Here I share the concept of backward planning which, when combined with Story Mapping, allows you to drive towards your singular inspiration without resorting to railroading your players. I hope it helps anyone struggling.

cross-posted from: https://ttrpg.network/post/7655321

All premieres at 9am PDT:

• Monday, July 1st - Spells Tuesday
• July 2nd - Crafting Sneak Peek (this is a short video; no premiere)
• Monday, July 8th - Monk
• Tuesday, July 9th - Sorcerer
• Wednesday, July 10th - Cleric Thursday
• July 11th - Bard Friday
• July 12th - New Dragon Designs

The funniest Out of Game moment I have ever had at the table was in my previous IRL group. We rotated who was in the DM chair, but this session our host, lets call him Phillip Barker, was running his Pathfinder campaign. The problem player, a hustlebro i shall name Emmett Roe, decides to flirt with an NPC. Phillip reciprocates but reveals the character is asexual. Emmett lost his shit, calling Phillip r♡♡♡♡♡♡d and asking “why are there f♡♡♡♡ts everywhere now” and yelling something dumb about genders and mental illness. Phillip calmly pulls down one of his zweihanders from a display rack and unsheathes it, walks over to him, and tells him “You're going to leave now.” Emmett leaves, Phillip sits back down, and we continue the game as if Emmet was never there.

This group, by the way, was the worst I have ever been in. I have never felt so lonely in a crowded room before. I've provided bios of the players below, including myself, with fake names taken from famous people. Have fun figuring out which one is me!

1. Phillip Barker (19): Does not smoke, but drinks and pretends to be a wine snob. Ran Shadowrun 5e and a homebrew PF1e campaign, and uses an old-school impartial referee mindset behind the screen. Hes also autistic, which mainly shows in him through rigid ethics about fairness. As a player, he was the Heart of the group, and kept our in-game squabbles from getting the game off-track or spilling over to real life. His Pathfinder campaign had lots of diverse groups that were fairly represented, and whenever an NPC judged one of our rainbow-flavored party members it was clear that this was the character being an asshole, not him. He put a lot of work into his sessions, sometimes extending to making a whole soundboard for background music, and he made sure to incorporate each of our characters into the plot in an organic way. Out of game, he was an aspiring catholic priest, and boy was he living up to the stereotype. He made a suspicious number of jokes about being both a nationalist and a socialist and therefore being a national socialist (he definitely was not a socialist), was a big fan of several “"alt-right"” personalities, made several very racist and homophobic jokes in public, tried to flirt with another player's underage little sister, and tries to hide the fact that he thinks most of the other players are going to hell for their sexuality. But he’s also super hot, so at the time I thought that balanced out.

2. Emmett Roe (19): Shadowrun DM, is a bit of a railroader. Looked like he was about 12 years old. Bullied me in high school, and has not significantly changed. After being kicked out, he cofounded a FLGS with his dad, but at this time his gigachad sigma male grindset was flipping Funko Pops.

3. Dave Arneston (19): The main Shadowrun DM, uses a “DM as Ringmaster/Entertainer” mindset. Autistic bisexual twink, and a hot one at that. Smokes, drinks, deals drugs. Dropped out of college, possibly because of the drugs. Is the reason Phillip has a “no smoking indoors” rule. Ran horror sessions that literally gave me nightmares. Dude method acts his characters. When he's playing, you are going to be sitting at the table with his character until the session is over.

4. Pablo Pineda (21): An AuDHD Shadowrun DM, uses a “DM as mediator/collaborator” mindset. Bisexual, but in denial about it even though he was dating a guy at the time. Does not drink or do any chemically addictive drugs. Dropped out of college after 1 semester because he didn't do any classwork and expected to just coast through, but maintains he's just “on a gap year” when questioned about it. Cannot stick with one fucking character for longer than a fucking month. Preferred to run heists with unusual stakes, locations, or macguffins. Had no social life outside of the game and was still doing the job he had in high school. Would engage in distracting sensory-seeking behaviors during game sessions; for example, during one session he wedged a d4 up his nose and had to go to urgent care to get it out. Overall, I would say that Pablo ruined my enjoyment of the actual game the most.

5. Henry Cavendish (19): Audience member. Does not smoke, drink, express feelings, or roleplay. Stereotypical autist. Plays a human fighter whenever possible. Keeps breaking up with Amy and getting back together. Usually a helpful person. On that sigma grindset with his long-term life plan.

6. Amy Winehouse (18): Femme-presenting nonbinary pansexual disaster. (she/them, prefers femme pronouns) Smoked weed to self-medicate, often while driving since driving scares her. As a result, she was generally too blasted during game sessions to read her character sheet or the tiny numbers on the dice. Also had trouble with maintaining a job, which resulted in periodic homelessness.

7. Theresa Berkley (19): Was Amy's best friend, and was invited by Amy. Vapes and drinks. The dudes all very much liked ~~her gigantic tiddies~~ her personality.

Unfortunately, no actual horror stories happened in this group. There were bad moments, and there were horrifying moments, but thats all they were: moments. So, here's a short list of the moments i can remember:

● As stated above, Henry and Amy would break up and get together repeatedly. When they were together, they would sit together snuggling, and Henry would help out Amy when her high ass needed support. When they were broken up, Amy was on her own. This resulted in a sad space of time when Henry had helped Amy make an Alchemist which exploited some complex rules interactions, but then let her just flounder after they broke up. He also went well out of his way to scare off any potential partner that might replace him when they broke up; Amy has told me about how she would be at a rave flirting with some hottie and suddenly Henry is right there calling her Babe and Honey until his competitor backs off. Apparently he used to only chase off men, but after Amy called him on this he worked on his internalized homophobia and now he walls her off from all partners equally. (Good for him, I guess?) This effectively made him the only option, and when they got back together he would smother her with appreciation and love. Carrot and stick, like a fucking cult leader.

● In our Shadowrun campaign, Emmett founded a Corp for our runners to work for. Normally, this would be mostly fine, especially for a group like ours. What wasn't fine was all the times an in-game argument would be resolved with Emmett's character saying “You work for me!”.

● Dave had a habit of not prepping for his sessions. Fair, he's got a life, he's hustling the good stuff and holding down a day job too. But this is Shadowrun! You have the material plane, the astral plane, and the Matrix to keep track of! You've got one player that has a bow that can shoot through walls, one player with a high-specced cyberdeck and a lot of experience using it, a vampire that can turn into mist and astral project, a guy who is basically We Have Tony Stark At Home, and a character who gets closer to being Robocop with every paycheck. You can't show up and wing it, because there are 5-6 of us and one of you. We can both outsmart you and outstupid you at the same time!

● Pablo's characters tend to make the table uncomfortable or be awkward to play with. Examples:

○ A human fighter going through a midlife crisis. He has a wife and child at home who think he is going on a business trip, when in reality he is putting his life in danger on a daily basis and bedding any woman he can seduce. This character was actually pretty similar to many of the other players’ actual parents, and was retired unceremoniously after he made Amy cry.

○ A dissonant technomancer. In Shadowrun, technomancers work their computer magic through Resonance, which is essentially the light side of the force. Dissonance is like the dark side, which encourages destruction, chaos, and insanity. Importantly, the compulsion to destroy vanishes the moment you unplug. Pablo spent a lot of time thinking about how to manage what is in effect a chronic illness when buying equipment. This made Amy uncomfortable because she plays to escape the reality of having a chronic illness. Phillip, on the other hand, was made uncomfortable by the murder hobo hacker they had to work with, since this caused interparty conflict and he Is Not Down With That.

○ His first Shadowrun character was a troll who had a very chaotic relationship with his size queen orc girlfriend. Their on-and-off relationship prompted the rest of the group to make fun of Amy and Henry for a bit. He also got some criticism from Phillip for establishing that the orc girlfriend was only dating him because he had a massive dong with subdermal cartilaginous bumps and ridges, but Dave LOVED role-playing the GF and made her existence a part of several sessions until Amy told him that sex stuff made her uncomfortable at the table.

● Pablo also used his (metal) dice as fidget toys, often loudly, sometimes disruptively. There were multiple times he has flung a d6 across the table in the middle if tense rp, and multiple times he had to be asked to stop shaking and rolling his (metal) dice when his characters weren't active. He also tended to chew on his nonmetal dice, especially his d20s.

● Pablo had a serious caffeine addiction. Like, it was actually a problem. He needed an intervention. The games often started at 7, 8, or 9 PM, and would show up with one or two thermoses of black coffee and drink it all before the session was over. He was often so jittery from the coffee that he couldn't focus during RP, and he often went without sleep (which probably made everything worse) to the point where he was hallucinating quite often. He bragged about this, like it was something to be proud of. Thankfully, when Covid hit he went cold turkey for all of quarantine, which fixed the problem.

● During one of Amy's unhoused periods, Phillip let her stay in his spare room in exchange for sex. She took him up on this, because what the fuck was she supposed to do? She had no job and no car at the time! So, she accepts, and Henry finds out and dumps her for it.

● Around the time that Amy invited Theresa to the table, they started renting a house together. For context, Amy had previously gotten back together with Henry after he forgave her for the previous story, but have at the time of this story once again broken up. Amy and Theresa had some problems with the basement. They would hear bumps, bangs, and the sounds of movement. This freaks them out so much one night that they call Henry, who tells them “You're not my gf so you're not my problem”. Amy then calls Pablo, who drives over at 2 AM and helps them clear out their basement until they feel safe. They continue having problems, and eventually determine that there is something evil down there. To fix this, they get Phillip to come over and exorcise their demonic basement, which works. Basement is no longer evil. They eventually lose the house because Theresa made all the bills Amy's responsibility to pay and did not contribute anything other than drama.

● You may notice I sound like I hate Theresa as a person, which would be an accurate statement. As a DM, she was infuriating to run for, mainly because she was so dependant on her vape that she would ask for a smoke break what felt like every five minutes. Made me question my abilities as a storyteller whenever she would interrupt to whine “fuuck I need a smoooke 😭”. As a person, it quickly became obvious that she was terrible to everyone. Her dating habits were especially horrendous; she had a toxic ass rebound boyfriend, but would preferentially bed men that Amy had expressed an interest in, including Henry. At the table she initially focused her attention on Phillip because he is a solid 12/10, but he got pissed right the fuck off with her constant smoke breaks so she ended up plowing furrows in her mattress with Dave a lot. Thankfully she left after we all got frustrated enough with her to stop giving her preferential treatment.

All in all, we were losers and stuck together because we were losers. I stayed for as long as I did because I thought I didn't deserve better. Besides, bad D&D is better than no D&D, right?

Thankfully I know better now. I left the group after Covid, and I almost immediately started making real progress. I got a better (but smaller) group of friends I play D&D with now. I also am no longer dependant on the magic bean to function, found my passion and have an actual big boy job now, and went back to college and am actually doing well this time! I honestly think keeping these losers in my life just held me back socially and emotionally.

In case you are as slow on the uptake as me, I am Pablo. If you are also a Pablo, don't be so hard on yourself. You'll grow at your own pace. At the time this story took place, I believed that I had peaked in middle school, and that it was all downhill from there, that I had missed my shot to be a complete person and no one would love me for me, least of all myself. It's easy to forget that your story is not over, because that story never existed. You likely define yourself in reaction to how others react to you, mixed with your memories. None of that is “real”. Your friends likely only remember you by the first impression you made on them, plus a few highlights. They aren't gonna remember your stutters and fumbles unless they are hilarious, and what they do remember will be broad strokes. On the other hand, your (non-traumatic) memories change slightly every time you access them until they are completely unusable. A good chunk of your memories are likely so mutated that they might as well be completely made-up. “You” is not a solid concept. “You” changes on a month to month basis. So take advantage of that. You can practice making a good first impression on people by going out and meeting lots of people. Pick up some new skills and hobbies. Make new friends, drop toxic ones, and don't look back. Keep trying new things. Nobody is going to remember how bad you were at it in the beginning, and you're not even going to remember your fuckups after a few months or years. That said, keep records of the stuff you did. You can't see how far you've come if you can't compare it to the garbage you made when you were a beginner, and we just established that your memories are not accurate. That's my advice. Go out and grow!

cross-posted from: https://ttrpg.network/post/7479802

2024 Player's Handbook Reveals (all premieres at 9am PDT)

Monday, June 24th - The Rogue Tuesday, June 25th - The Warlock Wednesday, June 26th - The Druid Thursday, June 27th - The Wizard Friday, June 28th - The Ranger

Wow, what a cashgrab. I wish they'd just announce six already. We should totally buy Hasbro and carve out Wizards as a community

Edit: It seems I never spelled out what my issue with 5e was. My grievance is that as a player the game doesn't empower me to do what I feel is the core fantasy of most classes. I can't fault the DMs for forgetting to include spell scrolls as loot or not do overland travel or whatever, they are small easy-to-forget things. It just gets frustrating when I ask the DM to give out a certain kind of loot or let me interact with other druids to do Druid things and then they (understandably) forget.

A while back, I got into a heated argument with a friend about 5e; I wanted to play a new system becuase I was getting tired of how generic 5e is, but my friend insisted that i could hombrew 5e to create any style of play i wanted. This was back in 2017 and we have not been friends for a while now, but I've been pondering how to homebrew 5e into a shape that encourages a specific style of play.

My main issue with 5e after all this time is that I don't feel like the classes actually encourage you to behave like your class. Druid is personally my favorite class because it's the exception (i liek da aminals) but every other class is at best somewhat samey and at worst actively frustrating (looking at you, PHB ranger).

Here's my thoughts about what I think the core fantasy of each class SHOULD be. Lmk what you think. I want to know if I am really off-base with these.

Bard: I think you play a Bard to be a drama queen and an artist.

Barbarian: s t r o n k

Cleric: The main appeal of being a cleric, for me, is promoting a god, proselytizing, doing outreach, building a temple, and most importantly asking the DM very specific questions about their setting and making them very happy. It's all about that faith babyyyy.

Druid: i liek da aminals. (fr, the actual appeal for me is similar to cleric but with Druid stuff)

Fighter: the only reason for me to play Fighter is the Battlemaster Archetype, so I can play 5e like the wargame it sometimes seems like it wants to be. I also like the Champion for the expanded crit range, but if you like being stronk like bull you could just play barbarian? (Starting to think that Barbarian should have been a Fighter subclass).

Monk: wuxia/xianxia. Kinda out of place, but I can dig it. They should have leaned more into that.

Paladin: The only class that I think was incredibly damaged by WotC's decision to make alignment not matter mechanically. IMHO, the concept of Oaths should have been more fleshed out, and there should have been consequences for breaking your oath included in the rules.

Ranger: the one time I played a ranger, I worked with the dm to homebrew some cool stuff for traveling so I could be the ultimate master of the wilderness. (We then went into a dungeon and spent the rest of the mini-campaign there.) I think a better ranger would have more cool stuff for traveling, and maybe let you make more animal friends.

Rogue: Stabby glass cannon skill monkey. 5e's rogue knows what it wants to be and it is very good at being its best self. I have never played a rogue, but I totally get the appeal. IMHO, best class in the game. I think the only way to improve the rogue would be to make skills better.

Sorceror: I have mixed feelings about the Sorceror. I like sorcery points, and I like being able to do more with a limited spell list. That said, if I want to play as a magical boy who casts spells as easily as breathing, I think there should be a way to slam together a spell-like effect on the spot with nothing but your Wits.

Warlock: My favorite misfit child. As a DM, I love how I can use this class to yank a player around my cool setting under the threat of [REDACTED]. However, I have noticed multiple players seem thrown off by this. As a player, I love using my Warlock pact to exploit the hell out of the setting for my own game, but the way it's spellcasting works runs completely counter to how every other class works. Ultimately, could be a better power fantasy, all things considered.

Wizard: I have a bone to pick with this class. Yes, this class offers a path to ultimate power. However, the main way you do this is by shoving spell scrolls into your spellbook like a kid on Halloween grabbing fistfuls of candy from a bowl labeled "Please Take 1". This means going into dungeons to find them, and hopefully also the gold to copy them into your spellbook. However, every DM I have played with seems to forget that spell scrolls, especially Cantrip spell scrolls, are a thing that exist and can be found as loot. More importantly, we rarely even go into the dungeons that these scrolls are in! In my opinion, the best way to make wizards playable is to make 2 changes to all or most of the other classes:

1. Give the other classes abilities that similarly depend on the Dungeon. Maybe give them stuff to spend copious amounts of money on?

2. Give some of the other spellcasters spellbooks so more people are hungry for scrolls. (Bard could definitely use a spellbook, since they are kinda like music wizards.) Then, all you would need to do is give the wizard some tiny boons to their spellbook usage to make it slightly more efficient than the other classes.

Artificer: Inventing stuff is cool! I just wish that WotC wasn't so scared of giving players the freedom to customize stuff. Maybe in another timeline we could have gotten an Artificer that functions like the PF1 Summoner. Also, guns. Not sure why they are so afraid of guns. Any table that bans Artificer is also going to ban guns, and any table that really wants guns will also really want Artificer. The venn diagram of Artificer enthusiasts and people who want guns in D&D is a circle.

Here's my thoughts on what I would need to do to make 5e conform to a style of play I like:

1. Cull the redundant classes so my work is a bit easier. Barbarian and Paladin become Fighter subclasses. Druid becomes a Cleric subclass. Eliminate Sorceror, Monk, Warlock, and Artificer until I know what to do with them. This leaves Bard, Cleric, Fighter, Ranger, Rogue, and Wizard.
2. Rework the lower levels to incentivise the core fantasy of each class.
3. At higher levels, give each class ludicrously expensive stuff to buy so they still want to go into the dungeons and get loot. Move the currency system to be based around copper pieces so I can more easily deploy the overcomplicated currency systems that make me happy.
4. Make skills a little more fun to work with. For example, maybe whenever you use a skill successfully yoh can increase your proficiency with that skill by 1?
5. Circle back to Sorceror, Warlock, Monk, and Artificer. Make new classes to replace them. Artificer gets a whole framework for fully custom inventions. Monk gets proper cultivation genre mechanics, diving deep into eastern alchemy on top of the standard martial arts flair. Sorceror has spellcasting, but also gets a toolkit for slapping together spell effects on the fly. Warlock gets a full point-buy system with their pact boons. I do not think this is very doable, though.

Lmk if I am completely off-base.

Are there FOSS alternatives to Roll20?

@dnd

I did a little googling and spotted Foundry Virtual Tabletop, but I haven't been able to explore many alternatives yet. Which ones are good?

#foss #opensource #DnD #ttrpg #rpg #dungeonsanddragons

#DnD DMs of the #Fediverse: Have you ever made a PC race illegal?

@dnd

I am feeling inspired by #mcdm_productions worldbuilding where all Dragonborn have a bounty on their heads, which was set by the current king. I would like to do something similar in mine with Orcs, but I'm not sure how to handle that lore-wise.

My normal DM is taking a little hiatus at the end of the summer, and has offered to let me run a game during that time. I, as a rule, let players choose what we are doing. The 2 campaigns I have prepped are most accurately described as this:

1. A Hunter: the Reckoning game set in my hometown. The party is playing as normal people with normal lives who hunt the things that lurk in the night on their off time. There is a turf war between angels and demons brewing downtown, Amazon is trapping and brainwashing werewolves in the national park, and the local Autism Mom group has recently started to try and cure their children through more sadistic means than normal. In the background, the secret alien invasion is about to get much worse, and the New World Order has sold us out. Have fun!

2. DnD as I wish I could play it. Open world, homebrew setting that I ran a 5e campaign in during Covid, using Knave. If you want cool abilities, you get those by finding magic items in the dungeons. Outside of that, tell me what interests you and we will do that. You want to do cleric stuff? A local priory has lost their sacred relic. Want political intrigue? The Marquis just to the north has a reputation of being horrific to his peasants, so get evidence, kidnap him, and drag him before the king to face judgement. There's a big world to explore.

Now, the thing that frustrates me is I have, on average, one sentence to convince each of my burned-out 20-something friends to do each game. If I send them anything longer than that, they will not read it. So, "monster hunting in the rust belt" is competing against "Open world where you can do whatever you want". I dont think that is fair.

I miss dungeon-crawls. But it's so hard to pitch them! Like, when I play a wizard, I want to go into dungeons, find spell scrolls for the DM's cool homebrew spells, copy them into my spellbook, and become the most versatile mage in the world; but when we play, we never even set foot in a dungeon because none of the other classes yearn for the mines at all! It just doesn't seem fair to me that the option I think is just as cool as Alien Invasion in Conspiracy Clown World, and the option I prefer, won't seem as cool to my players.

Edit:

Just to clarify, I am also excited to run Conspiracy Clown World. It was listed first because when I first heard I might get a shot to run something, that's what I started working on first. My reticence to run it, though, mainly stems from 2 problems that I think only I am having:

First, our current campaign is a morally grey, politically complex, character-driven campaign. The good guys are not winning, and that's 100% our fault; i might even go so far as to call it grimdark. Conspiracy Clown World, despite taking place in a giant funhouse painted to look like the real world, will be a morally grey, politically complex, character driven campaign in a grimdark setting with no good guys. It's more of the same. Maybe they will find it to be a pallette cleanser, but probably not me.

Second, I know from experience that I am going to feel like if I don't run Conspiracy Clown World for at least a year, I will not feel like the campaign has properly run its course. I don't think Dungeon World will be like that.

These are, from my perspective, selfish concerns. If the players want to hunt monsters in Conspiracy Clown World, thats what they are getting.

One if my players wants to make a character that's all about beig a master chef. I was wondering if anyone has suggestions on how to do that. He found a custom cook class online, but it's very convoluted and not beginner (which we all are) friendly. Now we're thinking how we could just take a normal magical class and (quite literally) flavor its abilities (having verbal components food-related maybe replace certain material components with, like, truffles and caviar or whatever).

I'd also be open to give him one or two fitting special abilities that could be useful under certain conditions, as long as it's still balanced, or use feets or something. Does anybody have ideas and suggestions?

I was curious to see what everyone likes to drink or snack on while playing D&D. I grew up on Mountain Dew and Doritos during sessions, usually with pizza if we playing through dinner (which we almost always did).

I recently watched the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode in which they did a parody of "The Island of Dr Moreau" and thought a mad scientist trying to turn people into animals could make for a fun minor character in my campaign. My players are en route to a dungeon and should be there in a few sessions, I'm thinking of making the dungeon the lab of a mad scientist who has gotten locked out of the lower levels due to a containment breach.

The details I have so far is that he is a gnome, currently named Prof. Moreau, who has created mongrelfolk while trying to turn a human into an animal.

The mongrelfolk are safely contained in the lower levels and have started to create their own society, I think the boss of the dungeon should be a Gibbering Mouther called One, as in Attempt One.

I think the Mongrelfolk should worship one as their leader and hate Moreau for keeping them locked in the lab.

What I'm stuck on now is what life is like for the mongrelfolk, what they believe and how they have organised society.

I wrote a short article exploring the history of Kobolds both in D&D and folklore and how it impacts the way we play them

Big fan of Matt Colville. I own Flee, Mortals the book and the PDF. I use the pdf in my games, but having everything in dndbeyond is also amazing. I think I’ll purchase it again and get Where Evil Lives too.

I’m stoked about all of the 3rd party content getting added such as Kobold Press. It’s making this digital stuff very worth it!

What does everyone else use and/or recommend?

Hopefully I'm not breaking any rules about self promotion or any other nonsense. If so let me know and I will either modify or remove.

I have recently found myself unemployed and I am going through and trying to work with a new programming stack that I haven't worked with in the past. Not sure what I am going to do with it yet, but I was hoping that there might be some people who are interested in trying it out.

In the past I have utilized other tools for tracking the content of my worlds, but I never found one that really worked for me. The last one that I ended up working with was worldanvil. The tools is amazing.... but, I found myself spending more time trying to make things look better than actually writing content. So here is my crack at things, you can register and poke around, if you have any thoughts for things that you would like to see let me know, not sure if I'm going to fully stand it up as a hosted things or maybe dump it as a docker container.

Thoughts and feedback would be greatly appreaciated.

Hi folks, I'm looking to join a game over zoom/google meet. Any recommendations of sites or discord servers where I could find a good group? Fyi I haven't played in like 20 years, so still kind of a noob to playing online.

I am running a Tabaxi rogue that is currently 4th level.

In a recent fight, purely to piss off the leader of a band of thugs, my character ran in the 20ft and lifted his gold pouch (lucky roll 19, for a total of 26), then proceeded to bonus action disengage. The feline agility racial ability allows me to double speed for a round, so was able to disengage to a distance of 40ft.

The DM was totally ok with this, I didn't actually do any damage and I "wasted" my turn for flavor and fun.

I get that you can't use slight of hand to perform a disarm, but what is are your thoughts on lifting daggers/arrows/spell components etc....which are not being held by an enemy?

This could be very OP if I'm allowed to steal a wizards components pouch, rendering them significantly less of a threat.

Hello all, I wrote this article about the old English epic Beowulf's influence on the RPG world. Check it out if that sounds interesting!

I'm not sure if I understand how this cantrip works. I really want to use it for silly things, like having my fun-sized -1 strength rogue smack a table indignantly, sending sparks flying everywhere and leaving a black mark on the wood, or sneaking up to a guard and soiling their pants, but that doesn't really work, does it? My DM said that spellcasting breaks stealth, and that typically people can tell that I am casting something if I am casting something, so what would I even use this for, if I basically can't use it to actually trick people? It wouldn't even be possible to cheat at card games, since anyone could tell that I just did some magic. Am I missing something here?

Hey all, please direct me to any community that would better serve me for this question and I will gladly delete here and move it there.

My conundrum: I have an old dining room table that is 30” high, 71” long, and 37.5” wide. It’s in my basement and sits against the wall when not in use and can be pulled out for room to sit on all sides.

I have 5 adult players and am adding a 6th to our table. It’s fine except for needing room for snacks and player accessories (sheets, dice, dice trays, etc).

I thought about getting a larger table that is foldable.

My other thought is what kind of accessories could I get that would help them be able to place things on the table but also leave room for my mat and miniatures? Is there anything that I could clamp on? Are there stands?

What options do I have? Money isn’t an object here, but I don’t want to have to break the bank if there are other options that I could do cheaper.