Members of the Wizards team – Mike Mearls, Chris Lindsay and Trevor Kidd – were involved in an AMA on Reddit earlier today. Here’s a summary of what they have to say… (The AMA is currently ongoing; I’m updating as replies are made).

I’ve made a number of edits to the posts and combined answers and/or questions. This post does not represent exactly what was said, but should be treated as a summary of the important points made. Go to the original reddit for the accurate details.

Future Plans for Settings

Mike: While we don’t have any new products to announce, we definitely have an eye on our classic settings. The Realms has always been the most popular setting, so it’s a natural starting point for us.

That said, we’ve tackled a few of our classic settings via the Unearthed Arcana web articles, and there are fans of every setting we’ve done here on the team.

So, nothing new to report, but we’re definitely keeping those settings in mind.

Do you have plans for more worlds being added to the DMs Guild?

Trevor: Right now it’s Forgotten Realms but we may open the DMs Guild up to other settings in the future. Starting with the focusing on FR and we’ll see where this all takes us.

Do you plan to release books for other regions of the Forgotten Realms?

Mike: It’s definitely something we’ve talked about, especially if we can present it as part of an adventure.

DMs Guild

Do you feel that you will need some sort of quality control regarding what gets uploaded to the DMsGuild, or will you let the market sort itself out?

Mike: A little bit of both. Part of the promise of the Guild is that it allows any creator to dive in and take part. A great way to improve quality lies in actually creating. I can tell you, my first few pieces of game design were pretty terrible.

So, the reviews and ratings available through the Guild are a very useful tool.

On the other side of things, we know that we can provide a lot of advice and insight into how to improve your design and writing skills. For instance, at conventions this year we are planning on hosting panels and discussions on game design to help people skill up.

Twitter is buzzing about the lack of artwork protection for works submitted to the Dungeon Master’s Guild. It only seems as though public domain artwork is allowed since once submitted all of the work becomes user created content. Are there plans to allow for more protection for artwork in the future?

Mike: The folks behind OneBookShelf.com actually approached us about this exact question earlier this week. They’ve proposed a solution to this issue that looks good, so expect a change to address this issue shortly.

Can items funded through Kickstarter be submitted to the DM’s Guild?

Mike: Yes, but be sure to look at the terms of use for the DM’s Guild to make sure you understand how they apply to your product.

What will be done to prevent people from simply creating compendium style documents containing only the work of other people’s user content?

Chris: The fine folks at DriveThruRPG will be on the lookout for this sort of thing. Any product that does what you’re saying will be pulled down, and there may be other repercussions as well.

When creating adventures for the Forgotten Realms. Are we allowed to use anything from the printed materials. Such as FR specific Monsters, NPCs and spells converted for 5E play?

Yes, under the terms of the DMs Guild you can use any FR reference or material that you want.

As I recall, Kara-tur, Al-Qadim and Maztica are all continents on the same world as Faerun. Would they count as Forgotten Realms content, or not?

Chris: It is totally okay if you want to play around with one or more of the other continents in the Forgotten Realms. Kara-tur, Al-Qadim (my personal favorite), and Maztica are totally part of the DMs Guild allowed content.

Mike: A good rule of thumb – it’s in play if it is a RPG product with a Forgotten Realms logo on the cover.

Are you worried about system bloat because of DMs Guild content?

Mike: I’m not concerned – the great thing about the Guild is that it allows players and DMs to dive into a big vault of content to find what they need. You won’t have to reinvent the wheel if you need something that’s outside of the core rules.

On the other hand, when we do want to add to the game you can bet that we’ll take a look at the Guild to find the most popular and interesting content. I can easily see us reaching out to creators to contract them to create stuff for us or to revise their Guild material for a published D&D product.

What logos should we use with DMs Guild content? Is there one for OGL content?

For the Guild, the logo we’ve included in the product template is what we expect folks to use within the Guild.

For the OGL, we don’t plan on doing something like that. Sorry!

Is there a high-resolution vector version of the logo?

Not yet, but I can check in on that as something we can make available.

Can I reference other DMs Guild material in my DMs Guild products? How about from other free sources like the DandWiki?

You can reference material released under the DMs Guild and the materials we’ve made available under it, but not stuff outside of it.

Are we licensed to use the fonts used in official D&D products?

Chris: Actually no. All of the fonts we put into the sample template are usable without having to get a license, and we did that for a reason.

If I want to create content for DMG, can I use the formatting that was given out during the Open Call for writers last year? Or is that formatting property of WOTC?

Mike: Anything you want to use needs to be released under the Guild. For now, we have released a template in the Guild that you can use.

How do we reference material in sourcebooks like the Monster Manual?

Chris: For DMs Guild content, there are a couple ways to do this. You can give a page number or like the D&D team, bold the name of the monster as an indicator to the DM that they need to look in the Monster Manual for that information.

What happens if I buy something from the DMs Guild that isn’t what I paid for? (False advertising, etc.)

Mike: OneBookShelf, the company behind the Guild, can help you. At the very bottom of the Guild page is a set of links you can use to contact them.

Can we convert past NPCs, spells, monsters, items, etc. from the Realms into our adventures?

Yes, you can convert older material.

Can I post conversions of old adventures? (i.e. B4: The Lost City)

That would have to be through the DM’s Guild, since we haven’t released the old modules as open content. The best fit for the Guild would be to augment your conversion notes with guidelines for using the adventure in the Forgotten Realms. Remember, wholesale copying without adding original work is not the intent of the program.

Can you update old adventures?

Yes, as long as they are part of the content covered by the Guild. I’d suggest extending the adventure with new content rather than just copying it, because updates to 5e are fairly easy. I think you’d need to add a personal spin to it to get attention.

What are the limitations on what you can use?

Within the Guild, you can use any Forgotten Realms RPG product and non-setting specific RPG material. As long as it was content published and owned by WotC, you should be good. Areas like Maztica and others are part of the Realms, so those are good to go. An official update might be in the cards, but part of the process of deciding on that would be seeing if there’s interest in them within the Guild.

Does this include novels?

Yes, you can use FR novels as references and draw quotes where appropriate.

How about art and maps?

I believe art and maps are not included unless we specifically release them.

What happens if someone publishes something they don’t have the rights to?

Chris: If it is discovered that someone is publishing something they do not have the right to publish, it will be taken down from the DMs Guild, and there may be other repercussions as well.

What’s the definition of “original”?

By definition homebrew material is ‘original’; if it is a derivative of someone else’s intellectual property, that isn’t allowed either.

What art can we use?

There are some art resources available now for free download on the DMs Guild. As time goes on, there will likely be more.

How will Wizards use these resources?

We are mostly interested is using the DMs Guild to identify hot new talent. That said, if we REALLY like something and want to use it elsewhere, we’ll be in contact with the author(s) to purchase it outright.

How about translations?

Mike: For translations, new material in non-English languages is cool, but we ask that you avoid translating existing works for now. It’s definitely a topic we need to talk about in relation to the Guild.

Can we use art from Magic: the Gathering?

Mike: Magic is a separate brand, and so won’t be included. We do have plans to add more content to the Guild, including art and maps.

Chris: Only the assets that we post in the DMs Guild for use are available. While we’ll likely put new art up in the future, Magic art assets are extremely unlikely to be among them. Please do not use art that you either 1) don’t own or have the rights to; or 2) are not made available by Wizards on the DMs Guild.

Will the FAQ be updated?

Mike: We’re definitely going to make sure that the FAQ and other documentation for the Guild are doing what they need to do. It’s definitely uncharted waters for everyone!

Chris: The awesome folks at DriveThruRPG who manage the DMs Guild marketplace, plan to continue to update their FAQ as questions come up.

Can I use beholders and mind flayers?

If your writing is being published in the DMs Guild… our entire cadre of critters is fair game.

When new products come out, the artists have been selling digital versions of the maps on their website. Will this be on the DMs Guild now?

This type of content doesn’t fall under the purview of the DMs Guild at this time.

Are the old 3.5 Map-a-Week archives useable on the DMs Guild?

Not all of them, but we have released a number of them for the Guild and will be adding more.

Will Adventurers League designers make more under the new system?

We’re hoping that it will be an increase overall. The intention is to showcase great fan created content and to support our fan authors, as well as to turn them into a creative community.

How will people find good content?

This will continue to be a challenge… perhaps some well known community D&D blogger can help us out… do you know one?

Are the free art assets on DMsG free to be cropped, edited, and manipulated and then used in a DMsG product?

Yes.

Why is the percentage cut so high (50%) compared to other forms (DTRPG, iBookstore)?

The big thing comes down to the use of Forgotten Realms, which we feel has some real value. However, that percentage also allows us to fund new content for the Guild, host events, and so on. We don’t have anything to announce yet, but building the community is definitely part of our thinking.

Can we use iconic FR characters in our work? Can we have Drizzt and Elminster in our adventures?

Yes!

Is there any plan to expand the “DMsGuild” model to other IP like Gamma World or Dark Sun?

That’s definitely something we’ve talked about, but nothing to announce yet.

How much can we reference Planescape, as it crosses over into the Forgotten Realms?

It really depends on the extent – a few references or a quick side trek would be fine, but prefacing a 80 page Planescape sourcebook with a 3 page FR intro is going a little too far. I’d say focus on the planes as they have been depicted in the core or FR.

Unearthed Arcana

Do you plan on using Unearthed Arcana more for PC stuff, or do you plan on creating UA stuff that is mostly DM focused.

For Unearthed Arcana, we’ve focused on PC stuff to start with because that seems to have meet the biggest demand. For this year, though, I anticipate looking at more optional systems for DMs or to tinker with the core game.

Do you have any plans on releasing more infomation about crafting and tool kits? How about more content in general?

For tools and such, that’s a good idea. We might cover exactly that in UA.

For more content, we’re going to be very judicious in adding material to the game. UA is a good testing ground for seeing how stuff works out. I think we’re much more likely to do a small number of big, comprehensive expansions than lots of small ones.

We’ve seen what happens when we do too much content, so the plan is to take things slow.

Any update on the Psionics classes?

Mike: I may have just turned over an updated draft of the class last week…

Any plans to update the Rogue? The Thief feels rather weak…

We’ve done a few in SCAG, so they’re not at the top of the list right now.

System Reference Document and OGL

Are there any plans to include more of the PH information in the SRD?

Mike: No at this time. The material we released, with a few updates to cover stuff we missed, captures what we want to make open.

Mundangerous: “By releasing an intentionally incomplete SRD, they aren’t effectively giving away the core rulebooks for free as they did in 3rd Edition, but they are giving the core mechanics to third parties. Anyone who wants to expand on the 5E system can do so without worry, but anyone who’s going to rip it off wholesale will have some work to do.”
Is this how you decided what went in the SRD and what didn’t?

Mike: That definitely sums up the thinking behind we carved stuff out. The idea is to encourage people to create new stuff, not just copy the material found in 5e. My hope is that we’ll see people do cool, new stuff with the core, like new settings, new genres, and so on.

The Battlemaster isn’t in the SRD, so we can’t use superiority dice for other classes. Any plans to add that mechanic in?

Mike: Sorry, that’s not in the plans right now.

Will UA material be added to the SRD? To the DMs Guild?

Mike: Not to the SRD, but we’re talking about adding UA material to the DMs Guild.

The podcast mentions the SCAG as being referenced in the SRD…

Mike: We misspoke – it is part of the DMs Guild.

Adventurers League

Do I need to repurchase the D&D Expeditions adventures I already have to run them again?

Chris: If you already have all of that content because of this, you do not have to repurchase to reuse. That said, I’m sure the authors of those adventures would very much appreciate it if you do not distribute that content. It is important they get paid for their work.

Will Out of the Abyss, Princes of the Apocalypse, and Hoard of the Dragon Queen/Rise of Tiamat remain legal AL play?

Wizards published adventures will remain legal for AL play for the time being. We have discussed the possibility of retiring older content in the future, but haven’t made any firm decisions just yet. If we do, we’ll be sure to give you plenty of warning.

Is there the potential for adventures posted to the DMs Guild to become legal for AL play?

At this point we’re not planning on making DM Guild content that isn’t flagged as D&D AL content legal for D&D AL play. That said, our D&D AL admins are combing the DM Guild content that gets most highly rated, in order to find new authors for D&D AL adventure creation.

What is your plan for supporting FLGS play?

Chris: We intend to provide to the stores some amount of free content for each product release. This will be in the form of a launch event, though to be fair that is a bit of a misnomer, in that the store can continue to use the content we provide throughout the season in order to introduce and encourage purchase of the actual product in their respective communities.

Mike: We’ll be releasing free adventure material to stores with the launch of each RPG product. Our hope is that this material provides enough content to keep players at stores busy. As with anything, we’ll be learning as we go, but that is the goal.

The main difference is that this content (with the exception of the upcoming season) will not be cut directly from the product published by Wizards.

With the new cost to Expeditions, how do we pay for it, especially for stores and conventions?

For stores, we have a plan for launch events that include adventure material to keep people busy.

For conventions and game days, the answer is a little more complex. In my experience, most game days or cons charge at the door or per slot played. I would 100% recommend spreading that cost out across the table or event. At about $3 per adventure, that’s 50 to 60 cents per player.

So, stores continue to get a foundation of free content, while cons and game days do have to pay, but at rates I feel are fairly low compared to what I’ve paid in the past for an event ticket at a con.

What’s the benefit of playing D&D Adventurers League games?

Mike: The best thing about playing the AL adventures is that you can carry your characters from your home table to any other group playing AL. It’s a great way to meet new gamers and DMs.

Can you use homebrew in DDAL games?

We don’t allow homebrew in AL, basically to ensure compatibility between tables. Otherwise, it makes it difficult to move from one group to the next.

All that said, even if you don’t want to follow the AL rules, you can still use the adventures in your home campaign. Running them as official AL content is optional.

What support are you giving for AL play?

Chris: While we didn’t have time to get them ready for the upcoming season, starting with our Fall season this year, we’re planning on having cool folders with content inside that supports our players and DMs for that season’s stories. We’re going to have those available Print-On-Demand through the DMs Guild. They’ll be for purchase of course.

At the same time, we’ll have a much simpler player kit (not nearly as fancy) but as a free download.

Moving forward, we’ll be looking to work on factions a bit more, but that is still a bit in the future.

Can stores buy the adventures and distribute them to their DMs?

I would encourage the store to run the free launch event content that we’ll be providing. When it comes to the D&D Adventurers League content that is for purchase at the DMs Guild, if folks would like to play that in-store, they (the DM and/or their players) should be purchasing that content to play. Since they’ll own that content, it is essentially its own reward. The store shouldn’t have to purchase it for their community.

A DM who buys a copy can run it with multiple groups, though really each DM should buy a copy. An easy solution would be to buy a few different adventures at a given tier, and rotate them through groups (say you have three groups, each runs a different adventure each week for three weeks).

Keep in mind, though, that the launch material should help stores provide content.

Do we have to report home play of D&D AL games?

The only reasons stores have to report play is to get credit in the WPN. That is unnecessary for home play.

Do we really have to wait until March to play D&D Expeditions games at home?

You can absolutely play the old D&D Expeditions content for home play RIGHT NOW. I’m not sure how that misperception came about, but go for it. PLEASE.

Any hints as to what your Winter Fantasy adventures will cover?

Chris: I’ll be returning to Belkram’s Fall… a section of Undermountain that I wrote for Expedition to Undermountain back in 3rd Edition. The threat will be nothing short of apocalyptic.

What is the main motivation for the AL changes for store kit support and reduced convention support? Is it cost-cutting? Is there a danger that with a shrinking D&D team and reduced organized play support, D&D might be too “thin” and suffer for it? Is this just what has to happen given the RPG market, or something else?

The main motivation for our AL changes is to make our program far more flexible. I would hope that folks who enjoy playing in their local hobby stores, will continue to do so. However, there is a much larger audience out there that does not, and we’d like to make them part of our overall community. I’d like to address one change in particular though… we are creating a new type of event called a Launch event to replace D&D Encounters. Our Launch event will have from 12 – 16 hours of content that we provide free to our retailers… and we encourage stores to run this throughout the season in order to introduce their player community to the product content and allow them to promote the for-sale product. The cool part about this, is that we can do this for products that aren’t adventures and highlight the content therein.

What will be the future of Magic Item certificates? Will they still be exclusive to stores and conventions?

Mike: We’ll be meeting with the campaign admins to make a plan for that. We have some ideas, but I want to make sure that the admins have a chance to pitch ideas and work with us. Meetings should take place at Winter Fantasy, and online afterward.

Will there be rewards for DMing in the Adventurers League?

Definitely a topic for us to address with the admins. We want DMs to have access to interesting stuff that makes them feel like DMing is perhaps even a better option than playing.

Can we buy a “season pass” or “subscription” for AL adventures from the DMsGuild store? Maybe with a discount since we’re getting them all?

This is tricky given that each writer receives a royalty. Not sure it will work given how the store is set up.

Can a store (or a convention) buy the modules and then send them to the DMs that will be working for them?

A con should purchase one copy per DM, however conventions should contact the campaign admins about running stuff.

What about someone who organizes content at several stores in a local area? Can he purchase the mods and give them out to the DMs working for him to run them?

Yes, just as you would a print book (buy a copy, lend it to someone).

Some people have expressed disappointment with the editing in the DDAL adventures, and perhaps even more strongly with the 3rd season. Some of the maps have been hand-drawn as well. Since these will now be a paid product, are we going to see more focus on production values? This is in reference to only the DDAL stuff – it’s understood that there’s no QC on the stuff in DMs Guild.

Part of the Guild model is finding ways to provide better resources for AL authors, such as maps.

Will there be a system for approving DM/player made content and modules for Adventurers League play?

In essence, yes. Our plan is to tap the best writers to work on official AL material and official D&D products.

Do you see a need for more need for 2 hour modules? Or do you intend to focus on the 4 hour modules?

We’re leaning toward 2 hour adventures, to increase flexibility for organizers and to make AL more accessible. For many people, a 4 hour commitment to try something is a lot.

Writing Adventures

Mike, what’s your writing process like when it comes to making adventures?

Mike: For my home adventures, I tend to focus on the key events and characters that have played out in the game recently. For instance, I keep a list of each key NPC and jot down some ideas of actions they may take that could affect the party. A lot of my sessions are driven by that interaction.

For something I’m writing for publication, I try to focus on a great hook, an elevator pitch style statement that can hook in a DM who might want to run the adventure. The very first published adventure I wrote, back in 2000, was driven by this – “The players experience a tense standoff with a rival adventuring party while trapped in the gullet of a giant monster.”

Playstyle and New Editions

Mike: One of the big things we’ve tried to do with 5e is give everyone the chance to play the game they want to. For some people, that’s building a powerful character.

I think that’s always been in the game, it’s just now with the Internet and streaming we can see other people playing. I would say that if you look at why people find Acquisitions Inc. fun, or streaming groups like Critical Role, it lies in the characters, stories, and events at the table. Sure, combat is fun, but I think people are much more focused on who the characters are than their stats.

In terms of new editions, it’s way too early to say anything. I think our focus would be on a fairly simple approach – streamline or remove rules that are proving troublesome, make sure character options are fun and flavorful, and improve elements to match what DMs and players want out of them.

Streaming Games of D&D

Mike: I think streaming has been a huge part of D&D’s success. In the past, D&D was pretty hard to explain to people. Learning the game was a bear, because you can understand all the rules but still not get how to run a game.

With streaming, people can now watch first hand how great DMs run their games, how good players can contribute, and what the game actually is. It’s been a huge boon.

Design

XP awards are very biased towards combat and not role-playing. How do you reward players for role-playing?

Mike: Designing an XP system that fits better with roleplay is tricky, because it relies so much on the DM making judgment calls. Myself, I simply award a level after every other session. That keeps things simple for me.

I’d also consider using inspiration as a good reward to cover that sort of thing.

Anything to announce?

Mike: We are neck deep in work right now – nothing new to announce quite yet, but definitely big plans are in the works.

The SCAG cantrips are odd in how they work. Can you explain what you were thinking?

Mike: The concept behind these was to find a way to blend magic and weapon use. Spells that augmented, rather than replaced, melee attacks were always a popular option, so this was our pass on doing this as a cantrip.

Dragon+

Dragon+ will continue to release every other month – we feel that’s a good pace for new content.

Play Advice

Which adventure would you advise to a fairly new DM like me who is nearing the end of the Starter Set and why?

Mike: I’d pick up Princes of the Apocalypse. It takes place in roughly the same area as Lost Mine of Phandelver, plus it has a fairly open, sandbox approach that should mesh well with that adventure.

Can we have a big pdf of the “Dungeon Master Experience” posts by Chris Perkins?

Great idea – just sent an email asking if we could do this. Thanks!

What House Rules do you use?

Mike: I don’t track XP. I let the PCs level up after every other session or at the end of each key adventure.

I don’t use encounter XP budgets. I use CR to eyeball relative power, but otherwise I just throw stuff into the world and let the players decide if they can fight it, need to talk to it, or need to run.

Since these are mainly not using rules, they’re not something easily made official!

Any advice on balancing powers when we use fewer encounters per day?

Mike: If something is giving you issues, I’d look at shifting anything that is giving you trouble to a long rest recharge. That’s the easiest way to rebalance those elements.

Any advice on balancing material?

Mike: It’s a little more by feel, but you can mitigate that:

Make sure to playtest. Try running stuff at your table, and share it with other DMs and players you know for their feedback.

When possible, try to start with something that already exists in the game, then modify it as needed to match what you want. The closer you hew to something that already works, the better your chances to keep things balanced.

How do make up encounters on the fly?

I usually throw stuff at the players with CR in mind – if it’s something on the fly that’s just meant to be a quick fight, I use creatures with a CR at about half or less of the party’s level, no more than 3 – 5 critters. That usually seems to work. For a bigger monster, I just keep the CR at or less than the party’s level.

Digital Tools and Books

When can I buy PDF copies of the core rulebooks?

Mike: Sorry, no news yet on digital books or PDFs.

Old Wizards Website

Trevor: We needed to retire the old archive because it was based on an old technology that we don’t use anymore so we’d need to recreate any articles or columns manually. We will go back and see what we have and what we can pull forward, but it won’t be fast or that many at a time.

Translations

Are there going to be translations of the core rulebooks into other languages?

Mike: Sorry, nothing to announce yet.

The Ranger and The Druid

Mike: No updates yet on the ranger- the last proposed concept met with lukewarm support and had a lot of negative feedback on some specific issues. We’re going to pull back and look at a concept with a much bigger emphasis on the animal companion.

How do you feel the Beastmaster is in terms of coolness and usefulness? Will we see any love for that ranger type?

Mike: I think the Beastmaster is really, really hurt by trying to exist as a subclass within a class that supports non-beast rangers. The root of its power issues rests there, IMO.

Any updates planned for the Druid?

Mike: Druids are tricky – the archetypes we included in the PHB seem to cover a real wide array of the character types people like. It’s definitely a class we’ll be looking at in terms of flavor or new options.

How will you update these classes? A PHB 2?

Can’t talk about specific releases, but I think you’ll see two basic approaches. We’ll do new character stuff that supports a story, to make it so that you can create characters that fit the story. We are looking at what more general options would look like, in terms of a product that expands characters across the board. However, if we do something like that it will require a lot of playtesting and community feedback.

The D&D Movie

Is anyone from the Wizards team involved in the new D&D movie?

Yes, we have been involved in the process. It’s definitely a collaboration.

Rulings

Can a goliath (with Powerful Guild) grapple huge creatures?

Mike: I’d allow grappling Huge creatures. It’s really more an issue of making the feat seem believable, but it if fits your campaign go for it. It’s power neutral, so it won’t break anything.

Personal Experiences

What’s the most memorable party member death you’ve had in a D&D game? It doesn’t have to be your character specifically.

Chris: Most memorable death… wasn’t a single party member actually. I was running Tomb of Horrors (1E version) and I had completed a TPK in 45 minutes. It wasn’t the goal, but each of the characters died in a different way though.

Favourite race and class at present?

Chris: Gnome wizard… and because Mike is such a cool DM, he is allowing me to play that character as a bladesinger. Totally awesome!

Favourite monster?

Mike: Ogre mage. Love them. Nice mix of magic and brute.

Should Gnolls have rights?

Chris: Heck yeah gnolls should have rights… Gnolls have the right to pillage, loot, and kill anyone they want… Gnolls have the right to worship Yeenoghu ALL NIGHT LONG… Gnolls have the right to feed on the living and cuddle with the dead. GO GNOLLS!!!

What’s one of your favourite DMing stories?

Mike: For my current group, it would basically be any time (and there have been three) that they sign a contract offered to them by a representative of the Nine Hells. Good times!

Overall, one of my favorite stories involves an illusionist and the phantasmal force spell back in AD&D. In AD&D, illusions did not make noise. That was a big sign you were dealing with some high trickery.

I ran the Haunted Halls of Eveningstar, and stocked it with an evil illusionist, a cleric of Bane, his ogre bodyguard, and his Zhentarim pals. After a long, tough battle, the party finally defeated the bandits and sent the illusionist running.

The illusionist, ogre, and cleric ran up a long, winding, steep tunnel to escape, the PCs right behind them. At the top of the passage was a massive boulder used to block off the exit. The ogre moved the rock, and in a fit of inspiration I decided that the cleric dropped a silence spell on the rock before the ogre rolled it down the passage.

Having dealt with a number of illusions already, the PCs new exactly what to do in the face of a massive, speeding, silent boulder – ignore it.

SPLAT. Near TPK.

Do you play other RPGs?

Chris: ABSOLUTELY… Cyberpunk, Shadow of the Demon Lord, Champions, SLA Industries.

If you picked 5 historical figures to make play in a D&D party, who would they be and what would their classes be?

Mike: Albert Einstein – Wizard; Lemmy – Barbarian; Archimedes – Rogue; Homer – Bard; Thomas Aquinas – Cleric

Do you listen to any D&D play podcasts?

Mike: I catch Critical Role when I can, but having a one year old makes it pretty hard to follow anything these days! I’m making a point of reading more in the New Year, so books are more my thing these days.

How do I get my DM Screen signed by the team if I can’t get to PAX?

Mike: Best bet would be to stop by the WotC office! If you drop me a line on Twitter (@mikemearls) I can let you know when we’re in the office.

What would happen if you were president?

Mike: Great question. Where to begin?

Learning curriculum would consist of everything you need to function in modern society:

Extensive D&D training with a focus on surviving dungeons, navigating strange new worlds, and making it out of a shopping mall alive during the holidays.

Chris is actually Canadian, so he wouldn’t be eligible. I’d need a dude with iron nerves and a thick skin, so I think I’d turn to the world of pro sports and bring in the one man wrecking crew, Rob Gronkowski. He’d bring a certain amount of partying fun attitude and also his authority as the greatest tight end of all time lends a certain gravitas to our cabinet.

First presidential act – everyone gets Friday off as long as they use that time to play games, go to the movies, or just seriously chill. Also, free pizza and housing for everyone.

What is best in life?

Mike:
Take many naps. Eat nachos whenever you can but not so often that you become the guy people know as the dude who eats nachos at every meal. Roll many natural 20s. These are what is best in life.