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.
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.
Every good RPG campaign — Dungeons and Dragons 5E or any other system — has multiple factions for PCs to interact with. How do you build them out?
“The four ancient stones near the windmill were erected centuries ago by the valley’s original human inhabitants. Each moss-covered stone bears a crude carving of a city, each of which is associated with a different season. The city of winter is shown covered in snow. The city of spring is arrayed in flowers. The city of summer has a sunburst overhead, and the city of autumn is covered in leaves. If the characters ask any of the priests or scholarly NPCs in Barovia about the stones, the characters are told that ancient legends tell of the Four Cities, said to be the cities of Paradise where the Morninglord, Mother Night, and the other ancient gods first dwelled.” – Curse of Strahd
Foreshadowing is a powerful tool for any storyteller, but it can be hard to use effectively at the campaign table. Whether you’re playing D&D or another role-playing game, you’re really DMing against your players’ distractions. And a table full of food, phones and click-clackety math rocks can hide subtle hints more effectively than the rug you put them under. On the other hand, if you hit your players over the head with foreshadowing, it can ruin your surprises and turn the plot into a running table joke.
