When the DM Isn’t Having Fun: How to Fix an RPG Campaign That Feels Like a Chore
The DM is a player, too. If you’re not having fun, there’s no game. Here’s how to figure out what’s wrong and get back to a game you enjoy running.
The Case for the DMPC
Understandably, many DMs and players feel strongly against adding a DMPC to the table. However, I am here to tell you that, if done correctly, this NPC could not only be valuable to the party dynamic but also provide the DM with unique perspective that you’d never get from the other side of the DM screen.
When Metagaming Goes Wrong: How Do You Stop Out-of-Character Knowledge From Ruining Your Game?
It may be the DM’s world, but the players know the game too. They have access to all the books, all the lore, even all the monster stats! What do you do when they can’t keep personal TTRPG knowledge separate from PC knowledge?
Schrodinger’s DM Prep: Every Encounter Is a Quantum Encounter Until Your Players ‘Open the Box’
Is the key encounter/NPC/Lost Tower of Super Badness this way or that way? Maybe it’s both and neither? Everything in your world can be simultaneously alive and dead until the players open that box and find out what’s inside. Here’s how to use that to your advantage and save time on DM prep.
Bringing NPCs to Life: How to Build Legendary Characters Your Players Will Talk About for Decades
The best NPCs become legends, the rest won’t even be memories. How do you bring NPCs to life so players will engage with, trust and remember them?
How to DM an Evil Campaign
To help you to have a successful villainous campaign, I will provide four guidelines that have worked for me in the past. And trust me when I say they can make the difference between a party wiping each other out or creating their own evil pantheon. (And who wouldn’t want to do that?)
How to Move a Stalled RPG Campaign Forward
At some point, every DM sees their campaign get lost in the weeds. How do you get the PCs back on track and involved with the big, bad plotline?
All-Star Games: A Time-Honored TTRPG Tradition
While it’s great you have this epic story about a dark lord and his all-powerful ring, maybe your players want a break from that weeks-long march to Mount Doom? This gives you, the DM, an opportunity to introduce something known as an “All-Star Game”!
DMing Large Groups: 19 Tips for Running Games With 6 or More Players
Most TTRPGs, including D&D 5E, run best with 3-5 players. How can you run them smoothly with 6, 8 or even 10 PCs? Here’s how the 3 Wise DMs handle it.
5 DM Combat Tricks to Challenge the Toughest PC Parties
Not every D&D fight should be a 2-hour slugfest for the party’s lives. But at the same time, how often does it feel like the party is steamrolling everyone they meet without having to break a sweat? Here are 5 tactics I use to make combat more dangerous when I want to challenge the party. They’ll put the PCs on the back foot and make them feel less than comfortable on the battlefield.