Chebucto Regional Softball Club

These are the natural results of their actions. This is how they *learn*.

> Not automatically pass/fail, because the consequences of that are bonkers. Agreed

For stuff that isn't story related, and if the group is in the right frame of mind, I'd ham up 1 and 20 on social roles. Nobody is selling their estate, but they might decide they take a shine to the PC or something else that's fun. Similarly, a nat-1 could get the NPC offended, so they refuse a request grumpily or only help grudgingly. Otherwise, I think what you're saying is how I'd play it.

You're right, but I don't know most of my PCs stats. If the DC on a lock is 21, I'd expect a rogue *might* make it, but another PC who has never picked a lock wouldn't.

Agreed, auto success on a skill check nerfs challenges. If the DC is so high that the PC doesn't succeed with a 20, it seems too random to give it to them. Then again, it depends on the situation: a nat 20 trying to convince the penny pinching tavern owner to give you a discount seems like fun even if the DC should be infinite; but when dealing with something story related, I'd stick a little closer to the rules.

**Warning: minor spoilers for Waterdeep: Dragon Heist.** There's a scene in Dragon Heist where an NPC dies off screen, and the players need to investigate it. Well, I choose Durnan, from the Yawning Portal because the players had liked him and other significant NPCs were necessary for character arcs. We were playing on a VTT, so when the PCs ran outside, I switched up the music to something melancholy and the players seemed genuinely surprised (and a little grumpy) that Durnan bit it. For the rest of the campaign, whenever the players visited the Yawning Portal, I threw in another change: the new owners boarded up the portal; the lighting was a lot brighter; the wait-staff changed; and the clientele were less adventurers and more nobles. It was fun, but I missed NPCing Durnan and I missed the Yawning Portal.

GM/DM/Ref'ing makes you think about everybody's experience at the table. Are they engaged? Having fun? Invested? Getting to do the stuff they're here for? Feel safe and able to talk freely? It should be the same for the chair of work meeting.

That sounds great! I ended up using a [remix](https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/41217/roleplaying-games/dragon-heist-remix-part-1-the-villains) of the 5e Waterdeep: Dragonheist module because it *really* didn't work for me. It would be a nice change to use a well-written module. I've Cyberpunk RED's Tales of the RED to be hit or miss. Some adventures are great, but many are meh.

Neat! Thanks for mentioning that.

> thousands of enemies, most of which have solid gimmicks that tell you straight from the stat block how you can best run the creature That's exactly what I want. I spent so much time looking at https://www.themonstersknow.com/ when DMing 5e. I like encounter design, but I feel like I had to work hard to make it passable, rather than work hard to make it *excellent*.

Exactly! Play the system everyone wants to play. I'd love to give Shadowrun a shot at my current table, but nobody else wants it so we settled on Cyberpunk RED. I'm GM, so I can port most of the stuff I like from SR to RED. Everybody wins!

> - Encounter design and balancing is easy for the busy GM > - Teamwork is highly encouraged through class and ability design ngl, you're selling it. Anything that improves combat is a win in my book. I've switched to Cyberpunk RED, and I'm discovering that good combat is hard to make in either system, but encouraging teamwork is a nice way to take a little load off the GM.