One bard's take on D&D and other things
How do you describe scenes for your players?
As a Dungeon Master, you’ll spend a lot of time describing the scenario in front of your player’s characters. Let’s look at three tips I’ve learned for making this description useful and engaging!
Continue readingFor those who backed the Kickstarter, the digital PDF for Herbalist’s Primer is available! This was a great surprise in the middle of a stressful pre-holiday week. The physical rewards are set to fulfill in early 2022. After reading through the PDF, I’m even more excited about receiving the physical copy.
Continue readingWhile my introduction to D&D was in-person, most of my D&D experience has been online. There are many different tools out there for online play! So far, though, I’ve preferred a pretty simple approach that uses Discord for sessions and campaign organization.
In this post, I’ll talk about different ways I’ve used Discord as a Dungeon Master.
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“Under raging storm clouds, a lone figure stands silhouetted against the ancient walls of Castle Ravenloft. The vampire Count Strahd von Zarovich stares down a sheer cliff at the village below. A cold, bitter wind spins dead leaves about him, billowing his cape in the darkness.
Lightning splits the clouds overhead, casting stark white light across him. Strahd turns to the sky, revealing the angular muscles of his face and hands. He has a look of power — and of madness. His once handsome face is contorted by a tragedy darker than the night itself.
Rumbling thunder pounds the castle spires. The wind’s howling increases as Strahd turns his gaze back to the village. Far below, yet not beyond his ken, a party of adventurers has just entered his domain. Strahd’s face forms a twisted smile as his dark plan unfolds. He knew they were coming, and he knows why they have come — all according to his plan. He, the master of Ravenloft, will attend to them.
Another lightning flash rips through the darkness, its thunder echoing through the castle’s towers. But Strahd is gone. Only the howling of the wind — or perhaps a lone wolf — fills the midnight air. The master of Ravenloft is having guests for dinner. And you are invited.” –Curse of Strahd, Chapter 1, “Introduction”
So begins Wizard of the Coast’s Ravenloft adventure. Curse of Strahd and its predecessors are popular adventures for a number of reasons. One of them, I think, is the dark, gothic atmosphere.
By “atmosphere,” I’m referring to what English classes call “mood.” Mood is how creators establish a certain feeling and aesthetic in their stories. As You Like It, Hamlet, and Julius Caesar have different atmospheres, even though Shakespeare wrote all of them. Audiences of shows like One Tree Hill experience feelings different from watching The Office.
And you can use this tool in your campaigns, too! I’m going to go a bit English-major to talk about it, so let’s throw some definitions in here.
Hey there! Hope this post finds everyone safe and well.
I recently released a DM’s Guild product of my own called Downtime Scenes, so I’m going to talk about how you can use this in your game!
Continue readingIt happened! The session I’ve been excited about for ages finally happened this weekend. In our over 5-year-old campaign of two parties, both groups of characters have come together in the real Material Plane.
These posts are where I talk about the campaign I play in and our most recent session!
Continue readingWe finished our Curse of Strahd session this weekend!
Pre-injury, I was working on a series of posts that talked about my session prep for each session. This is the final post for that series, and a post about my first time ending a campaign!
Continue readingA one-shot is an adventure that starts and ends in one session. We use one-shot adventures when some players are free, but we can’t do a session our long-running campaign. I’ve run some one-shot adventures and played in several, and they’re a great way for people to try out character concepts!
Here, I’ll talk about the set-up and prep for a one-shot, as well as tips to keep in mind while actually running a one-shot.
In this session, the party takes a breather before they set out on the next part of their quest.
These campaign diary posts are where I talk about the campaign I play in and what happened in the most recent session!
Continue readingOur group tried out Ancestry & Culture: An Alternative to Race in 5e recently, and it went great! In this post, I’ll talk about what Ancestry & Culture is, why we tried it, and our experience with it.
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