DM Tips

RPG Session Prep Tips: 3 Ways to Set the Right Scene for Your Game

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So, you’re looking to set the right tone, the one that will begin your epic, world-shaking, heartbreaking, history-making, legendary campaign? To introduce the people seated around your dining room table to the fantastical world that they are about to enter? To begin, as our own Universe did, with a Big Bang? In our most recent episode, we delved into the tips and tricks we use to bring our campaigns to life: setting, descriptions, mechanics, etc. However, I thought it would be very helpful to revisit some of the nuts and bolts to my evolving method of Session Prep.

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.

RPG MythBusters: PC Party Balance Is Essential! … Maybe Not as Much as You Think?

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TTRPG Party balance: It’s the most important thing every new campaign needs, right? Maybe not. Is there any role the PCs really NEED to have a good time? In this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave take a deep dive into what party balance and imbalance do to the game, what it means to the DM, and what it means to the players.

The 6 Habits of Highly Successful RPG Players

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Just like everyone believes they’re good drivers, most gamers believe they’re good – if not outright great – players. I would like to suggest that it should be based more on how they interact at the table, even a virtual one. For this reason, I’ve compiled a list of 6 behaviors all great players share to encourage some self-reflection in the rest of us.

TTRPG Party Dynamics: How We Want Players to Work Together and What We Do When They Don’t

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In this episode, the 3 Wise DMs talk about what they want in the RPG parties and players they DM for, what they care about, and what they let slide.

The Cannonball Run: 3 Ways to Handle Players Missing Sessions

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In our latest episode, we answered a listener’s question regarding how to handle players missing sessions. This led to a brainstorm about how to build a campaign that turns this apparent weakness into a strength. Starting from the basic idea of a West Marches-style campaign, I offer you “The Cannonball Run.”

Missing in Action: How to Handle Players Skipping Games and Scheduling Conflicts

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The ultimate BBEG for any tabletop RPG is the calendar. And judging by the vast gallery of memes about this topic, that villain is nigh unbeatable. Whether our schedules are hard to align or players have important things that come up or someone in your group is just flakey, every DM has to deal with some level of absenteeism. It’s always a little bit disruptive, and sometimes it can outright kill your campaign … How do you handle it?

What Are the Biggest Myths of Playing TTRPGs?

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Roleplaying games are communal by nature. The “rules” we play by are often passed along more due to personal agreements and groupthink than actual “truths” underlying them. Here are four things we think are common RPG myths, and why they might not be true. How many of them do you believe? Do you still believe them after reading our take?

RPG MythBusters: Never Split the Party! … Or Should You?

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In this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave play MythBusters: One of the old, unwritten rules of most TTRPGs is “Never Split the Party!” We tease our players with the risks and watch things go haywire when they don’t listen. But is splitting the party actually so bad? Can you play “Character Karaoke” and make sure everyone still has fun?