Dming - Blog Posts

I DM'd for the first time today and it was so freaking fun! I didn't know what I was doing! I was coming up with a plot that's going to extend into other sessions on the fly! I did the voices! I'm coming up with a history for these NPCs! This is amazing!

First time (DMing)

So tonight i ran my own pathfinder session and i think it went well for everything i had planned not happening. But maybe next time. I felt i did well, but i hope i did too. I hope i did a good blend of story, RP, and combat.

Bought my first two books for my dming/gming. I onow there is a free app on Android and i have it but nothing beats hard copies.

Me, getting ready for all of the themed games I'm going to be running this month.

House on Haunted Hill | 1959 | dir. William Castle

we owe literally no one more on this planet than the woman behind fantasy name generator

I swear players just... know. Surrounded by pages of lore and, "is there any historical significance to this mountain range?" Fuuuuuucccckkkk.

Like yeah???? Probably??? Shit.

“Do I Know Someone Who Can Help Us With ____?” (2d6)

2. No; the person you thought could help refuses and adds another complication to the situation. (Example complications: they demand payment for a past debt, they are with someone you wanted to avoid, or they call the authorities regarding your illegal activities.) 3. The person you know who could help has gone missing, you’d have to find them first. 4. Yes, but they demand a steeper price than you would expect. Furthermore, if you refuse they will be offended. 5. Yes, but things are awkward between you. The price they ask will be generous, but only after an uncomfortable conversation. 6. Yes, but the help they can offer is sub-par, or only half of what you need. 7. Yes, but they need you to do a small favor for them right now before they help you. 8. Yes, but you’ll owe them one. Could be a future favor they call on, or a cut of whatever money you’re after, or something else. 9. Yes; they’ll give you a good price but it’s not free. 10. Yes, but they don’t seem too happy about it - you’ll have to look for help somewhere else next time. 11. Yes, there’s someone who owes you one and you can cash in that favor. 12. Yes, and that person also gives you an unrelated piece of helpful information.

Random Faction Builder

How many pies do they have their proverbial fingers in? (1d10)

1-4. They are tightly focused on their singular area of influence. Roll once on the following table. 5-6. Roll twice on the following table. The first result is the field they openly deal in, or what those who know them mostly know them for. The second result is the field they are secretly trying to infiltrate or influence. 7. They serve as a mediary between two spheres, or between certain groups within two spheres. Roll twice on the following table. 8. Roll three times on the following table. The first two results are the fields they openly deal in, or what those who know them mostly know them for. The third result is the field they are secretly trying to infiltrate or influence. 9. They’re jugglers, jacks of all trades. Roll three times on the following table for areas they regularly deal in, plus one time for a field they have their sights on breaking into. 10. They’re everywhere. Roll once on the following table for the one circle they can’t show their faces in anymore.

1d6 Circles of Influence:

1. Government/Politics/Law Enforcement 2. Religion/Faith/Cults 3. Crime/Black Market/Underworld 4. Guilds/Trades/Organized Labor 5. Business/Merchants/Corporations 6. Knowledge/Information/Research

Now, roll 4d6 and assign one die to each of the following attributes, then look at the total on the last table:

Group Size

1. Just a few people devoted to a cause. 2. Enough people that it’s hard to get them all in a meeting together, but not enough people to really split into multiple sub-groups. 3. Enough people to crew a large vessel 4. A pretty big group, church congregation sized. 5. Enough people to populate a neighborhood. 6. If this entire group mobilized it would be a full-scale army.

Financial Power

1. Broke. It’d be a dream just to break even. 2. Surviving. They can get what they need, but can’t afford to expand or to have a large unforeseen expense. 3. Middling. Can use money to further their agenda but must be selective about doing so. 4. Comfortable. This group can afford to make investments. 5. Well-off. Their investments are paying off. 6. Rolling in it. They can solve most problems by throwing money at them.

Age of Faction

1. Brand new. This faction hasn’t existed long enough to have done anything of note. 2. Recent. This faction is probably still made up mostly of founding members, but has had time to make a name for itself. 3. Established. People remember this faction being founded. It may have some original members, but if it does they are old. 4. Pretty Old. This group was established before the oldest currently living generation was born, but in the lifetime of their parents or grandparents. 5. Old. This group was founded hundreds of years ago and has played a roll in many historical events. 6. Ancient. This group may predate the current civilization, and is seen all throughout history books.

Expertise

1. Bumbling. This group is incompetent and lacks basic knowledge. 2. Shoddy. They know just enough to get themselves into trouble. 3. Mediocre. There are no experts in this group but they have meaningful skills. 4. Competent. This group employs some actual experts but still has real gaps in their abilities. 5. Highly skilled. They may not be the absolute best in the business but this group can use skill to address most challenges. 6. Only the Best. This group has a reputation for their expertise.

Total - Overall Faction Influence

4-8  Nobodies. Who even are these losers? 9-12  Small fish in a big pond. This faction has an impact on certain individuals or niches, but are still unimportant enough that none of the big players pay them any mind 13-16  Up and Coming. Enough influence that they need to be careful not to upset the highest tier factions lest they get squashed. 17-20  The big leagues. This faction has a great deal of power but is not infallible. 21-24  Powerhouses. If there is only one faction at this level, they are functionally in charge of the society. If there are multiple factions at this level, their conflicts and machinations can have devastating fallout for ordinary people.

Last of the location plot hooks. Support or commission me here!

Quest generator [alpha]

I did a thing again :) this time - a quick quest generator for a DM

What do we have here:

a character and their vibe

their attitude towards party

the quest

"RARITY" of the quest (optional)

This will be good for a situation where you have literally nothing on your hands or if party doesn't like your dragon-slaying quests but interested in Boblin the goblin's story.

I consider the "rarity" the most interesting part of this. Will this "delivery of a harmless plant" be a walk in the park or does the fate of the country depends on it? Only RNGesus knows :)

Will it be updated?

Who knows, maybe

English version here

Russian version here

Making Choices Matter

When a player makes a choice in the game, they want that to matter.

That sounds extremely simple. No shit, right?

But that's actually something that I think a lot of GMs overlook, or don't realize.

When your player makes a choice during character creation, picking an offball skill or a weird feat or a strange subclass, they are literally communicating to the GM: "I'm interested in this."

I've made this opinion before, but in my opinion the true core tenet of GMing a game is to cater to your players. After all, you're putting on a little show for them. They're your friends, and you deserve to have fun as well, of course; but they are making decisions and they would love it if those decisions mattered.

This came up because there's a new playtest for the Dragon Game and in it, Paladins are no longer immune to disease or able to cure it with their Lay On Hands feature. I saw a post that said, "[That feature] made using diseases trivial in a game with a paladin."

I argue: The entire point of taking the feature is so that you can use diseases and let the Paladin player feel cool.

I would actually include disease in a game that otherwise did not include it, if we had a Paladin in the party. I would go out of my way to do that.

Because it's really cool if you say, "Okay, everyone who failed the save now has a disease," and the Paladin player pipes up and goes, "Wait a minute! I'm immune to disease! Fuck yeah!" The player feels super cool now. And if they're high enough level, the Paladin can use Lay on Hands to make their friends cured of the disease. That's something that literally no other character in the game would be capable of!

But this other person...they're just gonna never include disease in the game if they have a Paladin in the party, because they don't want to see the players succeed, I guess. Which, to me, is fundamentally the wrong approach to having a fun time with your friends.

I design these challenges to be overcome. I know as soon as I put a huge fucked up monster in front of them and say, "Haha, this thing has 3 attacks and legendary actions, you guys are fucked," the whole point is for them to destroy it. The entire reason I have this monster here is for them to kill it and win.

If your player makes a choice and you never cater to it, they have wasted that choice. This player wanted to be immune to disease! They thought it would be super cool if the enemy spewed out some horrifying shit that grows boils on your skin or whatever and they get to just go, "Nope, I don't even have to make a save, I'm literally immune to it. Die, monster! You don't belong in this world!" But because they have a bad GM who doesn't cater to their players, and in fact plays against them, they never get to have that cool moment. It never happens for them. They wasted their choice.

And I think the worst thing a GM can do is waste a player choice. They could have picked something else, but they didn't, and now they get nothing, and that sucks.

Now, the dragon game is FULL of choices. You aren't obligated to include disease for every game you have a Paladin in. That's ludicrous. A class, especially in 5e, is a huge package of multiple features and ideas, and it's basically impossible to cater to and include every single one throughout the campaign. Some of it you'll just fucking forget exists. Hopefully, you are a good GM, and communicate to your players when they make a character. Hey, Divine Health isn't even a feature you have to pick, you just get it. So maybe your Paladin player couldn't give a shit less about it. No harm, no foul. But to outright say, "I'm never using disease in a game with a Paladin," is pretty absurd to me.

I don’t think magic items should be named after their function, but their story.

In Dungeon Crawl Classics, there’s a chapter on magic items that briefly mentions that magic items are rare and powerful to the point that any one magic item is probably quite famous. That fame usually comes with a name.

So a particular flame tongue sword might be called “Hellfire” or “The Sword of Durageddon’s Bane”. A particular bag of holding might be “Kingslocks” or “The Blinding of the Gorgon”. These items get their names from the adventures they were involved in, which to me is a lot more interesting than a name that is purely functional.

Those functional names make the items feel less magical and more mechanical to me. If a bag of holding is recognisable as such, it must be fairly unremarkable to just have a generic name - implying that a great many people own one. It’s like owning a Ferrari racecar (impressive, but you’re hardly the only one) versus owning “The Carriage of the Ninth Angel” that is famed for being blessed by three angels with three heads in preparation for its death race against Satan himself.

I bought a zine recently (Through Ultan’s Door: Downtime in Zyon) that has a simple system for making magic items:

Commission a master artisan to make you a masterwork (a sword, armour, or book)

Use that item in a quest in an interesting way (such as slaying a particularly powerful foe)

That item, by becoming part of a spectacular story, then takes on magical properties once given a suitable name

Lots of players find it boring to find a generic +1 sword or what have you in dungeons, so I think this is a good solution to make it more interesting. And suitably mythic!

Some fun ideas for warlock pacts. You can see the rest of this series on my Kofi! I appreciate all tips.

d&d monster inspo:

Flamingo Wyvern

This one is a hybrid between a flamingo and a wyvern, as the title says! It’s one of my favourite creature designs that I did actually!

A pair of French chestnut crushing clogs used in the 19th century. These shoes were worn by farmers to trample on chestnuts and acorns to separate the nutmeats from the shells so it could be ground into flour.

Business and Crime revisited (d&d 5e)

I recently posted a set of guidelines for using 5e running a business mechanics as a means of bootstrapping player owned criminal enterprises.

My players requested a campaign with gameplay and adventures centered around owning businesses, building a home, and running a criminal enterprise. So, I started looking into the RAW mechanics and found it kind of lacking. So, I’ve taken it upon myself to expand business ownership mechanics to better suit being the main focus of their downtime gameplay, as well as tying in mechanics for criminal enterprises.

These mechanics include:

Buying businesses from previous owners.

Running businesses in cycles of 30 days, with 6 intervals of 5 days.

Using businesses as fronts for criminal enterprises.

Running multiple businesses as a conglomerate.

Side quest plot hook table (complications)

Greetings!

The infiltration has been a success so far. The crafty heroes have managed to get inside the cult without them noticing their intentions.

After an initiation that almost went horribly wrong, several gruesome missions and a lot of false prayers to Baphomet, they have finally gained the right to visit their dark church.

Besides taking the cult down, they hope to gain access to the Labyrinthine Teleporter: a magic device of immense power capable of taking them to Baphomet’s Labyrinth and many other planes.

But tonight is Offering Night, and a sacrifice is on the schedule too. Can they stop all the evil plans before they are discovered?

You can see a preview of this map’s Patreon content by clicking here.

If you liked the map I’d be extremely thankful if you considered supporting me on my Patreon, rewards include higher resolution files, gridless versions, alternate versions, line versions, PSDs and more. Thank you!

A New ‘Snow’ Variant for our Jungle Stream Battle Map

Owners of my old ‘Jungle Stream’ battle map can now download an additional 'Snow’ map variant for free!

→ Find it on 2-Minute Tabletop

Want to play some cool underwater adventures in D&D? Check out Beneath the Waves on DMs Guild!

This book I've been working on with a bunch of amazing creators has a load of rules, player options, and new monsters plus a level 1-5 mini campaign!

It's beautiful (look at these pieces by Angela O'Hara and Kendal Gates!) AND it's currently 1/3rd off!

Hilltop Tower [30x45]  posted byu/wizgrids

Check out Tabletop Gaming Resources for more art, tips, and tools for your game!

Exciting Side Quest Idea #2:

Have the party be kidnapped! They wake up, wearing commoner clothes, and all of their items gone.

They only have an empty waterskin and 2 days worth of rations.

They are then hunted by the people who captured them (a small party of nobles with a 1-2 level advantage on the players).

Dungeon Masters, don’t be afraid to challenge your players!

Sometimes you need to really throw something threatening the party’s way, something out of their league. Not in a DM v Players situation, in a genuine reaffirmment that stakes are real and character death is possible. The goal is never to kill players, but a truly terrifying and epic fight is sure to leave the players feeling awesome for defeating such a powerful enemy.

Challenge Rating is not an accurate measurement of a creature’s strength, a single CR9 could be easily beaten by a band of level 4s. I won’t go into action economy because that’s not what this post is about.

So how do we throw a deadly encounter at our players to make them feel cool?

Well first, pick or redesign a monster to play to the party’s strengths in subtle ways.

Have an archer PC? Give the monster a vulnerable point that’s hard to hit. For example in my most recent game a low level party fought a large clockwork dragon, illusionist and a swarm of cultists, the dragon had 3 weaknesses 1. A maintainance hatch that if hit could deal critical damage, perfect for a rangers well placed and timed arrow to hit. 2. A combustion engine that could be extinguished briefly using our sorcerers water or ice spells. 3. Legs that were vulnerable to attack from the barbarian causing it to lose movement. These weak points were hard to hit and required tactical thinking to approach and exploit adding complexity to the combat. This could be achieved in many ways, perhaps the basalisk has a soft underside that would leave it vulnerable if they could get close enough to strike it, or the armour of a battle ogre has a cannon shot hole in it perfect for a well placed arrow. Make these weak points easy to spot, and hard to act on without forethought.

Second, tailor the environment to the encounter

If your monster is too powerful, give the players pillars and tables to duck for cover behind. Hanging chandeliers or breakable platforms are great assets to an offensive and battlefield changing encounter. But these features aren’t exclusively helpful, powder kegs and coal heaps are great for both players to utilise in strategic attack but also pose a constant threat to anyone close enough that a well placed scorching ray may leave them unconscious. Chances are your players will take on the information and strategise, luring a creature to a dangerous place or having to choose between facing the beast head on or risking a trip over the rickety bridge. My last campaign ended with the PCs ultimately tricking a demon lord to the edge of a cliff before banding together to trip them over. A good set piece may be the foundation to a satisfying fight! (This applies to all encounters not just boss monsters)

Finally, Don’t pull punches!

The players will be way more proud and excited about their victory if it’s earned. Yes, there is a time and a place for fudging rolls or having a monster not attack the lowest health character for a while. But don’t rig the combat, to challenge your players and give stakes to your game the reality that PCs can die is important. So yes, don’t go all out on the players with a monster well out of their league, but definitely don’t turn the frightful beholder into a plush toy who’s eye beams keep narrowly missing while it sits and soaks up damage. There’s a very fine balance you have to find between keeping the fight even and keeping the fight threatening. But in my experience if one or two PCs are downed and the healer is scrambling to save them both, as the fight comes to a close and everyone barely scrapes through alive are usually the ones that get the best reactions. Again the goal is NOT to try and kill PCs, the goal is to push your players to strategise and earn their victories and feel AMAZING going it!

If anyone has any further advice or just stories of a perilous battle feel free to share them, and remember the number one rule of D&D is that everyone should be having fun!

Our group was riding through a pretty heavy storm.

My Sorcerer: I guess it could be worse.

In exactly this moment he got struck by lightning. The chances were so low, but it was meant to be it seems.

A flail-axe?

By @jacobwitzling on TikTok

Potion of [Stat.]

Roll one D10 and one D4 on use.

The D10 determines how much the stat changes by. The D4 determines if the change is positive (even number) or negative (odd number).

The potion lasts until the effects are no longer amusing to the DM.

Last of the location plot hooks. Support or commission me here!

At the end of character creation, have every player roll a d100 for “plot reasons”. When the game begins, reveal that the result is how many miles in the air the characters start the campaign at.