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Thorin

Getting the “Face” Player to Shut Up and Let Other Players Share the Spotlight

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Some players are more assertive than others, as every DM quickly learns. Some players sit quietly waiting for their turn to speak, while the “Face,” like his A-Team counterpart, never misses a chance to go to town. Before you know it, the party is down another rabbit hole or skipping through a  conversation without anyone else getting a chance to participate.

Or, as this week’s listener question asks: “How do you get the “Face” to STFU?

In this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave talk about how they handle the more dominant role players in their groups (especially when it’s one of them) and the tricks they use to make sure everyone gets to roleplay the way they want to.

9 Alternate D&D Rules to Try: Our Favorite Optional Mechanics From the DMG, Homebrew and Other Games

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Vanilla Dungeons & Dragons 5E is a fine game, but depending on the atmosphere you want to set and the possibilities of your setting, there are a lot of alternate rules that can bring your game to the next level. The D&D 5E Dungeon Masters Guide has some great optional rules you can use to bring different genres of games to life by playing up things like honor and horror. Beyond D&D itself, a lot of other games use mechanics that are worth porting in to create certain effects in your campaign world. Your own unique homebrew mechanics can be even more powerful tools for bringing your setting more to life. In this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave talk about their favorite optional rules, how to use them and when.

How to Handle a Backseat DM: 11 Things to Know

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Why won’t the experienced DM playing in your game back off and let you run it? A backseat DM can be a frustrating experience and force some difficult conversations — but having an experienced DM on the player side of the table to help lookup rulings and encourage the other players can also be a really beneficial asset in your game. How do you leverage that DM player as a good assistant and not let them become your worst critic?

Sharing RPG Worlds: Balancing PC Power Levels and NPC Portrayals Across Shared Campaigns With Multiple DMs

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Across the games we’re running and playing, we have several campaign worlds, NPCs, and PCs that cross over between DMs. Usually, this is no big deal, but sometimes what one DM does can unbalance what another DM is trying to do. In this episode, the 3 Wise DMs talk about where the conflicts arise, why they’re a problem, and how they’ve dealt with them so everyone can run the games they want but still dip into the other campaigns in a fun way.

Does D&D 5E Need Character Levels? Radical (Heretical?) Ideas About Dungeons & Dragons PC Advancement

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Leveling up! It’s synonymous with D&D and one of the game’s biggest contributions to gaming culture. The very idea of gaining a level has become a staple of RPG video games, board games, and even most (but not all, as we’ll discuss) Tabletop Roleplaying Games. But is it the best way to handle character advancement in D&D 5th Edition?

What Makes a ‘Bad’ Spell or Ability?

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In our most recent episode, we talked about character builds and abilities that really tick us off. During that, I called Banishment a bad spell that was poorly designed, boring, and keeps the DM from being able to use a whole class of encounters. “Show us where on the doll Banishment hurt you,” you ask? OK, here’s how I decide if a spell or ability is broken and why I think this spell is bad game design.

How to DM D&D Character Builds and Abilities That Piss You Off

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It’s OK to have a PC build that pisses you off. Whether it’s because they’re unkillable, unhittable, undetectable, unsurvivable, or, like our listener question this week, they passively perceive absolutely frickin’ everything! In this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave talk about how to handle builds that piss you off or at least challenge you as a DM. Along the way, they talk about builds, abilities and spells they’ve struggled with and how you can handle the situation without ruining the game for yourself or any of your players.

How Hard Is Too Hard for Your RPG Campaign and Players?

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Balance can be the trickiest thing to strike in any RPG campaign. On the one hand, the DM is running monsters and villains who are literally plotting the PC’s destruction. A game that’s not challenging is unrewarding. On the other, a game that gets too hard can frustrate your players right out of wanting to play it. So where is the balance? How hard is too hard for your style of game and your players?

Characters Over Combat: What We Learned From Gaming in 2021

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Happy New Year! It’s a new year for new games or just continuing the ones you already love. But before we look forward to 2022, it’s important to look back at what we learned from gaming in 2021. In this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave talk about everything they learned throughout 2021, how it’s changed the way they play, and what they’re planning for 2022.

Happy Holidays From 3 Wise DMs!

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We all hope you’re having a great holiday and your games are going great! For the 3 Wise DMs, we are enjoying a little downtime with our friends and families. So, if you don’t see an episode on Sunday, December 26, or an article on the following Wednesday, it’s not because you failed a perception check. We’re simply settling down for a long winter’s nap. Check back on January 2, 2022, for our first post of the new year!