MerricB

The most significant factor in the long-term success of a TTRPG, IMO, is how it sustains being played again, again and again by the same group.

The initial success requires a hook of some sort. Either a quality game+concept (and luck), or borrowing a quality concept from elsewhere.

It really is!

The series I have the most platinums in is Yakuza - 8 so far - with Final Fantasy having 6 and Assassin's Creed having 5.

There are a lot of VERY good games that I've played, especially story-based games.

I've now owned a Playstation for 3 years. In that time, I've played 111 games enough to get at least one trophy, 57 of them to end credits, and 26 obsessively enough to get the platinum trophy...

My beloved Moonshae campaign is going to be available on the DMs Guild in bundle form. The first bundle is now available, and it's a bargain!

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The ebook package for my 5e book of ten 5e subterranean adventures, Ruins of the Grendleroot, is on sale for $5!

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#dnd #ttrpg

Ran a session last night with a monster from Kobold Press that could hide in sand as a bonus action. When used with the 2024 rule that one character finding it, finds it for all - felt pretty good.

Wish the rest of the 2024 hiding rules were well written and explained. (Errata has not helped).

Good to hear!

The time on the weekend I didn't spend playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was spent thinking about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

It's one of the few 3.5E books I didn't pick up. That and Tome of Magic.

Meanwhile, my campaigns made EXTENSIVE use of Magic of Incarnum.

How many times do you have to run a published adventure to really understand its potential?

For some of them, once is definitely not enough! (And yeah, there are published adventures I'd *definitely* run again).

The mechanics aren't well distributed or balanced. Vex is just so, so good for the dex paladin in the group. While others feel like "whatever".

Thankfully, I haven't had to deal with topple/pushing much.

I was just thinking about how much I hate the Steady Aim ability for rogues... So random for me to get upset by, but still...

There are things in it which are fantastic improvements... but so much stuff that I dislike as well.

Never had an edition - including 4E - which gave me this reaction.

In D&D 2014, the shadow was incorporeal, and that was represented in the mechanics by making it resistant to normal weapons and giving it resistance to elemental damage.

In D&D 2024, they removed the resistance to normal weapons and gave it more hit points. BUT KEPT ELEMENTAL RESISTANCES!

I *really* liked D&D 2014. But I feel that I may need to homebrew the game a lot now to get the game to a place that I like.

I am not a big homebrewer. I like using the pieces of the rules other people have designed to create my adventures and campaigns.

But D&D 2024 has gone in a direction that I dislike. A lot of the underlying philosophy of character abilities and monster design is antithetical to how I want to play.

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#dnd #ttrpg

I was trying to remember which of the other JRPGs I was playing recently where damage type also mattered a lot - and now I remember it was Yakuza: Like A Dragon (and Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth).

Because each character had different abilities, your choices mattered.

Just drop it on them. Let them figure it out... :)

I Want Magic Weapons to Matter - Merric's Musings There’s part of me that wants to put monsters that can only be hit by +1, +2 or even +3 weapons back into the game. And you’re wondering, “Why do you hate your players so much?” “I’m an old school DM....

Thinking about magic weapons in D&D 5E and 2024:
merricb.com/2025/04/24/i...

Imagine a monster with the following immunities and resistances:

Immune: non-magical weapons
Resistant: magical weapons of less than +2.

Very alien to the 2024 D&D mindset, but something I'm considering introducing to my game.

Approach *may* be intended to work with the target using the Dash action. And if a rogue, also Cunning Action to Dash. (The wording with Flee sort of implies that).

It's very imprecise, though.

(Also, shout "Approach" to a creature on top of a 60-foot cliff!)

I may have lost a couple of days because I discovered Blue Prince.

Mixing 4E material with 5E? Heresy! ;)

Had one of those Greyhawk sessions where I wasn't quite sure where the game would go, and through discussions with the players we discovered the rogue's mother (an elf) is no longer at her home in the Free City and has travelled to Celene.

Things are afoot!

Fireball for 17th level characters doesn't always work.

Deleted. You bring up correct points.

There's stuff in 2024 that is really, really good.

And then stuff that makes me so frustrated.

Yeah, exactly.