ravenloft on purpose?
The Dark Lords are all about punishing people. They would be considered sadistic, if they demonstrated any pleasure in administering these punishments. It is the need for punishment that drives their ...
- 49k
30
votes
How can live fire exercises be made safer?
Have the player research a non-lethal training fireball
Real world militaries have spent considerable amounts of R&D resources developing training equipment to create exercises as faithful to real ...
- 449
27
votes
Accepted
Do paper books exist in the 5th ed. of D&D?
The traditional D&D Spellbook is far more costly than a simple codex-type book needs to be -- made that way to protect a wizard's most valuable resource. Vellum (a type of leather scraped thin, ...
- 16.2k
26
votes
A witcher and their apprentice…
The assumption that the master is better in everything because he is the master is false. The master is better in the relevant aspects of his craft. There is no need to weaken him, simply make the ...
- 2,442
25
votes
I'm feeling like my character doesn't fit the campaign
The Real Problem: Your Character Has No Stake
There is an open question about the game world (does magic exist?) which your PC and the other PC have staked out opposite sides of.
The action of the ...
- 45.7k
25
votes
Accepted
How can live fire exercises be made safer?
I assume you're the DM. If not so, please disregard this answer.
Give them access to a simple, homebrew magic item that turns their spells into harmless bombs of paint while the spellcaster is ...
- 16.3k
24
votes
Accepted
Could an elf PC start adventuring at the age of 20?
This is a question that is probably more about the world your campaign is located.
Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms (in numerous novels) indicate that elves at the age of 20 would appear to our ...
- 4,125
24
votes
Accepted
Is Matt Mercer's homebrew setting of Exandria now considered an official setting, as of the release of the "Explorer's Guide to Wildemount"?
The Amazon listing for the book1 lists the "Wizards RPG Team" as the Author, with Matt Mercer only as a Contributor. You can click the Wizards RPG Team to see their page and all the books ...
- 1,057
22
votes
Accepted
Does an Underdark exist in D&D worlds other than the Forgotten Realms?
Greyhawk: Descent into the Depths of the Earth
The Underdark concept originated in Greyhawk with the in the AD&D adventure module Descent into the Depths of the Earth, published first as two ...
- 154k
21
votes
Accepted
I'm feeling like my character doesn't fit the campaign
Sometimes the game you are playing simply isn't the game you believed you signed up for. Happened to me few times, see first paragraph here for an example.
You talked to the DM and to the fellow ...
- 26.2k
21
votes
Does an Underdark exist in D&D worlds other than the Forgotten Realms?
The Underdark originated in Greyhawk, not the Forgotten Realms
The modules D1 and D2 which followed the original three Giants modules, came out in 1978 and were the introduction of the Underdark via ...
- 144k
20
votes
Accepted
What human ethnicities exist in other settings besides the Forgotten Realms?
Those ethnicities are specific to Faerûn; other settings have their own ethnicities.
As you correctly surmise, the Player's Handbook clearly defines the nine major ethnic groups as specific to Faerûn,...
- 84.5k
19
votes
If Drow and Duergar are allowed as monsters in the D&D 5e SRD, are they allowed as subraces as well?
You may not reprint the official Drow and Duergar subrace options
The monsters and the subraces are different mechanically, and those non-OGL subrace mechanics are exactly what you’re hoping to use. ...
- 244k
19
votes
Accepted
Can Blades in the Dark be played in a custom setting?
Blades in the Dark works with custom settings, as long as those settings match the assumptions of the system.
The Doskvol setting is presented in the book to give groups a clear starting point, but ...
- 3,914
18
votes
Player character wants a gun in a prehistoric campaign. What to do?
Don't let him play that character in this game
Your player has made a character they want to play and is used to being the only DM so they haven't got a chance to play it. That's pretty usual, but ...
- 67.9k
18
votes
Moving between different D&D universes
Within the default D&D cosmology, Athas is not a different plane, but is in another crystal sphere in the prime material plane. You can have a look at the following answer for the nuances between ...
- 22.3k
18
votes
How can I best set expectations for and run a campaign in a darker setting?
Bad places can have good guys, too
Your title and your body are asking slightly different things. The title is about how to run a campaign in a darker setting. However, the body also talks about the ...
- 135k
16
votes
Are there official rules for Vecna published for 5E?
This answer was correct until June 2022, when stats for Vecna pre-ascension were released on D&D Beyond.
Not yet
While D&D third and fourth edition provided statistics for Vecna, there aren't ...
- 84.5k
15
votes
Is Forgotten Realms the default setting in 5e?
No. The default setting is the multiverse of all D&D worlds, which includes the Forgotten Realms.
Jeremy Crawford, in 2015, states this in a tweet:
Does the #dnd tabletop RPG have one official ...
- 84.5k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible