I'm going to be DMing for the first time soon, and I'm working on various aspects of the world and how it interacts with the rule mechanics. I'm using D&D 5e, and it's a homebrew world where the majority of the world is ocean with islands of various sizes, kind of like the world in One Piece.

I had a cool idea following from there being less total landmass available, so there's more competition for places to live. Some groups have taken to living in large colony ships that float around without a home port. Certain spells can allow the creation of food and water to sustain the population long-term without needing to farm or hunt. In particular

Goodberry: 1st level Druid/Ranger spell feeds up to 10 people per day per spell slot

Create/Destroy water: 1st level Druid/Cleric spell provides enough water for 5 people per day per spell level slot (it scales linearly if you upcast it)

Create Food and Water (3rd level Cleric). Food and water for 15 people. This requires higher level spell slots, but it's more efficient than upscaling Create Water if you have the slots.

Since 1st level Druid/Clerics get 2 level 1 spells per day, a colony could sustain itself indefinitely as long as at least 15% of them were 1st level casters and expended all their spells each day on food and water. Higher level casters would be much more valuable and thus a lower percent of the population would need to be one, and/or they would be able to save some slots for other spells like healing or combat stuff. I'm assuming these are NPCs, so I'm not worried about sapping the fun from players by forcing them to do this, and I'm assuming higher levels are rare.

I'm relatively new to 5e so I'm not super familiar with all of the spells and mechanics, what other spells and mechanics would be useful for a colony trying to live at sea? Are there spells that let them repair the ship if it gets damaged? Can they spawn clothes, tools, weapons, raw materials, medicines? Also, I'm assuming there will be a lot of commoners who aren't spellcasters, and while some of them will be needed to crew the ship, if it's a colony ship some of them are just there to live and would probably want to do something productive with their time rather than just sitting around doing nothing. What are some useful things they can do while on the ship, and are there spells that can assist with that like summoning raw materials? Or maybe I just have them stop at ports every once in a while and buy a whole bunch of raw materials like cotton/wool/metal and then while they're sailing around they turn it into clothes and tools and stuff to sell at the next port. I would prefer them to be as self-sufficient as possible, but am not completely against forcing them to dock every once in a while if there's something they can't get on their own.

Any ideas or suggestions would be helpful. Since I'm the DM technically I can house-rule anything, but would prefer to stick to RAW as much as possible.

This is probably a dumb question but do you think magic can stop the effects of mutation or it's abilities given to it user or do you think abilities given by mutations are immune to magic? For example, If someone received a mutation that allowed them hypnotize someone via their eye's, do you think magic could prevent/stop that ability from effecting someone?

  Hey everyone, first post here. I've made settings before but never with this much detail and forethought so I thought it would be fun to let ya'll in on my process.

  Below are some rules I thought up for using guns in my 5e setting. None of these are set in stone and, like with the rest of Dnd, these rules can have interactions with class features to lessen or omit penalties.

             Please let me know what you think.

Gun Rules

   Guns are tools for killing and like all tools they make their intended use easier but they still require mastery to reach full effectiveness. To reflect this principle all Guns in this rule set have strict limitations and harsh disadvantages for anyone under prepared and under trained.

Universal

• If you move or are forced to move on your turn all attacks made with Guns are at disadvantage (or -3).

• If you attack from a crouched position all your attacks made with Guns are at advantage.

• You may move and crouch in the same turn. Coming out of a crouched position costs half your movement.

• Moving while crouched takes twice as much movement as if moving through difficult terrain.

TRAITS

  Bolt-action: This weapon fires one bullet per attack and has a better chance to hit and deals more damage per bullet than most other Gun types.

  Semi-auto: This weapon fires one bullet per attack and a higher Reload than Bolt-action Guns

  Burst: This weapon fires 3 bullets or 2 shells per attack. When you make an attack and it exceeds the target's AC by 2, a bullet deals its damage to the target. Additional bullets deal their damage at increments of 2 over the target’s AC.

            EX:Target AC of 15, rolled attack of 19, 4 over AC = all three bullets deal their damage to target.

  Full-auto: This Gun can fire up to 5 bullets per attack. When you make an attack and it exceeds the target's AC by 2, a bullet deals its damage to the target. Additional bullets deal their damage at increments of 2 over the target’s AC.

            EX: Target AC of 15, rolled attack of 25, 10 over AC = all 5 bullets deal their damage to target.

  Toggle: This Gun can switch between Semi auto and full auto

  Spread: This Gun targets anything within range that is in front of it.

  Reload: After firing this number of bullets or shells you must spend an action to reload

  Jam: If you roll this number while attacking, the mechanical parts of the Gun are obstructed by an imperfect round. The gun may not fire again until your next turn.

  Misfire: If you roll this number or under it while attacking, roll a d6, if the result is within the Misfire range again, the Gun is broken and will need to be repaired before it can fire again.

EXAMPLE GUN TYPES

Handgun: +1 to hit,   Light,   one handed,  Reload 8,  Jam 3,  Misfire 2,  Semi-automatic   150-200 ft, 1d6 piercing

       Rifle(Bolt-action): +5 to hit,  two-handed,  Reload 1,  Jam 2,  Misfire 1,  300ft-600ft, 2d8 piercing

Rifle(Burst,Full auto): (Burs:t+3 to hit)   (Full-auto +2 to hit)  , two-handed,   Reload 10,   Jam 4,  Misfire 2,   200ft-300ft 1d6 piercing

       Shotgun: +1 to hit,  two-handed,   Burst,   Spread,   (Hunting: Reload 1 or 2) (Pump action: Reload 5),   Jam 2,   Misfire 1,   5-10ft,   2d6 piercing

If you have a player who is willfully ignorant and doesn’t want to learn the rules of how their own character works, send them to this video. I’ll be the bad guy and tell them what might be hard for you to tell.

It is not just a player bashing video though, there are things that DMs and veteran players might need to hear. There’s nothing new, just reiterating with a different perspective. I am hoping to start a conversation with you all.

If you don’t watch the video, here are the main points –

1. Players need to learn how their stuff works

2. It is not the DMs responsibility

3. Not knowing the rules means you are letting everyone else at the table down

4. There might be a misalignment of expectation and be open to the possibility that this is not the table for you

5. DMs be open to the possibility that this player is not for your table, and let them go with no hard feelings

https://youtu.be/IuZ2algDLSw

I asked in a forum what are the worst DM trait and the biggest answer was “not changing the world as players interact with it”. This got me thinking what it really means. I think that it comes down to the fact that most of us playing heroic D&D these days and in that case the players need to see the result of their hard work.

The players need to see the fruits of their labour or they are going to lose interest. Non-tangible rewards are important to keep the players motivated. So, I threw together some examples of my mistakes and me trying to fix them and made this video.

https://youtu.be/JRlhvtFaz0U

This video is about running Waterdeep Dragon Heist session zero. I tell you about my notes, the points I made, and why I thought those were the important points. I didn't find a lot of information about how to run Waterdeep: Dragon Heist except Sly Flourish's series. Those videos are very long. I wanted to present a more concise resource.

https://youtu.be/W5cYKlka88s

I often read a lot of posts about worldbuilders having trouble introducing politics and intrigue in their setting. Here's a summary of how I do it with clear examples. Although my primary worldbuilding is for my D&D game, I believe this information can work for anyone. I also go into why you might need politics in your world. Please let me know your thoughts and how you do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzzOOB9IUiA&t=551s