Governments are complicated and replicating them in DnD is no easy feat. Because they add a lot of new, complex mechanics to interact with, it’s easy to see why hardcore world builders would want to install a government system in the fantasy world they are creating. However, governments are hard to simulate even with a …
Your party walks into a room and the door shuts behind them. Instead of impending doom waiting for them, they instead find a long, narrow path suspended over a deep, dark pit where they cannot see the bottom. Across the narrow path on the other side of the room is a door. This seems straightforward …
Spell casting is generally considered a common, natural thing in Dungeons and Dragons. Wizards cast spells that they learn and study, Sorcerers cast spells from the innate will within themselves, and Bards cast spells from being sexy (just kidding!). Magical creatures cast spells too. For all the ways that magic is cast in DnD, very …
At first glance you might not think that Minecraft and DnD have anything in common. One is a video game, the other is a TTRPG. One is a boxy game about gathering resources and the other is a narrative storytelling game about adventure. Though they have their surface level differences, Minecraft has a surprising amount …
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Many times when walking through a dungeon your players will encounter traps. Some of these traps are simple and some of them are elaborate, but they all hinder the players’ progress in some way or another. One nagging question that sticks out a bit though is why are there traps in the first place. If …
Predatory video games love their pay to win mechanics, but what if we want to put those mechanics into DnD in the form of a pay to win dungeon? This dungeon concept has a simple design that can be used as either a fun one-off mechanic or as course correction when you end up giving …
Adding miniatures and terrain to your game might seem like a daunting task when you’re first starting out in Dungeons and Dragons. A brand new DM might have just dropped over $100 on the core rule books and miniatures might seem like a huge expense to add on top of that. While miniatures are certainly …
We talked before about how smarter monsters will run away rather than face the prospect of death, but did you know there are actual rules for handling a chase? While it is often overlooked, there are fantastically simple rules for starting, running, and ending a chase. Today we’re going to go over these rules and …
As dungeon masters we can learn a ton of great game design concepts from video games. While Dungeons and Dragons is a game in the most literal sense, you have fewer limitations than in a video game. In video games there is a game limitation simply posed as the question: “Can you pet the dog?” …
Dungeon tiles are the cornerstone of Dungeons and Dragons minis setups. They’re super versatile as they allow you to create multiple dungeon layouts from only a few basic pieces. They’re also fantastic at elevating you game beyond just standard battle mat use. The problem is that often fancy tiles can appear to cost a fortune. …
