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Christmas in Barovia: A Complete Holiday One-Shot For Your Curse of Strahd Campaign

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How do you run a vampire-laden, gothic horror Christmas one-shot, you ask? Quite easily, actually. One has to look no further than the Joe Hill novel, and later television show, NOS4A2. Charlie Manx. Abducted children. Christmasland. A chance to run my Curse of Strahd party against a vampire almost as powerful as the published CR 15 Strahd. So, in its entirety, here is 3WD’s Christmas gift to all of you – a joyful, dread, merry and gothic one-shot that checks all the boxes for vampires and Christmas!

Strahd, Dead and Loving It? The 3 Wise DM’s Review of D&D 5E’s Curse of Strahd and DM Dave’s Campaign Through Ravenloft

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Ding dong, Strahd is dead! He was thrown down from a pillar and we smashed his head! And with that epic victory, the 3 Wise DMs are finally able to talk about their review of D&D 5E’s Curse of Strahd, including their thoughts on what worked, why and the adjustments DM Dave made.

The Fast Start-Up Guide for DMs With New Players

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When running a campaign for new players, you will want to lead off with your A-game.  However, at the same time, you don’t want to work until Christmas designing every detail of the first adventure. Below is a list of 8 tips that will allow you to accomplish this and hopefully have an extremely successful opening campaign with your new group. 

All Eyes on the Game: 12 Tips to Keep Your RPG Players Involved and Focused on Playing

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It’s a problem as old as roleplaying: You have a few players who are engaged, paying attention and driving the story, and other players who may be shy or not interested in what’s going on today. On the show today, Thorin, Tony and Dave will dig into what causes players to disengage, how to bring their attention back to the table, and the tricks they use to keep everyone involved in the game.

Is He-Man Revelations Worthy of the Title ‘Masters of the Universe’?

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Like many children of the 80s, one of my first exposures to the sword and sorcery genre was from the original He-Man cartoon. This wildly popular show was filled with Sci-Fi and magic and yet still managed to teach lessons of morality. And while it’s not surprising that the franchise was later rebooted, it seemed likely that it would play out in two ways … So, let’s get to the bottom of this and determine if the show does indeed have the power or should be banished to the dungeons of Snake Mountain. 

Motivating Your Players: How Do You Get Your TTRPG Player Characters to Take the Hook and Get On With the Adventure?

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We’re all at the gaming table for an adventure, right? But what about when your players don’t take the bait? In this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave talk about what they’ve seen undercut PC motivation, how they get it back, and motivational tricks to use at lower and higher levels in your game.

7 Tips for Teaching D&D 5E to a New Player So They Become a Regular One

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Playing D&D is easy, right? Well, maybe that’s the case if you have been playing somewhere between two and twenty years. But try explaining the game and all of its mechanics to someone who has never played an RPG before. To help this, we have composed a list of tips to help new players learn the game in an enjoyable and painless way that will make them want to come back for more. 

It Takes a Village: 19 Tips for Building Towns and Cities for Your RPG Campaigns

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What do you need to make a town or city for your RPG campaign? A place for your PCs to hang their hats and rest their weary feet? Stores and taverns for them to unload their loot and pick up new quests? We have warned you not to get caught up in building towns and cities before, but this time a listener asked what needs to be in them when you have to do it. The 3 Wise DMs came up with 19 tips to help you do it in pretty much any RPG.

Will You Answer the Call of Cthulhu? 8 Reasons It May or May Not Be Right for Your Group

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Is the Call of Cthulhu RPG as maddening as its reputation suggests? The system offers a  journey into the Lovecraftian world of mystery and macabre. Because who’s not up for an evening filled with suspense and shoggoths? We put together some points to help you determine if the stars are right for you to introduce the Call of Cthulhu to your players.

D&D 5E for Old Fogeys: What Old-School DMs Like Us Should Know About How this Edition Compares to Earlier Versions of Dungeons & Dragons

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Now, even old-school RPG players who haven’t played a new edition in decades are wondering what they’d need to know to run 5E. Players like Jeff, who emailed us and said, “After 40-ish years, my daughter and son-in-law got me back into RPGs with 5E and I have been playing for the last 2 years or so. In all this time, I have never been a DM/GM.” And he had a few questions about running 5E that we do our best to answer in the podcast. In this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave talk about how DMing 5E is different from older editions of D&D, how the culture around playing it has changed, and what every old-school D&D DM should know about running the system if they haven’t played it yet.