Our more recent articles have been about brevity and lean storytelling. These concepts help you improve pacing and increase player engagement. While these ideas are helpful, they come at the cost of describing your world to its fullest. Removing irrelevant story elements might improve game play, but it definitely blunts some of the worlds details. …
While not always employed effectively, riddles have a long history in role playing games. But how do you create DnD riddles? Fantasy classics have great examples to pull from, most notably The Hobbit with the riddles Bilbo gives to Gollum. “A box without hinges, key, or lid, Yet golden treasure inside is hid.” Spoilers: the …
Coming up with good character names can be difficult. The moment you go to actually name something you’re met with this weird blank paralysis. Every idea that pops into your head seems wrong, doesn’t fit, or is too silly. The solution to this problem is much like any other: you need a good framework for …
A Complete Guide to Traps for Dungeons and Dragons 5e Traps are a classic cornerstone of Dungeons and Dragons. We’re all familiar with spike pits, rolling boulders, or swinging blades. These examples help highlight one of the best things about DnD traps: they have a huge amount of variety! If you want to add some …
Reach weapons, like the glaive, are a fun melee weapon type for DnD. However, they can often be misused and sometimes new players have questions about their rules. In this DnD Quick Tip we’re going to talk about reach weapons and how they work. Reach Weapons Let you Reach Further As the name implies, a …
Having a villain in your D&D campaign creates a powerful call to action for your players. They are generally the driving force that push players from quest to quest and makes them feel like heroes. But what makes a good D&D villain? What is a Villain? A villain can be anyone who is antagonistic towards …
Designing is always more complicated than it first looks and designing homebrew for Dungeons and Dragons is no different. You want to make something unique and special to your game, but that great idea needs rules and boundaries. Let’s look at a sample creation and talk about how to create something that you can use …
Designing Homebrew that Stands up to Player Scrutiny Read More »
NPCs are the primary way in which the DM brings direct voice into the narrative. One of the most common NPC interactions that you will have to develop on the spot is a shopkeeper. You never know when your players are going to want to go shopping. Some groups do it every time they are …
If you have higher level spellcasters in your group there will come a time when they need some weird material components to cast some spells. Many DMs ignore the flavor of material components, but there are lots of ways to make material components a fun and interesting part of your game. Where do players find …
Do you or any of your players take awhile to level up? It’s a common occurrence around a table. When you level mid-session it can take longer than you’d like. In an effort to expedite this process, it can be handy to have a level up checklist ready for your players. Level Up Checklist Increase …
