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Justin Alexander
22.8K posts
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Justin Alexander
@hexcrawl
Creator of the Alexandrian. Author of So You Want To Be a Game Master. ENnie Award Winner. USA TODAY Bestselling Author.
thealexandrian.net
Joined April 2011
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  • Pinned
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    Justin Alexander
    @hexcrawl
    Nov 21, 2023
    SO YOU WANT TO BE A GAME MASTER. For those braving their first dungeon, it's a step-by-step guide. As one delves deeper into mysteries, raids, heists, wilderness exploration, and urbancrawls, the book transforms into the ultimate GM's survival guide.
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    So You Want to Be a Game Master
    From thealexandrian.net
    22K
  • user avatar
    Justin Alexander
    @hexcrawl
    Jun 7, 2024
    Hypothesis: The beholder's mouth gets larger with each new edition. Let's start with the original 1975 appearance on the cover of Supplement I: Greyhawk.
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    2.1M
  • user avatar
    Justin Alexander
    @hexcrawl
    Sep 11, 2024
    Me listening to my players' make a plan for how they're going to break into a castle. (Spoilers: There's no reason for them to break into that castle.)
    Four pictures of Kamala Harris looking at Trump make an ass of himself.
    164K
  • user avatar
    Justin Alexander
    @hexcrawl
    Jun 7, 2024
    Replying to @hexcrawl
    Some may be wondering why beholders' mouths keep getting bigger. This is actually evolutionary pressure: Adventurer miniatures have increased from 20mm to 25mm to 28mm to 30mm scale. Beholder mouths need to get bigger so that they can keep swallowing their primary prey.
    Cover of the Monster Manual (2025), Wizards of the Coast. Art by Tyler Jacobson.
    193K
  • user avatar
    Justin Alexander
    @hexcrawl
    May 20, 2021
    D&D is often described as a "medieval" setting, but it is not. The closest historical analog to D&D cities would be Renaissance Florence - strong mercantile class, Medici politics, etc. Outside the cities, it's the American Old West with magic swords instead of guns.
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  • user avatar
    Justin Alexander
    @hexcrawl
    Jun 7, 2024
    Replying to @hexcrawl
    And, last but not least (certainly not in mouth size!), D&D 5E (Raymond Swanland) to D&D 2024 (Tyler Jacobson). I think the teeth are actually the same size, they just look much smaller in that ENORMOUS MOUTH.
    Beholder, D&D 5E (Raymond Swanland)
    Beholder, D&D 2024 (Tyler Jacobson)
    196K
  • user avatar
    Justin Alexander
    @hexcrawl
    Jan 7, 2023
    #NoComment
    imagine if skyrim was the most popular game of all time by an order of magnitude and people caleld video games ‘skyrims’. and it cost ninety dollars and took up half the average computers hard drive. and then peoel would be on nexus being like ‘hi guys check out my farming sim skyrim mod’ and it just had you kiling draugr but on a farm. and people were like ‘yeah i think that you just cant do farm simulation in video games’ and if anyone brought up stardew valley theyd be like ‘okay well first of all its presumptuous to  assume i can afford a second video game or have space for it on my hard drive. and Second of all when i play skyrim i just run back and forth around the towns picking up all the cabbages for seven hours on end so i don’t see why i’d need a whole game programmed to be about farming. i can play skyrim the way i want to. stop gatekeeping gaming.’ anyway thats what its like to like ttrpgs other than dungeons and dragons.
    79K
  • user avatar
    Justin Alexander
    @hexcrawl
    Jun 7, 2024
    Replying to @hexcrawl
    Okay, let's compare AD&D 1E (Tom Wham) to AD&D 2E (Jeff Easley). Here I think you could argue that the 1E beholder has a wider mouth, but I definitely think the 2E has more maw.
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    204K
  • user avatar
    Justin Alexander
    @hexcrawl
    Jul 5, 2020
    "We should boycott D&D." "What if there's a new player who's heard of D&D and wants to play it?" "Gaslight them. They don't know any better, right? Just teach them some other RPG and tell them it's D&D." Seen this multiple times today. Please don't do this. It's not OK.
  • user avatar
    Justin Alexander
    @hexcrawl
    Sep 22, 2021
    D&D Tip: Declare your character's actions, not the mechanics.
  • user avatar
    Justin Alexander
    @hexcrawl
    Aug 5, 2023
    Re: Bigby. So one artist has confessed to using AI to "finish" their sketches. But there's a second artist whose work seems to have ALSO been run through an AI-filter, apparently without their knowledge. And I would really like to know exactly how and why that happened.
    78K
  • user avatar
    Justin Alexander
    @hexcrawl
    Jun 7, 2024
    Replying to @hexcrawl
    D&D 4E (Raven Mimura) to D&D 5E (Raymond Swanland). Clearly a bigger mouth!
    Beholder, D&D 4E (Raven Mimura)
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    194K
  • user avatar
    Justin Alexander
    @hexcrawl
    Jun 7, 2024
    Replying to @hexcrawl
    Now AD&D 2E (Jeff Easley) to D&D 3E (Scott Fischer). Bigger teeth. Bigger mouth.
    Beholder, AD&D 2e (Jeff Easley)
    Behlder, D&D 3e (Scott Fischer)
    203K
  • user avatar
    Justin Alexander
    @hexcrawl
    Jun 7, 2024
    Replying to @hexcrawl
    D&D 3E (Scott Fischer) to D&D 4E (Raven Mimura). This one is interesting because D&D 4E used the same design. So it's just holding steady.
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    198K