Well, hope everyone’s first few days of 2019 have been good! I’m not much for making resolutions, but there are a few things I want to focus on improving this year. And those are basically resolutions? Regardless, I hope they will help me continue to grow as this year unfolds!

This year, I want to…

Write better posts for this blog

I want to become a more effective writer! I still think I’m fairly new at running a blog, and there’s a lot for me to learn. This year, I want to write more blog posts that I’m proud of. Last year, I really liked my How I Take Session Notes post. They might not be the same kind of post, but if I can write stuff that I’m still pretty proud of after a while, those are the sorts of posts I’d like to make this year.

This might mean cutting back to one post a week. Again, this is all pretty new to me, it’s uncharted territory. As I press forward with other projects, I want to maintain good quality stuff here, as well. This isn’t set in stone, though. We’ll have to see what works and what doesn’t!

Write more homebrew/adventure stuff

Last year, I wrote three things that are on the DMs Guild: Additional Master Runes, Secrets of Rune Magic, and Additional Aasimar Subraces. I want to continue writing this kind of stuff! It’s fun, and I want to be a better designer. I like surprising players with new options they haven’t seen before. And, in turn, it’s wonderful to see those players turn around and do something unexpected with what I’ve designed!

I’m starting work on my first adventure. It will be based off of a one-shot I ran a while ago. What came out of that one-shot makes it my favorite thing that I’ve run thus far! I hope I can capture those feelings into the adventure that I write for it. This will be a bigger project than my previous DMs Guild products, so I’m nervous and also excited!

Try new things with DMing

To be a better DM, I’ve got to try to branch out, I think. I’m going to reach out and try bigger stuff, try different stuff, try stuff I’ve seen other DMs do! Stuff like the UA Sidekick system. I want to be a better DM so my friends can have more fun when we play!

Prep more effectively

To that end, I’m going to look at my session prep methods and tinker around with them. I lean towards doing more prep than less, but this doesn’t always lead to feeling more prepared. Sometimes I do a lot of work in one direction, and my players take another.

I might need to be more economical in my session prep. Or, maybe I need to improve my understanding of what I can improv and what I need prep for. Or, maybe on top of all of that, I should work on feeling more confident in my DMing? This resolution is a puzzle, but it’s one I intend on figuring out.

Play while supporting others’ play

With this, I mean I want to become a better player! I want to be the player that supports others’ stories and helps everyone around the table have fun. I want to make the DM’s job easier. I want to be a supportive collaborator to everyone.

That means I need to know when my time to speak up is, and when it would be better to leave it to someone else! It’s being invested not only in my character’s story, but also paying attention to and investing in my other party members’ own stories. Taking actions that make sense for my character and that move the story forward.

Those are the things I want to work on this year!

What about you? Do you have any D&D/TTRPG related resolutions for 2019?