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Running the Game

When DMs Go to War: How to Run Mass Combat in D&D (and similar RPGs) and Not Bore Your Players

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Most DMs come to a point in their campaigns where they want to run The Big Battle! A real war: Storming the beaches of a fantasy Normandy, the Siege of Winterfell, the Battle of Pelennor Fields from Lord of the Rings. But when you go to set the battle up, you realize just how clunky mass combat is in D&D and most RPGs. In this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave answer that and more as they break down what happens when DMs go to war.

Surrender Like a Boss: When RPG Monsters and NPCs Should Give Up and How to Get PCs to Accept Their Submission

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Sometimes the best stories play out after defeat, but to get to them, bad guys need to occasionally survive the fight. In this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave roll out their best tricks for using surrender as a storytelling tool, combat hack, and reminder that actions in their RPG worlds have consequences.

Powering Up! Bringing D&D Monsters, Villains and Campaigns Up to Your Party’s Level

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Whether you’re playing a book Dungeons & Dragons campaign or just have big plans for a couple uglies in the Monster Manual, there’s a level window where your PCs will have a good, balanced encounter with those threats. But what do you do when the party isn’t in that window?

The Cat’s Paw: Building RPG Villain Schemes That Confound Your Party

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A confounding villain scheme can be the thing that brings your campaign to life. It’s even better when you can make multiple villains crisscross and double-cross with the players in the middle trying to catch up. Here’s how to build a truly tangled web of intrigue starring the Kingpin and some of Marvel’s competing heavy hitters.

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

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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.

The Starter Game: When You Need More Than Just a Session 0 for New Players

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Even if your players have experience with gaming or roleplaying, new systems always have more parts than a deluxe Lego set. What if there was a way to bring first-time players into a campaign and get them comfortable right away? you could run a specially designed starter game that is more focused on getting everyone familiar with how the system works before jumping headfirst into things. At the end, your new players should walk away with a foundation for how both their characters and the system operate.

The Great One-Shot: A Simple 5-Step Guide to DMing Standalone RPG Adventures

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Even if you are in a campaign with a fantastic plot, sometimes it’s refreshing to do something a little different. The answer to this is to run a one-shot game that has a beginning and an end yet is entirely separate from the main story arc. So, strap yourselves in and let’s take a look at a simplified guide to running one-shot games without screwing up the campaign already in process.

Ready for My Close-Up: 3 Tips for Improving Roleplaying at Your RPG Table

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In a recent episode, we discussed how to go about introducing new players to the hobby. During our discussion, we got around to the topic of roleplaying, specifically about ways to encourage people who are brand new to tabletop gaming to act and speak as their characters would act and speak. This would have been my response to the question, had my brain not decided that it was time to, I don’t know, catalog my grocery list for the coming week while going live!

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

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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.

14 Tips for DMing First-Time Players: Teaching RPG Newbs the Game, Their Characters, and How to Have a Great Time Playing Both

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Of all the roles the DM takes on, none is more important than bringing new players into the hobby. DM a game, and your player has fun for a night. Teach them to play, and they may have fun for the rest of their lives (or think you’re a gigantic weirdo — it’s a win either way). In this episode, on the eve of DM Dave launching a mostly rookie campaign, the 3 Wise DMs talk about how they handle new players, what they do to try to teach them the game, and how they make it fun without overwhelming the poor newbs.