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Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst: The Five Tips That Will Help You Run a Smooth and Fun D&D Session

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It’s been said that how you say something is just as, if not more important, as what you say. For a DM, this also applies to how your material is being delivered to your players – as it can be frustrating when you felt prepared for the game but your wording or even the overall rhythm seemed off. 

Maybe the scenes were choppy between their transitions. Perhaps when you were relaying some important information, you fumbled the lines. Or when delivering the big reveal to the players, it really didn’t connect with your group as intended. 

These things have happened to the best of us.  Fortunately, from these mistakes lessons were learned which we would like to share with you now. We’ve distilled this into five tips that will hopefully allow you to avoid some of the gaming trainwrecks which we have both caused and been a part of.

The Fine Line: 3 Wise DMs List of the 5 Most Overpowered Feats and Abilities in Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition

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With 5e being an arguably complicated system, not every rule or power is going to be perfectly balanced. However, some defy reason making them so wildly powerful that it’s hard to believe they not only made it into the Player’s Handbook but were never amended. This is why we have put a list together of five things everyone enjoys having in their campaign – except, possibly, the DM. 

Rewrites: 3 Wise DMs 7 Tips to Craft Your Homebrew Ideas Into a Published D&D Adventure

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Greetings gamers from all systems, places, and timelines! When preparing to run a new campaign, one of the questions you should be asking is how this game will be different from the last? A shift of scenery is nice but it should mean more than just the places and names changing, where instead of being … Read more

How to Continue the Game When the PCs Reach Level 20

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Shrek vs. The Avengers: The feeling of level 1 D&D vs. level 20.

While there are definitely reasons why a campaign should end when the group reaches level 20, there are also plenty of reasons why it shouldn’t if the players wish to continue. This article will not focus on the philosophy of when a game should end, it will instead look at options making play past level 20 possible. Let’s see if we can accomplish this without reinventing the wheel or rewriting every class – and keep experience points as a viable reward.

7 Ways Better Leadership Will Improve Your D&D Games and Any Other RPG

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Party leader is part commander, part babysitter.

You may be asking, “How in the Nine Hells could leadership skills improve a collaborative interactive tabletop game between friends?” It admittedly sounds strange, but hear me out, because the answer is it can improve your game in many ways. This is why we’ve composed a list of 7 common sense leadership techniques that will help you improve both the flow and fun of your games.

5 Guidelines to Allow Character Agency Without Letting Your Players Break the Game

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How could players having too much agency possibly be a bad thing? Especially as player input not only builds investment in the game but can add a greater degree of depth to the world itself? Well, some character concepts may be vastly different from the flavor you intended for the game or its power curve. We’ve composed a list of guidelines that will give your players all the agency they want without giving in to every request until it takes a herd of Tarrasques to challenge them.

3WD’s 2 Tips for Playing God With Epic Boons in Your D&D 5e Campaign (With Free Examples!)

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Gods or powerful spirits bestowing extraordinary powers to heroes has been an effective formula in countless stories. This also provides opportunities in TTRPGs as well by providing unique and interesting ways to reward the players. This should not only add a shot of flavor to your overall game but increase the investment your players have in their characters. 

3 Wise DMs Guide On Running Scenes Outside Your D&D Game

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Sometimes you may need or want to run a scene outside of the main campaign. This could be because a player couldn’t make the session, the information being shared isn’t for everybody or even a player is looking for some extra interaction between games. If used properly, this can be a fantastic way to help improve the flow of your game and the engagement of your players.

5 Things RPG Players Can Do to Make Their DMs Glad They Came to the Table

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Here at 3WD, many of our articles have been geared towards providing advice and tips on how to improve the quality of your games for everyone involved. But the DM is one of those involved, and often their energy is spent trying to everyone else entertained. So, this time we would like to do something a little different and look at some things that players can do to keep their DMs energized and inspired.

5 Ways to Strengthen Your D&D Adventuring Party

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Some characters excel while marching to the beat of their own drum but not so much when in a group. The problem is, generally speaking, that D&D is a collaborative game. So, that lone wolf will need to learn to hunt in a pack. This is why we’ve put together a list of tips to help your group of adventurers work more effectively together during whatever path their choices and story takes them on.