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Category Archives: Advice
Print My Custom D&D DM Screen to Defeat the Basilisk
When I run games as a dungeon master, I typically use a DM screen, but I see the appeal of skipping it. Many DMs feel that screens create an unnecessary divide that feels adversarial. By this mindset, everyone at the … Continue reading
Can a DM Have Monsters Kill Fallen Characters Without Bringing Hurt Feelings?
In Dungeons & Dragons, the threat of death makes the game exciting, but actual death brings a character’s story to an end that usually feels sad and disappointing. Fifth-edition D&D copes with this conflict by making death virtually impossible for … Continue reading
10 Favorite Nuggets From Monte Cook’s Your Best Game Ever
Roleplaying games have benefited from decades of advice for players and game masters. Every year, several new books offering help to roleplaying gamers reach print. Meanwhile, bloggers like me and countless others post advice and hope someone finds it useful. … Continue reading
Insight Played Wrong Can Become the Most Unrealistic Thing In D&D, a Game With Djinns In Bottles Who Grant Wishes
In Dungeons & Dragons Wisdom (Insight) checks commonly lead players to pile-on checks. One character talks to someone, asks to roll insight, and then everyone adds their roll. The group supposes that just one success will spot a lie. If … Continue reading
In D&D, Letting Everyone Roll Certain Checks Guarantees Success, So Why Bother Rolling?
As a dungeon master, I rarely ask everyone in the party to make perception, investigation, or knowledge checks, because someone almost always rolls high. With these checks, just one high roll yields the information the players want. Why bother rolling … Continue reading
Posted in Advice
Tagged arcana, character knowledge, checks, history, insight, medicine, perception, religion
25 Comments
How to Run Better D&D Games By Doing Less
If you are a dungeon master, the easiest way to improve your game sessions might be to do less. Rather than doing all the tasks of running the game, delegate some to the players. This lesson took me a long … Continue reading
Posted in Advice
Tagged battle maps, delegation, experience points, initiative tracking, pacing
13 Comments
Steal This Rule: Flashbacks and Heists in Dungeons & Dragons
In a heist film, a group of experts team to overcome elaborate security measures using a carefully planned series of steps. Much of the fun comes from seeing the ingenuity of the heroes as they crack seemingly impenetrable obstacles as … Continue reading
Posted in Advice
Tagged Blades in the Dark, flashbacks, heist, Leverage, steal this rule
11 Comments
How Much Talk at Your Game Table Reaches Into the Game World?
Suppose your players aim to stop raiders somehow able to slip past the town’s defenses. They meet the woman who leads the city guard. Mid conversation, the rogue’s player says, “I’m sure she’s behind the raids. We should just kill … Continue reading
How to Reveal a Dungeon Map on an iPad as Characters Explore
Mapping rates as one of the chores in the original Dungeons & Dragons game that players learned to skip. In early D&D, one player assumed the role of mapper and transcribed a description of walls and distances onto graph paper. … Continue reading
