fbpx

DM-Player Communications

Patrons, Powers and Punishments in D&D 5E: So Many Classes Get Their Powers From a Higher Power … But at What Price?

by

Patrons and punishments have been a part of D&D since 1st Edition’s paladins had to toe the line or get busted down to fighter status by an angry deity. But with so many classes drawing their powers from gods, devils and monsters in 5e — and not really getting any better deal than the wizard who studied, sorcerer who was born with it, barbarian who’s too angry to die, or the bard who just has to rock out with his glockenspiel out — how can the DM handle these patron relationships in a way that feels cool but doesn’t become unfair compared to the other classes?

Strange Homebrew: Knowing When, Where and How to Make Your RPG Campaign Weird Without Losing Your Players

by

DMs have some crazy ideas. And deep down, there’s nothing most of us want to do more than unleash those ideas on our unsuspecting players. These strange homebrew ideas can be the coolest and most memorable part of the campaign, but they’re also risky. Will your player throw a fit after their corporeal form is replaced with a pile of insects? The quit risk is high. What makes sense in the story? If you can get the players to go along with that, you can have fun with all sorts of crazy homebrew ideas.

11 Ways to Be a Better Dungeon Master: Lessons Learned in Our First Year Recording 3 Wise DMs

by

This is the 1-year anniversary of our publishing the first episode of 3 Wise DMs. We’ve had as many as 5 campaigns running across 3 different systems, and every week we got together to talk about them on this podcast. This week, we look back on the very first episode, how our DMing ideas have changed since then, and 11 things we think have made us better dungeon masters.

Bringing RPGs Back From COVID: How Do We Get Back to In-Person Gaming After a Year of Roll20 and Quarantine?

by

The 3 Wise DMs have only just started to get back together for some in-person gaming, but none of the online RPGs we’ve talked about has yet made it back to the dinner table. Can they be saved? Do the Wise DMs even want to bring them back in-person? Are the players on board? Even if everyone wants to go back to playing live, what challenges do they face?

DMing Big Character Changes: How to Handle PCs Shifting Alignments, Races, Classes, and More Without Ruining the Game or That Player’s Fun

by

How we handle RPG character-altering changes, get the players on board with them and make it all balance mechanically with the rest of the game.

D&D Alignment: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly for Your RPG Campaigns — RPG MythBusters

by

“Alignment doesn’t matter!” We’ve heard it all over the place, but alignment has been a part of D&D and other RPGs for decades. Is it worth your time? Does it make things worse instead of better? Does it have any benefits players today are overlooking?

Is the Game Interesting If the Players Always Win?

by

In any game, just like in life, no one enjoys constantly losing. Most people would quickly get discouraged and want to move on to another game or stop playing such games at all. If the players always won, wouldn’t the reverse also be true? Instead of being frustrated with consistently losing, the players would start phoning in every scene and battle because the chance of defeat is less than zero. That’s why the risk of failure is just as important as the risk of death to a good TTRPG game.

The Case for the DMPC

by

Understandably, many DMs and players feel strongly against adding a DMPC to the table. However, I am here to tell you that, if done correctly, this NPC could not only be valuable to the party dynamic but also provide the DM with unique perspective that you’d never get from the other side of the DM screen.

When Metagaming Goes Wrong: How Do You Stop Out-of-Character Knowledge From Ruining Your Game?

by

It may be the DM’s world, but the players know the game too. They have access to all the books, all the lore, even all the monster stats! What do you do when they can’t keep personal TTRPG knowledge separate from PC knowledge?

DM Burnout: 6 Things That Cause It, and How We Recover From It

by

What does DM burnout look like? What does it feel like? Can you play through it? Here’s what the 3 Wise DMs have learned, and tips to start healing.