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DM Inspiration and Influences: The Gaming and Culture Stuff That Makes Us Who We Are

We all stand on the shoulders of giants in games, whether those are metaphorical giants, literary giants or literal giants. In this episode, the 3 Wise DMs talk about the things that shape their games and how they directly impact what they do.

Happy Birthday to Us!

It’s been a year since we launched 3WiseDMs.com. 30 podcast episodes, 60 blog posts, 10,000 downloads and 30,000 site visitors later, and here we are. So, Happy Birthday to us! Thank you to all of our listeners and visitors (not to mention all of you who follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) for making … Read more

3 Reasons Players Leave Your Game – Revelations From a Year of Gaming

Even Master Yoda and Obi-Wan lost students, and even the best DMs lose players. While there could be literally hundreds of reasons someone leaves a game, I would like to focus on the biggest and how you can hopefully avoid them.

DM Burnout: 6 Things That Cause It, and How We Recover From It

What does DM burnout look like? What does it feel like? Can you play through it? Here’s what the 3 Wise DMs have learned, and tips to start healing.

3 Tips to Stop Wasting Game Time – Revelations From a Year of Gaming

Even seasoned DMs can get lost spending their time in the wrong places, both prep time and at the game table. Here are 3 tips for managing yourself and your table to make sure game-related time is spent wisely.

The Bootstrap Guide to DMing Your First Role Playing Game

Every DM needs to run their first game, and you don’t need a Ph.D. to do it. Here’s the 3 Wise DMs’ advice for mastering the game while you run it.

PC Death Is a Necessary Evil – Revelations From a Year of Gaming

There is no punch to the gut quite like losing a character you have been working on for the last 14 or more sessions. Having a craptastic year? Well, now your favorite character is dead too! But sometimes, it has to happen to keep the game real.

2020: A Year in the 3 Wise DMs TTRPG Lab

In March of 2020, we were getting ready to record our first episode of this podcast. We all got together in our planned recording space and cut the trailer. … Then COVID happened, and that entire plan went into the garbage along with concerts, vacations and sending kids to school. For some people, 2020 was a quarantine lockdown. For us, it was a year in the lab doing intensive DMing and podcasting. Here’s how it went, what we learned and our resolutions for gaming in 2021.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays From the 3 Wise DMs

It’s been a good year for 3 Wise DMs, launching the new podcast and website. Thank you all for the support. We’re going to take a long winter’s nap for Christmas and New Year, but look for new podcasts and articles starting the first week of January 2021! We hope you all have a wonderful … Read more

A Wise DM’s Guide to Homebrew Magic Items

Custom magical items can add a sense of mystery to the game as well as your own style to the already strong framework of the existing 5E system. I suspect most DM’s and players are open to the idea of introducing non-canon magical items but have valid concerns surrounding these homebrews being labeled either broken or underwhelming. To help find a middle ground between the two, I would like to share four pieces of advice (or, rather. insane ramblings) on how to create custom magical equipment in your game without derailing both your party balance and the game itself.