Uh-oh, you seem to have a storygamer on your hands. Some newer systems such as PBTA and Forged in Darkness have a “pass the GM stick around” mechanism, and borders between players and GM are slightly more fluid. I presume this is her first time playing a traditional RPG, so I would recommend taking her aside and telling her that in D&D (which I assume you’re playing) players play only their characters, while the DM plays the rest of the world.

Dramatic writing with philosophical conundrums > Pew pews

On what metric did Mastodon fail? It has a vibrant community and lively conversations. I have seen what counts as “succsses” by corporate standards - a site that is ad infested to the point of unusability, and where users are kept in a state od agitation by the algorhythm for maximum retention and exploitation. I hope that Mastodon, and Kbin/Lemmy never become a “succsses” by corpo silo standards.

What a a pointless, ad ridden mess of an article. The popularity of Forgotten Realms stems from the fact that it was aggresively market ed during the 2e era, since the creator of the setting was on board, unlike Gary and his Greyhawk. The author mentions the (terrible) tie in novels that were also a major factor in its omnipresence, but they also drove the metaplot which diluted the setting into its curent “generic fantasy kitchen sink”. Personally, if you’d put a gun to my head and told me to run a game in it, I’d probaby avoid the Sword Coast in favor of the east/southeast, Dalelands or The Sea od Fallen Stars being the most likely canidates.

I’ve restared a Masks of Nyalathrotep campaign that fizzled out two years ago and as a result splurged way too much on printed handouts, a fancy leather binder and a paper journal. But as a bonus, one of my players has brought true scale (1/64) minis which should fit perfectly onto printed out maps

I play OSE which is B/X DnD with the serial numbers filed off - 2+ years of “Grand Campaign” (West Marches in modern parlance) gaming, and a folder full of dead characters, most of them from the early days when we were still accustomed to the new school gaming style.

To be honest, prompt wrangling is too time consuming for me, its much more simple to grab an image from Pinterest and call it a day.

Here are some of the introductory one shots/starter adventures I have run:

Winter’s Daughter - originally for OSE, there is a 5e version available. Very fairy tale oriented, might not be best for hack&slash oriented players.

Village of Hommlet - A classic, can be used as a basis for a long term campaign if you bother with learning the backstory of every villager.

Against The Cult Of The Reptile God - best played as a mystery, with the BBEG revealing itself at the most innoportune moment. Don’t event mention the cult, let the players figure it out themselves. May take 3-4 sessions at least.

A litany In Scratches - Don’t have a lot of prep time? Want to scare the pants of your players? ALIS has almost no combat (at least not until a certain part) and plenty od spookiness.

Broodmother Skyfortress - Out of the box thinking and weirdness galore, this will certainly upend their (and your) expectations.

I was one of the original refugees from digg.com. This feels like R*ddit of old - simple layout, techie userbase, friendly community. Feels like home.