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Thorin

How to Set Traps in D&D: Causing Chaos, Mayhem and Problems for Your Players

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D&D Traps require the DM to walk a fine line. Balance them right, and your PCs will find themselves in a world of trouble that’s entirely their fault. But overdo it, or make traps too randomly deadly, and the party can slow to a crawl as they check for traps every 5 feet — cursing the DM the whole time. In this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave talk about how they build hazards that up the mayhem and force layers to solve problems, without reducing traps to two rolls to avoid random death … at least not too often.

D&D and Mental Health: Therapy, Autism and Exploring the Things We Can’t Just Say

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A few weeks ago, a listener asked how we manage players with special circumstances like autism and mental illness. Here’s what we’ve learned from gaming with players with special circumstances, and how D&D creates opportunities to express the things we can’t just say.

RPG Communication Breakdowns: What to Do When the DM and Players See Things Differently

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It’s one of the hardest things for any DM to handle: What do you do when the way you see the game and the way the players see the game is no longer in sync? This is no academic discussion. One of our own games is suffering from miscommunication, and it’s not fun. Can it be saved? Can yours if it’s starting to see some of these same issues?

7 Tips for a Great Christmas/Holiday Game

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What better way to celebrate the holidays than to give your friends the chance to save (or destroy) Christmas? But what makes a fun holiday-themed adventure? Here are my 7 rules for great Christmas games. With these in your back pocket, your players will look forward to your holiday game like it’s Christmas morning.

D&D Errata: Love It or Hate It, Here’s How We DM It

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Several years into D&D 5E, they’re still releasing new errata that impact books printed years ago. How do you handle these changes at your table?

Theater of the Mind: Is It a Better Way to Play D&D?

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The 3 Wise DMs get old school with their best tips for DMing without maps and minis. Hear what we like about theater of the mind for D&D, what we don’t, and our best tips for making games engaging and fun without maps and minis.

When Crits Go Wrong: The Critical Hit/Miss Table That Nearly Destroyed Our Game

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who would win: red dragon on NATURAL 20

If you’ve listened to a few episodes of the podcast, you’ve no doubt heard us talk about the critical miss rule that wiped out half a party. To follow up on this week’s episode about Rolling the Dice, here’s how the old Penndel Critical Hit System worked, where it eventually went wrong, and how I think you could still save it (for any D&D edition) by making some tweaks.

Rolling the Dice: How to Balance Randomness, Story and PC Agency in TTRPGs

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The dice never lie, but they don’t tell great stories, either. So how much of your game do you want to leave up to the dice? When should you roll them and why? What kind of game are you teaching your players to play? Can rolling the dice even discourage role-playing?

Famous Fictional PCs: Should You Allow Pop-Culture Clones in Your RPG Campaigns?

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Should your TTRPG campaign allow players to make clones of famous fictional characters (like Drizzt, Riddick or The Avengers)? Maybe. After all if a player is inspired, they’re going to be more engaged. But these can be complicated situations. Here’s how to make them work.

7 RPG Improv Tips for DMing Open-World Campaigns

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Some DMs are right at home improving from the first time they open a Monster Manual, while others are never comfortable without a rock-solid module to run for the night. If you want to improv more, or just do it better when you have to, here are seven tips for making it up on the fly.