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Running the Game

DMing All-Ranged Parties in Dungeons and Dragons 5E

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It was near impossible to make the all-ranged party work in earlier editions, but in Dungeons and Dragon 5E, it can work shockingly well. It can even “ruin” the campaign for DMs who don’t know how to handle it. On the other hand, if you make them spend all their time shut away in bare 10’ dungeon corridors, that ruins the fun for the party and likely ends in a level-1 TPK. So how do you DM the all-ranged party so you and the players all have fun?

3 Ways To Get The Most Out Of Your D&D Session Prep: Factions Edition

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In our recent episode on faction building in your TTRPG, we discussed how we design, develop and implement factions in our own games. But, in case you need to develop factions before this week’s game, I decided to break down three specific ways to approach faction building in your own game.

When Is It OK to Kill a Player Character and What Do You Do Next?

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Player character deaths happen in all Dungeons and Dragons games and other TTRPGs … don’t they? Should you be worried about killing PCs, or is it fine to let the dice fall where they may? When is it OK to kill a character and how do you make sure the player is still into the game with their new PC? Is it even the DM’s choice? Listen in to hear how Thorin, Tony and Dave handle character death and when/how/why it is OK to kill a player character.

5 Things RPG Players Can Do to Make Their DMs Glad They Came to the Table

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Here at 3WD, many of our articles have been geared towards providing advice and tips on how to improve the quality of your games for everyone involved. But the DM is one of those involved, and often their energy is spent trying to everyone else entertained. So, this time we would like to do something a little different and look at some things that players can do to keep their DMs energized and inspired.

Creating Fantastic RPG Factions: How to Use Groups, Guilds, Criminals, Guards, and More Organizations in Your TTRPG Campaigns

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Every good RPG campaign — Dungeons and Dragons 5E or any other system — has multiple factions for PCs to interact with. How do you build them out?

What to Do With Curse of Strahd’s Megaliths? Making Published D&D Material Your Own

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“The four ancient stones near the windmill were erected centuries ago by the valley’s original human inhabitants. Each moss-covered stone bears a crude carving of a city, each of which is associated with a different season. The city of winter is shown covered in snow. The city of spring is arrayed in flowers. The city of summer has a sunburst overhead, and the city of autumn is covered in leaves. If the characters ask any of the priests or scholarly NPCs in Barovia about the stones, the characters are told that ancient legends tell of the Four Cities, said to be the cities of Paradise where the Morninglord, Mother Night, and the other ancient gods first dwelled.” – Curse of Strahd

Playing With the Future: How to DM Foreshadowing in Dungeons and Dragons and other TTRPG Campaigns

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Foreshadowing is a powerful tool for any storyteller, but it can be hard to use effectively at the campaign table. Whether you’re playing D&D or another role-playing game, you’re really DMing against your players’ distractions. And a table full of food, phones and click-clackety math rocks can hide subtle hints more effectively than the rug you put them under. On the other hand, if you hit your players over the head with foreshadowing, it can ruin your surprises and turn the plot into a running table joke.

DMing Advantage and Disadvantage: How and When to Play With D&D 5E’s Most Elegant Tool

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One of the best new mechanics in Dungeons and Dragons 5E is the advantage/disadvantage system. It’s simple, elegant and we’ve played several other games that have blatantly stolen it. We think it’s here to stay. But the decision of when to apply discretionary advantage and disadvantage falls on the DM, and the many mechanical ways players have to get advantage themselves sometimes conflict with the DM’s intent when awarding advantage. In this episode, hear how Thorin, Tony and Dave handle advantage and disadvantage along with plus and minus modifiers in their games along with plenty of examples from our gaming history (including the time a PC talked the DM into letting him one-shot the BBEG at 3rd level when they caught the guy simply walking across the road).

5 Ways to Strengthen Your D&D Adventuring Party

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Some characters excel while marching to the beat of their own drum but not so much when in a group. The problem is, generally speaking, that D&D is a collaborative game. So, that lone wolf will need to learn to hunt in a pack. This is why we’ve put together a list of tips to help your group of adventurers work more effectively together during whatever path their choices and story takes them on.

The Pregnant PC: Handling Odd Character Creation Requests in Dungeons and Dragons and Other RPGs

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Would you allow a player to bring a pregnant PC into your game? That’s the question listener Joel brings to us for this episode. And while at first, it caught us off-guard, we realized this doesn’t need to be a deal-breaker. In fact, not many PC backstory requests need to be a deal-breaker. It all depends on how you implement them in your fantasy game.