Campaign Inspiration

6 Steps to Building RPG Characters Your Party Will Love and Your DM Will Love to Hate

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Did you ever conceptualize a character who you expected to run like a badass D&D version of Batman, but instead of getting Ben Affleck, you ended up with Adam West? Unfortunately, a lot of things can go south between your imagination and the gaming table. Therefore, I have composed a list of 6 tips to help prevent your next dark and gritty character from unexpectedly ending up as the version of Batman with floppy ears and bat shark repellent (but with much less charm).

Build a Better RPG Villain in 5 Easy Steps

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They say the clothes make the man, but the villain makes the campaign. It has to be something your players love to hate – but also love to learn more about. A good big bad evil guy (BBEG) is a balancing act of depth and destruction. Here are 5 things I make sure to understand about my villain and what it’s going to do before the party confronts it.

The Players’ Review of Storm King’s Thunder: The Whole Party Spills the Tea on Tony’s Version of #SKT

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For the first time ever, we brought the whole team together to recap DM Tony’s very highly customized version of Storm King’s Thunder. Hear what all 5 players and Tony thought of the game and what they have to say about the CRAZY MAGIC ITEMS in it his changes to the campaign, fitting in their backstories, and more!

Storm King’s Thunder DM Review: The 9 Deviations DM Tony Used to Make D&D’s Giant Globetrot His Own

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When is a book module not a book module? When the DM throws in birthday games, a modifiable Spelljammer airship, legendary weapons tied to every character’s backstory, and more deviations from the standard campaign than we could count. Hear all this and more, as we break down the 9 main deviations Tony brought to Storm King’s Thunder and the DM’s perspective on running it.

Bringing Your RPG Campaign World to Life: 37 Tricks to Give Your Setting a Soul

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Do your players feel into the campaign setting you’re running, or is it just generic D&D world #124 to them? What can you do to bring that world more to life and make it feel unique to you and your players? What makes a D&D session feel like more than just a glorified board game? Here are 37 of the tricks the 3 Wise DMs use to try to make the players feel immersed in our worlds and give the settings some soul.

DMing 101: 8 Ways the Justice League Snyder Cut Can Improve Your D&D Game

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There are a lot of themes in The Snyder Cut of Justice League that are akin to gaming. In many respects, the superhero genre is the cousin of the Dungeons & Dragons world. Here are 8 things that Zack Snyder’s Justice League did well from a gaming perspective that we should all strive to hit while running and conceptualizing our games.

How to End Your Campaign the Right Way

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Every story needs a proper ending, especially if it’s one of epic proportions. And few tales are as epic as an RPG campaign that reaches the end of its final story arc. Unfortunately, some endings are like The Sopranos, which left the audience thinking “WTF?!” for all the wrong reasons. Others feel rushed, forced or downright unsatisfying. After being on both sides of this equation, I would like to share some tips to prevent your story from tanking in the 11th hour and leave everyone glad they showed up for the final game.

How to DM Epic-Tier Games: 19 Tips for Running – and Ending – High-Level TTRPG Campaigns

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How do you challenge RPG PCs who wield actual cosmic power? How do you bring that campaign to a satisfying end? The time for killing rats is past, here’s how the 3 Wise DMs run and end high-level campaigns.

7 Big Things D&D PCs Could Do With a Little Downtime

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Many D&D campaigns assume that the players change the world most by their adventures. But downtime activities can be every bit as important to shaping the campaign and the world. Sometimes the things done during downtime turn out to be the most memorable parts of your game. Here are 7 of the coolest things I could see players do with downtime and how I would adjudicate them off the cuff.

Party Downtime: When, How and Should You Let the Players Pursue Their Own Character Goals?

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Do you actually give your player characters downtime? Or do you keep them slaloming down the plot with barely a weekend to get their equipment sharpened?