2018 has been a great year for Dungeons & Dragons! Let’s look back on everything WotC-side that’s happened this year.
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If you haven’t seen it already, the new Unearthed Arcana came out this Monday. This month’s UA is about “Sidekicks,” creatures who end up tagging along with the player characters during their adventures. “Sidekicks” offers a system for leveling up these creatures in a streamlined way.
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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!
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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, we had a good squad session last week! Now that the party is all back together, I’ll start writing a bit about each session in a campaign-diary type series. So, here’s the first one!
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?
This year, SBotLL is taking a break in December! After the November 30th session (good squad getting back together!), we won’t be having regular sessions until the new year. This will give our DM a break from weekly campaign prep, and players won’t have to worry about squeezing D&D into their holiday schedules.
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