Absolutely agree. I set a game in the real(ish) world once, so it was a setting where everyone knew the base "lore." It was so nice! I could reference things, name-drop countries, and introduce old grudges without having to exposition it all. People just got things. We've since done enough games on the sword coast that that works too, now.

In a high level campaign I ran, I took the design philosophy that the villains were supernatural (e.g, dragon or lich), the average npc was weak (level 3 or less), and the characters were once-in-a-1000-years heros (level 10-20).

Every now and then they would have an obstacle involving regular humanoids or the local government and they had the option of just steamrolling everything (even whole platoons). It provided a great contrast to the magic-boss death matches and let the characters really feel special.

It also drove home that they were the only ones who could save the day.

Gets back up, "also, his name is Jolam." Lies back down.

Pretty much, only detail missing is that it was the season for fruit. So, there is an added sense that by all natural laws the tree should have had fruit and it's lack was a particular aberration to a societythat used the fig so much.

Also, thematically, it rounds out God's domains. Up to this point, there had been miracles showing dominion over weather, matter, human life, animal life, spirits, disease and now there's plant life.

Okay, but real talk, this looks like the equivalent of having a cutsy cuddle session at the firing range.

Even if you like guns/spells, you don't want to be kicking back, listening to your man read poetry while Samantha in the background is repeatedly screaming "IGNIS!" *BOOM* "IGNIS!" *BOOM* in her coked up magic voice.

Another aspect of the puzzle is that not every evil deserves death. A bum who does minor theft almost as a habit, a hateful bitter man who antagonizes everyone but obeys the law, a teenager, a greedy business person who employs half the town but makes everyone's life a bit worse, and so on.

Good should have the self restraint to not go straight to murder.

20 years

20 years

20 years on the other side of the planet with the average citizen so uninterested that weeks would past without a news story on it. How is that not the definition of terrifying? Hell, it was terrifying to Americans who were paying attention.

Just flee to the Astral plane, bro. They don't extradite.

This jpg rationing makes me sad for what we used to have. When I was young, the internet was young, and jpg was overflowing. But as we burned through the last of the cheaply minable jpg we had to turn to increasingly cost ineffective means, like jpg rigs to extract deposits from the ocean floor, and accordingly images everywhere became clearer and clearer.

It would all be fine if we could just make a cost effective way of recycling jpg or green jpg technology would be adopted worldwide. But that's not something you or I can accomplish, we need whole governments embracing the switch to new jpg sources for it work.

Yo dawg, you got that vaporwave wizard template without the text. It's real, yo.

*pushes glasses even higher* That rule specifically only applies when you use a bonus action to cast a spell. (Rules link). Two leveled spells using your actions are fine. Here's the relevant sage advice to confirm.

While the sage advice doesn't address leveled spells in action/reaction (e.g., fireball and counterspell) in the same turn, we can assume it is possible as no bonus action is used.

My favorite DMing style is what I like to call "train line DMing." The train goes to all the stops but you can do whatever you want at them.

There is a plot, no crazier than any purchased campaign, but it's structure consists of a chain of open-ended* scenarios. Its a contract: the players are willing to follow the general and well telegraphed line of plot hooks and in return they do whatever they want in the scenarios and I do my best to incorporate their interests and backstories.

And like all contracts it starts with explaining that and seeing who is interested. Example: "I want to run a short campaign where you explore X looking for Y. Be whoever you want, except one key part of your character is they want to find Y." Then we do it if people want.

*Open-ended here means "no right/pre-planned answer" not "no ending to lead to the next part." For example, city A has a cult to deal with and the leader has a letter pointing to city B. Whether they kill the leader, join the cult, plan an economic take down to render the cultists penniless and impotent, or something weirder, they get the letter.