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D&D Tips

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.