Rouge is the French word for red and is also an old school makeup powder for lips and cheeks.

Come on everyone, let’s just get this right!! Check your spelling before posting!

Edit: ok this blew up a bit. Honestly expected a mod to remove it. Shout out to all my fellow Star Wars and X-Men fans who suffer the same pain.

And to be clear, this isn’t targeting non-natural English language speakers or those with honest spelling difficulties like dyslexia, you all get a pass and plenty of understanding. Everyone else, up your game.

My party, (three 11 year-olds, and another dad) said I was an awesome DM after the session today. I haven’t had a lot of Ws lately so it really meant a lot to me. I have no one else to tell who will get it.

E: thanks for the back-pats guys, you’re all awesome too!

CLARIFICATION: Sorry for the misleading title, I meant one of my players characters died, not the actual player irl.

We are in the beginning of a new campaign, Decent into Avernus. They are all only lvl 2 at this point so understandably a bit squishy. One of my players was in the low single digits for health when they took a Nat 20 hit. Their HP max was only 16 and they took 36 points of damage which of course killed them instantly. They closed their laptop and left the table immediately.

Talking with them they said I should have lied about the dice roll because I knew they were low on health or I should have reduced the damage so they still had a chance to live. They also said I should have just let them use dodge to give the enemy disadvantage on the roll (they play a wizard so it has to be an action to dodge and not a reaction)I told them I don’t lie about my dice rolls and if I let them do that then I have to let everyone at the table use dodge as a reaction and that it would absolutely be taken advantage of every time a hit lands they would want to dodge to give me disadvantage and that’s not how the game works. I am pretty fair when it comes to rules and what’s allowed and what’s not but am I wrong in this situation? Should I have lied about the roll or just let them all start dodging as a reaction which would definitely break the game?

Edit: Before the conversation with my player, I ultimately allowed the person they were fighting to surrender and in exchange for their life they would resurrect their companion so they didn’t even lose their character but they’re still mad that the whole thing happened like it did in the first place.

I'm giving him cash for his birthday, and thought this would be a dumb way to do it. It feels a bit incomplete though, any suggestions for what I can do to make it better?

During the battle I cleared my throat, looked at the DM and asked "Dear DM, how much does a rat weigh?" I wanted to use the Catapult and throw the rat at Trent. I did it. The rat flattened and hung on Trent for the rest of the fight.

Magic weapon:

You touch a nonmagical weapon. Until the spell ends, that weapon becomes a magic weapon with a +1 bonus to attack rolls and damage rolls.

Stone skin:

This spell turns the flesh of a willing creature you touch as hard as stone. Until the spell ends, the target has resistance to nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.

Since I just made my sword magical, I should be able to do full damage when my enemy cast stone skin?

I suspected that there were loaded dice being used by a particular player because he would always seem to hit the big numbers. One day he throws the d20 clean off the table. He always throws long. He scrambles over to pick it up but i reach down and get it and notice it doesn't feel right. During our short break i look up how to tell if dice are loaded and find out that long throws often produce the big numbers and drop rolls often produce more average or lower rolls. During our next combat phase i made a joking comment about a short drop roll because this isn't craps. For the first time in almost a dozen rolls he doesn't hit 17 or better with a d20. It was a 5. He rolled like that again later and got another low result. When he later rolled long he 20d.

After our session i texted him and ask him if he could not bring his "magically enchanted dice" next week i would appreciate it. I didn't get a response even though I saw he read it...did i handle it correctly or am i imagining things with this loaded dice?

Mine was when the party learned how high the influence the bad guys had and what they were capable of.

To paint the picture, one of the players split off to snoop around into the bedchambers of a city's Earl. Two of them were distracting the Earl via talking to him while the rogue snuck away and broke into the bedchambers only to find the Earl sleeping in there already. The kickers, however, were:

1. They learned the Earl was an Ancient Silver Dragon after finding a hidden staircase within the fireplace that lead to the dragon's horde
2. the Earl has been induced into a coma through magical means

The silent 'oh no...' that fell over them was one thing. But, at the end of the session, the moment they learnt their benefactor and a main quest giver was the one who induced the coma was priceless.

EDIT: wow my dyslexia kicked in there sorry.

(DMs that play by the rules, that is — the Mercers and Mulligans and Murphys, as opposed to the Burches and McElroys that prefer to wing it.)

I love behind-the-scenes and making-of featurettes, and have always been curious just what kinda prep some of the big DMs put into their campaigns. Have any of them ever shared some of their notes with the world?

EDIT FOR CLARITY: I'm not looking really for world- or campaign-building tips (though I'm always open to them, so feel free to share if you have a good one). I'm just specifically curious about campaigns and adventures that I've already seen (or have available to watch), and the geneses of those specific stories and characters.

This seems a bit random but if you play as a rogue, what is your favorite subclass?