Secrets: Are they powerful character-building tools or TPK time bombs waiting to destroy your RPG campaign? We’ve seen it go both ways, from character background secrets that added depth and immersion for the player to secrets pacts that saw PCs murdered in-game by other PCs. Is that second one a failure? That depends on your group, but it certainly wasn’t what the DM had in mind.
Super-powered archmages, alien vampire gods, Tiamat and the devil himself – once your campaign crosses about level 15, it’s all on the table. But the same is true for super-powerful spells, legendary artifacts, and a hundred other things that make the players as tough as your wildest villain creations. This is why epic-tier play just isn’t the same as everything your campaign has been through before.
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.
Do you walk around talking in funny voices? Are you constantly thinking about how game mechanics apply to real-world situations? Have you ever turned a person or thing you know into a Dungeons and Dragons monster? (Did you have your players kill that monster?) … Then you, too, may be a quirky Dungeon Master.
Our recent article on running scenes outside of your game sessions caught some attention by none other than the official D&D podcast Dragon Talk! So, Thorin and Tony got the chance to sit down with Dragon Talk’s co-host, Shelly Mazzanoble, on their “How to DM” segment to discuss the devil the in the details!
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.
It was near impossible to make the all-ranged party work in earlier editions, but in Dungeons and Dragon 5E, it can work shockingly well. It can even “ruin” the campaign for DMs who don’t know how to handle it. On the other hand, if you make them spend all their time shut away in bare 10’ dungeon corridors, that ruins the fun for the party and likely ends in a level-1 TPK. So how do you DM the all-ranged party so you and the players all have fun?
In our recent episode on faction building in your TTRPG, we discussed how we design, develop and implement factions in our own games. But, in case you need to develop factions before this week’s game, I decided to break down three specific ways to approach faction building in your own game.
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.
Player character deaths happen in all Dungeons and Dragons games and other TTRPGs … don’t they? Should you be worried about killing PCs, or is it fine to let the dice fall where they may? When is it OK to kill a character and how do you make sure the player is still into the game with their new PC? Is it even the DM’s choice? Listen in to hear how Thorin, Tony and Dave handle character death and when/how/why it is OK to kill a player character.
