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I'm the DM for a party of 3 people. I made a detective campaign where they're trying to uncover a conspiracy that is fake in the first place.

I've prepared a lot of different ways for them to find clues, with multiple contingencies in case they miss something, and so far they've been able to find and figure out literally everything, even the difficult stuff. I prepared letters, a clue board, a necklace with a hidden piece of paper inside... I really put a lot of effort into this.

They noticed that the handwriting on the letters they're looking for was different on two of them.

(I asked different people to write different letters IRL for immersion, and they actually noticed the difference)

They didn't like the name of one of the people involved, so they searched through the city's chronicles to check whether someone like that actually existed

(Thankfully, I had those prepared)

They literally turned into a dog so they could identify the scents of different people and crime scenes

They noticed inconsistencies in the accounting books

(I made several pages of them specifically so they could get lost in all the numbers)

I know they've discovered secrets about some of the noble families, and they haven't told anyone or confronted anyone because "the time isn't right yet"

They're even hiding some things from me, which is starting to make me paranoid

They have no problem with the campaign and they've assured me that they're genuinely having fun. The campaign isn't over yet, but I honestly don't think I've prepared anything harder than what they've already solved

Do you guys have any advice, methods, or puzzles I could use to make the investigation more complicated?

Edit: I don't want them to lose, I'm not playing against them and as I mentioned, they're happy with the campaign and having fun. I just feel like I haven't given them enough of a challenge

I still mostly play with 5E stuff but I occasionally check in on 5.5e

And with my autistic superpowers I noticed there were 3 things that seemed really different.

1) The lack of flavor disclaimers. All of the 5e books had these fun, tongue-in-cheek disclaimers on them.

This is the one from the 5e PHB:

*Disclaimer: Wizards of the Coast is not responsible for the consequences of splitting up the party, sticking appendages in the mouth of a leering green devil face, accepting a dinner invitation from bugbears, storming the feast hall of a hill giant steading, angering a dragon of any variety, or saying yes when the DM asks, “Are you really sure?”*

That's just not a thing anymore.

2) Lack of nuance where some worlds might be different. This is from the 5e PHB:

https://i.imgur.com/m5sfTzi.png

A whole sidebar explaining not every race will be in every world, and how things can be different depending on where you go. Coupled with now every race has a "human equivalent lifespan" and matures all at the same rate. Everything has been homogenized.

Even Greyhawk has aasimar, goliaths, and tieflings, now. It's like they are reaching Bethesda-levels of being terrified of ever telling a player "no."

3) The "inspirational reading" sections of the books and lore bibliographies. In the 5e books, there were things like this:

https://i.imgur.com/4qWuhhB.png

https://i.imgur.com/mYEv0GC.png

It felt like it gave you these ideas that there was more to this universe and there were other places to check. What does 5.5e say?

https://i.imgur.com/vV4fmf9.png

"Baldur's Gate 3, Baldur's Gate 3, Baldur's Gate 3! Astarion! Astarion!" Don't forget Brand Movie, Brand MMO, and other Brand materials! Like they are pushing absolutely nothing but current retail Brand.

I dunno, maybe I'm just a 30 y.o. grognard but I feel like 5.5e is so bland and flavorless. It feels very "consume product." Even moreso when now WotC is locking exclusive class features and monsters behind a monthly subscription service.

Hi everyone, thanks for reading my post. I hope you don't mind a little against-the-grain opinion this morning. This concerns my own personal preferences as a player, which I don't see reflected in the discourse too often. I've been playing for nearly 3 decades, predominantly as the DM. Please be gentle with me in the comments, I already know most of you will disagree so you don't need to tell me that.

In a nutshell, when I'm playing a PC in a game of D&D, I don't want to contribute to worldbuilding, either directly as the world is brainstormed or indirectly through my character's backstory. In fact I generically don't want my backstory to be "used" in the game. I'm extremely uninterested in that, it always feels contrived and in a sense sort of condescending. I feel that I'm already interested and engaged, so you do not need to make the moon and stars revolve around me. I want to earn my place in the story through action, not hand myself a starring role on a silver platter. Backstory is important to me, but it's important because it's where my character comes from and what they left behind, not because I want the adventure to revolve around it, that sounds like hell.

All this is because the biggest appeal of playing D&D is exploration and discovery. Getting out of one's comfort zone, venturing to the blank spot on the map, bringing only one's wits and essentials, and seeing what is out there to be found. That's what adventure is all about to me. But if I was involved in authoring what's out there, then it's almost completely spoiled. That makes sense, right?

The feeling of leaving one's past behind and exploring the unknown is exhilarating, and it is largely incompatible with "collaborative" worldbuilding and storytelling. I don't get the same thrill of a first encounter with the aloof aaracokra in the mystic mountains if I already knew they were there because I helped the DM design their culture or whatever. I can't get the feeling of setting off into the great unknown when the party's backstories are constantly intruding and getting in the way. It can feel like being stuck in a fishbowl with the same stale stuff swirling around endlessly in circles. At that point, my character is ready to start playing D&D himself, as a form of escape from the dreary backstory chains!

Thanks again for reading. If there's any actionable takeaway here, just be aware that there are people like me. Perhaps you've dealt with a player who is resistant to having their backstory interwoven in the plot, or who doesn't want to contribute to worldbuilding. Well, now you know at least one possible reason why someone might be that way. They probably weren't just being difficult for no reason, they may have been putting up necessary boundaries to preserve their fun. This doesn't mean they'll necessarily be compatible with your table, but you can part ways with mutual understanding which seems preferable to how a lot of rpg stories end. Have a great day and let me know what you think.

I am very green to the game and really want do my part in the research beforehand. If only to understand the basics and etiquette. I don’t feel the impulse to over prepare, but I do want to make sure I respect the pre existing party. I homeschool my high schooler and we have moved across state lines and have struggled finding places to make real friendships (we live way out in the country, so that’s put a new obstacle in place). Also, supplies? The group we are meeting has the polyhedral dice sets for sale. But there wasn’t mention of any other tangible items we need to bring. If this is an exhaustingly common topic, I apologize. I’m pretty new to the actual use of Reddit as well so patience is so very appreciated ♥️

Whether adapting a character from a work of fiction or making one of their own own, I think that something that people should always ask themself is whether their character works as a DnD character, because not all characters do. So my question to you today is, what's something to look out for when writing your character's backstory?

For me, something I think is important to avoid is giving the character a goal that is either too specific or too urgent. A paladin in a high fantasy setting on a quest to rebuild their order after it was wiped out by an evil wizard has no reason to drop everything and join up with the local bard and go kill a dragon, no matter how much the local adventuring guild is paying. A fighter in a post apocalyptic setting on a quest to rescue their kidnapped son from an evil guild of artificers will not take a break from their mission only because another settlement needs their help. For a character to be a good PC, their backstory should allow them to put their personal priorities aside and join the adventure.

So, that was my answer. What's yours?

Edit: Multiple people already mentioned the lone wolf trope. It got its place in this discussion, but there is no need to repeat it from now on.

Made this one page comic around a team of three .

Elias Jones a human Tactician fighter , Selene a human life cleric and Zoey a open hand monk, they were contracted to kill a troll and right to its treasures if it had any . Fortunately through teamwork and a bit of luck they slayed the troll and found treasure inside the cave .

One of those treasures was an " Amulet of Dead War God" the cleric examined it in detail turns out if activated the Shade of the dead God will try to possess the wearer and would attack anyone on sight and leave the wearer at 0 HP. But if the wearer can endure a high DC will save can receive the GOD's power for 1D3 rounds.

Our Zoey asks if 'anyone wants this" but they refused citing caution Zoey on the other hand wants to wear it coz it looks cool but the moment she dawned the amulet bam the Shade tries to take control or expresses anger but quickly subsides because the amulet was only worn not activated , hence Zoey relaxing for the moment.

Meet Plexis, a swarmkeeper ranger, & Goostarion, her trusty goose sidekick!

Not my characters ofc, but a tattoo I got to work on for a pretty cool client recently.

I don't get to do a lot of large scale D&D pieces, let alone fantasy portraits (or goose with a wizard hat!).

It took a full day, about 7.5 hours, but we did get to knock it out all in one go. I'm so stoked with how she turned out, I'd love the opportunity to do more stuff like this.

I do some standard character art comissions on the side, but tattoos are my main squeeze, I primarily work with fantasy subject matter.

More tattoos on my Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/skyla.bel?igsi=ZTA4cTdqZ2M2aTdy

This is my dnd character Anuur :) Actually he doesn't even have the duplicity spell, this is more like an exploration on his identity crisis because he's a bard but he touched the WRONG cursed object and he'll soon be a warlock too. Also in our current campaign he died but didn't get resurrected, the party are all like wandering souls so it's also a play on that, life and death and the equilibrium of all that