I prefer games with player-facing rolls. I also prefer emergent gameplay so I’ll roll on random charts, but that’s it. Stakes are stakes, and character death should be something in the forefront of player minds imo

What stakes do you have in your games? What does your prep look like?

Idk it’s like my second favorite edition of D&D©️ after b/x. There are dozens of us!

These are just things I learned running it and they worked for me but might not be the case for everybody

• Focus on just the core book. WoD has always suffered from bloat and an early game I ran got out of hand pretty quick bc I let PCs pick from anything

• Start small. 5e I think does a balance of horror great, but don’t worry about shit going on in the far corners of the world with millennia-old vampires; let your PCs carve their niche out first

• Lorebooks at your own risk. I didn’t like them but again, IDGAF about the metaplot

• Don’t forget hunger is always there and should affect rolls but also you should always be challenging that hunger. I’m not a combative dm/st/gm whatever but like … I think that’s the whole point. Kindred existence is just a constant war of controlling the Beast.

• Ask lots of questions and use those answers against the players especially during character creation and extra especially with Advantages and Flaws

• Watch having thin-bloods in with your genned kindred. I felt like there was a huge power gap, or at least make players aware it might get weird

Idk the rules went fine but I’m used to WoD dice pool weirdness. I never house-ruled any of the 5e rules myself other than the mixed-gen coterie thing

Strikes and gutters, ups and downs. This year’s been the drizzling shits, and it’s tough to keep my chin up but I’m getting by.

Hope you’re doing great OP

This is gonna stretch the definition but

Dorthia Cottrell from Windhand did a country album and it’s so good

What’s really cool is the shitty search function that shows everything BUT the episodes you’re looking for and also the fact that if a production company from a show you finished puts out a new podcast that you are interested in, there’s no way to find it and subscribe to listen to it

Thanks! They’re the best

She is the daintiest little thing and the noises that she makes like elephant grunts 🥰🥰

We have two others a 17 year old lab mix I’ve had since he was 4 months old and a 10 year old beagle shepherd that my wife got while we were dating/roommates

She’s part staffie part beagle part pug part American Eskimo dog part pit all 35 lbs of love 😄

Someone who got her litter mate did one of those genetic tests and that was the top 5 lol just a mutt

It’s Eevee!

With most of Twix behind her lol

Natural 20s don’t matter except on attack rolls RAW

What other game is the second group playing?

I found that the idea of “D&D” doesn’t match with the reality of D&D® (or adjacent like Pathfinder and Shadow of the Demon Lord). Like most people think of grand stories with climactic moments and character growth and the modern D&D offers more of a “square - counting, binary pass/fail roll slog, abstract resource management with little character choice after 3rd level, and almost zero risk” experience. Which is great in a video game, but boring at the table.

I’ve ran D&D® (or adjacent) for numerous groups for over 30 years now across multiple editions and the most success in the D&D® framework I had was B/X, but I think the game that comes closest to realizing “D&D” as a concept is Dungeon World. No overwhelming player facing textbooks, and it constantly pushes the narrative forward no matter what the outcome of a roll is. It’s also free.

There’s thousands of different games out there from more complex than D&D to single word RPGs. Find the right one for you and your group 😄