Running the Game

Gods and Cheese: 5 Tips for Running RPG Deities, Demigods and Super-Powered NPCs

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Every fantasy RPG setting has its share of super-powered beings worthy of legend. And as the DM, it can be extremely tempting to introduce one of these mighty beings directly in the game to establish a presence. But such an NPC can cause numerous problems that easily do more harm than good, even derailing your campaign. This is why we’ve composed these 5 tips on how to introduce and run extremely powerful NPCs without wrecking the continuity of your game.

6 Ways to Get Everyone at the Game Table More Involved

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Ideally, you want all of your players getting the most from their gaming experience instead of just one or two players stealing the show. Rather than trying to coach several of your players to be more involved, there are ways you can adapt how your game runs to accomplish this painlessly. This is why we’ve composed a list of tips to get all of your players more involved in the game without it feeling forced. If done well, these will help your party not only function as a more effective team but perhaps enjoy the game itself even more. 

Keeping Your Story Straight: How We Manage All the DM Details of Our RPG Campaigns

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No DM’s plan survives contact with the players. Between remembering the story you’re trying to tell, the details you had to improvise, and the players’ actions (which may or may not have made sense), it can be hard to keep the details straight in your RPG campaign. Thorin, Tony and Dave each have their own tricks for keeping their stories straight.

5 Tips for Building Interesting Encounters, Random or Otherwise

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What does a good encounter look like? While not every battle should push the characters to their limits, whether in or outside on the main story arc, they also shouldn’t come off as material from a filler episode. If done well, these seemingly random battles should not only set the tone for your campaign but also promote its lore. So, let’s take a look at developing encounters, so yours can be memorable for all the right reasons. 

A Bad Day for the Black Dragon: 5 Mistakes I Made DMing My First D&D 5E Dragon Fight

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Dragons! They are the logo monster of Dungeons & Dragons. They are fire. They are death. They are the winged nightmares of any fantasy citizen. … Except the one my party chewed through in about 3 rounds. *sigh* So, the party had fun, and good for them! But on my end, mistakes were made, and here’s what I think they were.

How to Bring WrestleMania to Barovia: DM Dave’s Curse of Strahd Goes WAY Off Book With a Homebrew Wrestling PPV

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Sometimes you want to change the game up completely, even if it’s just for the night. Maybe you want to have a night of gambling games, a carnival with an archery contest, a little football, or, like DM Dave’s Barovia, a werewolf wrestling match to put the WWE to shame! When you have that urge, how do you make that happen? The 3 Wise DMs call them minigames, and in this episode, they’ll use Dave’s wrestling escapades to break down how to make these sessions fun for everyone.

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

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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.

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?