Whether you’re running a special holiday-themed oneshot or chugging along with your normal campaign this month, here are a few NPCs you can sprinkle in to add some wintry flair!
Continue readingCategory: Banter (Page 10 of 11)
These posts are just talk, not related to any particular campaign or adventure.
Traps, puzzles, and other exploration-type challenges can make an adventure really stand out. To help out Dungeon Masters, Wizards of the Coast has provided official guidelines for trap design in both the Dungeon Master’s Guide and Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. But, still, I don’t really “get” trap design.
I can whip up a riddle—a “speak friend and enter” deal—but when it comes to traps or other puzzles, I tend to just avoid them. I’m worried that I’ll make something that either is too difficult (takes too long) or too easy to solve. I want to make something that’s unique and challenging for the players, not frustrate them.
So how do you run traps?
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In “How I Take Session Notes,” I talk about the different ways I keep track of campaign events. One of those ways is a campaign timeline, which summarizes what happened on each in-game day in the campaign. This helps us remember our character’s perspective of time passing (common example: “I’ve only known my party members for a month and a half but I Would Die For Them”).
Keeping track of time is also a valuable tool for DMs! You can use the time of year to inform your descriptions of the world around your players.
Hey, everyone! Last month, I talked about some of the playtest process behind my upcoming homebrew project. Now, I’m excited to announce that “Additional Master Runes” and “Secrets of Rune Magic” are complete!
As explained earlier, this is all inspired from the Unearthed Arcana article about rune magic and the rune scribe prestige class. But, what is rune magic, and how do you bring it into your campaign?
Like many D&D players, I was introduced to the game through a combination of word-of-mouth and through an actual-play show. This is a time where many D&D campaigns are streamed and recorded for anyone to watch, and that’s pretty crazy! There’s Critical Role, Dice, Camera, Action, and so many more.
Watching one of these shows is a great way to improve as a player and a DM. Watching others really helped me as I started (and continue to learn) Dungeon Mastering! So, I highly recommend finding a show you like to watch—you have plenty of options. And, of course, you can learn from the players and DMs you already know.
First impressions mean a lot! So, how your D&D party gets together can flavor the tone of their interactions for a while. A lot of people want to avoid the traditional “you all meet in a tavern” method. But, after experiencing and running a few other methods, I think I get why taverns are an effective way to bring the party together. Continue reading
We love D&D because it can throw scenarios at us that we can’t predict. The combination of you, your fellow players, your DM, and the roll of the dice can come together in unexpected ways. Sometimes, this is a delightful surprise for everyone (“somehow, we have an owlbear now” type stuff).
But sometimes, these odd situations can stump you. You find yourself in a sticky situation. You have no idea how your character is going to get out of this.
And as you’re sitting there trying to kick your brain into action, your DM asks you, “what do you do?”
So, what do you do?
The rules of D&D are meant to function for many different groups and individuals. They give a Dungeon Master guidance in adjudicating questions in case of unexpected circumstances. But sometimes, what’s written doesn’t quite work the way it should, or the way we feel like it should.
Of course, DMs have the freedom to alter the rules of the game as it suits their table. The Dungeon Master’s Guide has a whole chapter dedicated to optional rules variants and creating your own items/spells/monsters. So, if something’s not working, you can feel free to tinker with it until it does.
For example, let’s look at the Lucky feat.
In July 2017, WotC posted an Unearthed Arcana article called “Greyhawk Initiative.” Greyhawk Initiative takes cues from previous editions of Dungeons & Dragons to rework 5e’s initiative system.
Okay, so we tried a social system, here’s how it went!
Last Saturday, I ran a playtest session where we also tried out a social system I had written up. The session was an event in Sigil where the adventurers needed to find out who could provide them with information and equipment to traverse the Shadowfell. There were three players, and I had made nine NPCs who could potentially help or hinder their efforts. Let’s talk about what happened.