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Thorin

How Many Players Are Too Many for One D&D Game? What About Other RPG Systems?

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The oldest Dungeons & Dragons books said the game was for 4 to 50 players, and we know people who DMed white box D&D campaigns with groups in the 20s. But that was then, and D&D 5th Edition runs into a lot of issues once you pass a certain number of players. So, what do you do when your game is already at 6 players and 3 more want to join? That’s the question posed by one of our listeners in this week’s episode of 3 Wise DMs.

Putting PCs In Charge: How Do You Handle RPG Players Characters Moving Up to Become Kings, Queens and Leaders of Powerful Organizations In Your World?

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Many RPG campaigns end with the players taking over kingdoms, wizard colleges, crime syndicates or other powerful organizations in the world as a sort of epilogue. But what about when they want to take these titles during the campaign and actively run their new empires? How do you handle putting your player characters in charge of powerful organizations in your world as an active part of the game?

When Should You Bend RPG Rules? Handling Players Who Want to Adjust Game Mechanics They Don’t Like

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Not every player is OK playing RPGs by the rules as they’re written. Some can’t even get through character creation without asking the DM to make some kind of mechanical adjustment. This may seem like an easy situation – do it my way or play with someone else – but it’s not always that simple. How do you handle those situations?

Don’t Be a DM Martyr: To Recruit New Dungeon Masters, You Need to Make DMing Look Fun

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The “forever DM” is a stereotype as old as roleplaying. The idea that one guy in the group gets roped into DMing and never gets to play has spawned a thousand memes, YouTube videos and TikToks. But as we discussed in our most recent blog, a lot of players actually want to DM – you just need to help them see why it’s fun. And you can’t do that if you’re busy playing the DM martyr.

How Do You Make New DMs?

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How do you make new DMs? Here’s how we recruit new players to DM, encourage them to take the mantle, and support them as they take the reins.

No Rest for the Weary: How the Rest Cadence of D&D 5E Can Completely Change Your Game

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Rest! In some D&D 5E campaigns, it’s taken for granted. In others, like Tomb of Annihilation, PCs may have to make their HP and long-rest abilities stretch for days. And like in real life, sleep deprivation changes the game! How can the DM use all of these nuances to their advantage to tortu… er, have fun with the players? Thorin, Tony and Dave discuss all that and more in this episode of 3 Wise DMs.

The Sinister 7: How to Run 7 Iconic D&D Monsters for Maximum Mystique

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Dungeons & Dragons is a lot more than just dungeons and dragons. The game is full of iconic monsters with unique legends and mystique, some pulled from mythology and others found only in this game. But from D&D, many of these monsters have become pop culture icons with stories and expectations that have taken on a life of their own. Here are seven of the most iconic monsters in D&D and how Thorin, Tony and Dave get the most out of them in their campaigns.

Quick and Dirty D&D Mass Battle Rules Even Non-Gamers Can Understand

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One of the hardest things for me about higher-level play in D&D is that, inevitably, we’re going to war. At that point, either I need to present the war as a bunch of solo, special-forces vignettes – which is an OK approach, but misses something for me – or a bunch of players who never had much interest in wargames are going to have to grasp a unit-level wargaming system. So over the years, I’ve come up with a quick and dirty way to put player characters in charge of units in a way that isn’t too far removed from regular D&D play. We just had one of these sessions, and the players all grokked it easily and said they enjoyed it. Here’s what we did.

Does D&D Magic Item Attunement Crimp Your DM Style?

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Do the magic item attunement rules and limits make D&D 5E a better game or just add a layer of frustration? When we started playing 5E, we actually ignored attunement. Now, we’ve started using it across all of our campaigns to understand how the game is meant to be played. … And we have some concerns. In this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave talk about attunement, magic items in older editions, and the role these tools play in their games.

The Fetch Quest: Are They Fun? Are They Worth It? Are They Just Filler for the Big Story?

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Sometimes your players want something, or you want to give them something, that would be kind of lame to just leave lying around. After all, The Awesome Staff of Mega Power probably deserves its own quest to find. But how long should that quest be? And how do you keep the other players personally involved so they don’t get bored?