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Campaign Design

Finish Your Homebrew D&D Campaign With a Bang: DMs’ Breakdown of the Epic Ending of the Woodstock Wanderers

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Like Thanos said, in a homebrew campaign, reality can be whatever you want it to be.

We realize that reviewing a homebrew campaign is different from Curse of Strahd or Storm King’s Thunder – after all, you can’t go pick up the contents of Thorin’s head at the bookstore. But everyone should try their hand at homebrew at one point or another, and this episode is choc full of tips and feedback for creative DMs everywhere. That includes frank discussion of what worked, what didn’t, our biggest challenges (looking at you, Roll20), where the world seemed too shallow, and what was most interesting in this long-running homebrew D&D campaign. We hope it helps you craft even better games for your table.

3 Ways To Get The Most Out Of Your D&D Session Prep: Factions Edition

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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.

8 Tips for Your DM’s Tool Chest From 100 Episodes of 3WD

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Here at 3WD, it has been our mission to provide DM’s everywhere with content to help them improve both their gaming experience and the experience for all involved. One hundred episodes later, the time flew by, and a lot of ground was covered. Through all the jokes and stories shared, we hope some solid advice was given that you could take back to your groups and use. Building on our 100th Episode Podcast, here’s a deeper dive into some of my most valuable takeaways from the past 100 episodes and the games we played during them.

The 6 Best Dungeons and Dragons and RPG Campaign Worlds According to the 3 Wise DMs

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The world you set your campaign in has just as much impact on the tone, story and overall fun of your game as the players you choose to play in it. But which campaign worlds are the best, most fun, and most inspiring? On that, the 3 Wise DMs each have their own ideas. So this article breaks down our 6 favorite campaign worlds, 2 per DM, and why we love them. It’s a lot of Dungeons and Dragons material, but not all of it.

A Dark Sun Rising: The Allure and Compromises of Using Pre-Made Dungeons and Dragons Settings

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There are a lot of pros and cons for using boxed settings and creating your own settings, and the 3 Wise DMs dabble in both in their own ways. Here’s what Thorin, Tony and Dave think of using pre-made settings, what makes a good setting, how they make them their own and how they pull elements of existing settings into their homebrew settings, too.

Ending the Campaign: Bringing Your Dungeons & Dragons Story to a Satisfying Conclusion

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Ending a long-running Dungeons & Dragons campaign (or any TTRPG) can be one of the most intimidating moments for a DM. You’ve managed to carry the momentum, tension, and player interest for dozens of sessions over perhaps years. How do you wrap all that up into a few final sessions that leave you and your players feeling like it all paid off?

No Rest for the Weary: How the Rest Cadence of D&D 5E Can Completely Change Your Game

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Rest! In some D&D 5E campaigns, it’s taken for granted. In others, like Tomb of Annihilation, PCs may have to make their HP and long-rest abilities stretch for days. And like in real life, sleep deprivation changes the game! How can the DM use all of these nuances to their advantage to tortu… er, have fun with the players? Thorin, Tony and Dave discuss all that and more in this episode of 3 Wise DMs.

The Fetch Quest: Are They Fun? Are They Worth It? Are They Just Filler for the Big Story?

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Sometimes your players want something, or you want to give them something, that would be kind of lame to just leave lying around. After all, The Awesome Staff of Mega Power probably deserves its own quest to find. But how long should that quest be? And how do you keep the other players personally involved so they don’t get bored?

Should I Run or Play in a Solo Game? 8 Pros and Cons to Help You Decide

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If you’ve never run or played in a solo game of D&D or some different system, then you’ve missed out on an interesting experience – even if, admittedly, one of the cornerstones of the game is built on collaborative roleplay. And, while  solo adventure can be extremely fun, it’s definitely not for all players or DMs for a single session, let alone an actual campaign. This is why we composed a list of pros and cons to help you decide if a solo game is something you would like to introduce or request from your DM.

9 Alternate D&D Rules to Try: Our Favorite Optional Mechanics From the DMG, Homebrew and Other Games

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Vanilla Dungeons & Dragons 5E is a fine game, but depending on the atmosphere you want to set and the possibilities of your setting, there are a lot of alternate rules that can bring your game to the next level. The D&D 5E Dungeon Masters Guide has some great optional rules you can use to bring different genres of games to life by playing up things like honor and horror. Beyond D&D itself, a lot of other games use mechanics that are worth porting in to create certain effects in your campaign world. Your own unique homebrew mechanics can be even more powerful tools for bringing your setting more to life. In this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave talk about their favorite optional rules, how to use them and when.