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DM-Player Communications

Changes – 3 Wise DMs Absolutely Best Tips For The Player That Wants To Change Their D&D Character Class

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What do you do when your player is unhappy with the direction of their class and wants to change over into a new class mid-campaign, but with the same character?

In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave answer a listener question about their player that wants to change their character’s class from Paladin to Sorcerer at 5th level. We delve into not just the narrative components of a change like this, but also the mechanical effects that such a change would inevitably bring. Along the way, we offer tips, tricks, and questions you should ask yourself if you’re planning on something like this in your own games.

She’s A Mystery To Me: How Long To Keep Secrets And Clues From Your Players In Your D&D Game

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One of the beauties of TTRPGs is the ability to not just watch or read an amazing story, but to experience it… to create it. The mystery, the action, the climactic battle between good and evil; D&D gives us the ability to create our favorite stories.

One of the most important aspects of that, as the DM, is creating a level of mystery to the story that the players get the chance to uncover as they delve deeper into the adventure. In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave discuss a listener question about their mystery that they’re planning on having last for 10 levels and ask, “am I being cruel by leaving them in mystery so long?”

To Be Or Not To Be: 3WD Reveal The Top 2 Pros And Cons To Consider When Its Time To Kill A D&D Character

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Now I get that not every story has a happy ending and some of the greatest of all time don’t. But when this happens to your character in a table top game it usually plays out and feels significantly different.  So as a DM, if you have a chance to kill a player, should you? And, as a player, is this what you expect at the table? To help sort this debate out we are offering our top two pros and cons to consider if this makes sense for you and your gaming group.

I’m Ready For My Spotlight: 7 Tips To Help Your Character Find Their Voice In D&D and Other TTRPGS

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Greetings gamers from all systems, places, and timelines.

Recently, we released a podcast from a listener’s question on how to handle a player that wants to be in every scene as if they were the star of the show. But, just as many times, we have encountered a wide range of equally reserved players, who can be anywhere from being somewhat uncomfortable with taking the lead in a scene to doing a five hour impersonation of Silent Bob. This could be for a number of reasons, such as that they are newer to the system or haven’t found their groove at the table. 

Likewise, this can happen with experienced players who are on their seventh character and this particular one just isn’t clicking. Because how you conceptualize someone in your head is almost never how they end up once the game starts. Like Gerald who was intended to be a fearless knight, but during the actual game ended up more like John Ritter from Three’s Company. If any of this sounds familiar then you are in luck. As we have composed a list of seven tips to help you bring out your character’s potential without turning you into an obnoxious power gamer, like myself, in the process.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

Strange Magic – The Best Ways To Adjudicate Spell Effects In Your D&D and TTRPG Campaigns

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Spell effects in Fantasy TTRPGs are easily the times when we as DMs and GMs have to respond on the fly to changing parameters. In systems like 5e, we’ve discussed how they’ve crafted a system that does some of the heavy lifting for you when it comes to rulings. But, no matter how many rules exist, you are going to have times that interesting uses of spells make you have to adjudicate in a completely new way.

In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave discuss ruling on how spell effects change the landscape and/or battlefield that we ran into in one of our most recent games. Regardless of your newness or your experience, this discussion helps us realize that the old adage of artists is true… “if you want to learn to paint great bricks. Paint one thousand bricks.”