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D&D 5E

What’s In A Name? 5 Tips to Worldbuilding by Naming Magic Items in Your D&D and TTRPG Games

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From King Arthur’s Excalibur to the mighty hammer of Thor, Mjölnir, the history of fantasy is filled with iconic magic items. Their names take them from something simple, like a sword or hammer, and make them as much a part of the story as the characters who wield them. 

I’d like to share a funny scene that has played out in my head numerous times over my years playing D&D…

Bilbo, Gandalf, and the dwarves have made their way to the Last Homely House at Rivendell after their escape from the goblins. Lord Elrond investigates the ancient runes that adorn the magical swords the party found in the troll’s cave, finally turning to Gandalf after some time, “This weapon is called…+1 sword of goblin-slaying!”

Now, any of us that have read The Hobbit and/or The Lord of the Rings trilogy will recognize that particular sword as the fabled Glamdring, also known as “Foe-hammer” and “Beater” (Yeah, it has three different names. Tolkien was a master at deep lore). That’s a fair bit better than if Elrond had used it’s D&D equivalent’s name, as in my adapted scene above.

While not every magic item needs a collection of names like the aforementioned Glamdring, letting things like a +1 sword or Armor of Invulnerability into your world without anything more than a rules-based description as a name can diminish the power they can have outside of what they do.

Share and Share Alike: 3WDs Top Tips For Dealing With D&D Players Who Won’t Share The Spotlight

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Sharing. It’s one of the first skills that we have to learn as kids and, as anyone who has gamed for long enough, some kids never quite learned how to do it. Our longtime listener, Jim Laubacker, posed a question regarding how to best deal with players that won’t share the spotlight. As a bonus, Jim is also trying to balance a group that is a hybrid of in-person and virtual players!

In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave discuss the ways in which they’ve adjusted to turn the dominant and passive players weaknesses at the table into strengths. Additionally, they delve more into the difficulties they’ve experienced in running hybrid games and some tips and tricks with dealing with a very new issue in TTRPGs.

How DM Chris Got His Groove Back: 5 Simple Concepts To Help Enhance Your D&D Combat Encounters

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If you’ve listened to the podcast, you’ve heard me talk often about how I feel my weakness at the table is combat. As funny as that seems, with D&D being spawned from wargames, I didn’t think my combat encounters had the verve or excitement that I experienced as a player in other campaigns. Roleplay, NPC interactions, exploration, description – those came more naturally for me. Truth be told, I’m not a very tactical guy. 

Now, I could have pouted about it, but the more I’ve DM’d, the more I’ve come to discover that the learning never stops. Real wisdom, unlike its ability score equivalent, is gained over time and through trial. So first, I studied at the table, watching other DMs run their combat encounters. Then, I went out to the internet and researched how the larger community handled combat. 

I’ve distilled all of it into these five simple concepts for now – Tempo, Deployment, Control, Deception, and Expectation. The overall theme is pulling back the player’s security blanket just enough to get the blood pumping. Maybe this is old news for you, but if you’re a little like me, maybe this gives you an idea or two on how to improve your own combat encounters.

The Breakup Game – How Constant Splitting of the Party Can Lead to DM Burnout and What to Do About It

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And for our first episode of 2024, we delve into a listener question regarding the players constantly Splitting the Party in their Curse of Strahd campaign and how that’s leading to DM Burnout. But, Splitting the Party is a gift to a DM, isn’t it? I mean, now you can really dial up the tension, right? In a dungeon, or a mansion, or a Keep, sure. But what about when the party is split up into three sections of the campaign world?!

In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave discuss strategies for dealing with players who constantly want to run, in essence, three separate games within a single session. Further, we delve again into the very real topic of DM Burnout and finish our Final Thoughts with some prescient wisdom from DM Thorin.

Christmas One-Shots: 3 Wise DMs Top 8 Holiday D&D Plots To Give Your Party A Reason For The Season

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The holidays provide opportunities for many things. Like good food, visiting with friends, and running holiday-themed one-shot games. You know, the kind of games which have nothing to do with the plot of your campaign but are light hearted and fun as hell.

And while this session should be memorable, odds are your schedule was pretty tight before any of the holiday madness even began. To help you make your own holiday-themed game we have put together a list of eight of our plots of Christmases Past which were very successful and a ton of fun. Hopefully these will provide you with a starting point and inspiration for your own adventure or at the very least some amusement.

Damage, Inc. – 3WD Discuss What Hit Points Represent And How To Improve Your D&D Game By Changing Your Perspective

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What do Hit Points represent? Who knew that this was a controversial question on par with asking about Alignment? Following our episode reviewing the Avatar Legends RPG and their use of Fatigue and Conditions, we posed the question regarding what hit points represent on our socials and the response was impressive.

In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave take a deeper dive into what Hit Points represent in their games, how they describe the loss of them, and how other systems approach one of the oldest traditions of D&D.

DM Chris’ Favorite D&D 5e Subclasses From Sorcerer To Wizard: Part 3 of 3

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Part 1 was the beginning of the class alphabet, Part 2 was the heart of the martial classes, but let me welcome you to Part 3 – the Land of the Spellcasters. Magic holds a special place in D&D. It’s the spark that frees it from the mundane. The classes contained here each take that spark and do something wonderfully unique with it. So as they say, once more unto the breach…

Time Is On My Side: 7 Tips To Run Quick Yet Satisfying D&D Games

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According to the almighty Google, the average D&D game lasts somewhere between four and six hours. This may explain why scheduling is so difficult, because it’s like trying to get your friends together to watch not one but two full games of football back to back. 

So what if carving six hours out of everyone’s weekend just isn’t going to happen? We’ve put together a list of tips which can help you run shorter, but still enjoyable, games. A game that still hits all the beats of a full session (but won’t require everyone blocking off a time slot four weeks in advance that someone will inevitably double book and tell you about the morning before the game). Instead, everyone will just hop on Roll20 or other VTT whenever they are available, for about an hour or two, so the adventure can continue.

Stone Cold Crazy – How a First-Time DM Ran a Crazy One-Shot With Four Kurt Russell’s!

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We recently shared a post about our Halloween one-shot adventure that we started referring to as the “Kurt Russell Campaign.” Four players, all playing one of the legendary roles made famous by your favorite, and ours, Mr. Kurt Russell. The response was fantastic, so we thought we’d do a deeper dive.

In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave are joined by return guests Bonnie and the Monster Wrangler himself, and now official DM, Matt, who decided that for his first official session behind the screen, he was going to do something that might even challenge even seasoned DMs.

A Murder Most Foul: 7 Tips on Running a Murder Mystery Game in any TTRPG

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Here at 3WD, it’s no secret that we love one-shot adventures and holiday-themed games. They can spice things up or provide a welcome change with the routine of your campaign. And with Halloween having just come, what idea could be more of a low hanging fruit than a murder mystery? However, this being a different style of game, it can be tricky – which is why we made a list of seven tips to guide you through making your own in-game murder mystery something that will be remembered.