We all hope you’re having a great holiday and your games are going great! For the 3 Wise DMs, we are enjoying a little downtime with our friends and families. So, if you don’t see an episode on Sunday, December 26, or an article on the following Wednesday, it’s not because you failed a perception check. We’re simply settling down for a long winter’s nap. Check back on January 2, 2022, for our first post of the new year!
What defines a DM who is truly great at the craft they practice? Some would argue that it’s a masterful comprehension of the rules and their applications, while others might say it’s the experience they possess from years of running successful campaigns. While both knowledge and experience of the game are important, even the most polished DM can have a game end up lackluster or even go off the rails entirely. This is why we have assembled a list of eight essential DM qualities to help ensure your next game starts off with a bang or the one you’re currently running is filled with high player energy and memorable moments.Â
ored? Maybe they’re bored with their character or combat or the way things are going, and now figuring out a way to pick things up a notch for this player falls to you, the DM. Do you let them revamp or replace their PC? Do you make combat more difficult? If the other players are having fun, will adjusting for the bored player ruin it for the rest of them? Here’s how the 3 Wise DMs handle it.
5e’s Curse of Strahd contains a double entendre. While it seems as if the big bad Lord of Barovia is the curse that follows the players around, the deeper truth is that the curse is his own. He cannot leave. Barovia is his prison. Having just completed our run of this infamous adventure, I found an even deeper curse lying within the module: Strahd just isn’t powerful enough to handle the heat of the epic, final battle when the players are level appropriate and have recovered the artifacts.
You hear The 3 Wise DMs talk about our games all the time, but what do our players really think? In this episode, we have 6 of the 7 players from Curse of Strahd on to get honest with DM Dave about what they thought of his campaign! Along the way, we get into whether you should leave your Tarokka reading random, The Death House, what it was like playing in a low-magic setting, slow leveling, the Amber Temple and much more!
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!
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.
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.Â
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.
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.Â
