The newest episode of The GM Next Door Podcast is out! You can have a listen here on Anchor, and here on Spotify. In it, I talk to my friend Nakiya Milam Roe about a lot of things, but one thing in particular he mentioned was how he doesn’t fudge dice. I admit he made […]
Make Your Players Care
I haven’t followed football all year, so last night I decided I’d root for Kansas City because they have better BBQ nearby and a dude named “Breeland.” As a Tolkien fan, that pretty much sealed the deal. The point is, people make decisions and get attached to things and people and football teams for the […]
Time is A-Ticking
“Make use of time, let not advantage slip.” I’d like to think ol’ Billy Shakespeare was talking about rolling d20s, but he probably wasn’t. Either way, time is the most valuable thing that you as a DM have. You have limited prep time, and you have limited play time. So be aware of how you’re […]
Different Ways to Play
So it seems I was wrong. Turns out, tons of people love random encounters AS random encounters. So I take back my earlier email. At least partially. I still think it’s a good idea to roll ahead of time and plan out how to incorporate those encounters well, but there certainly seems to be a […]
Get Crazy (with Permission)
Occasionally as a DM you’ll have a wild and crazy idea you want to try out on your players. Do it! Seriously. Give it a shot. Doesn’t matter if it’s super off-the-wall. But talk to your players ahead of time first, unless you’re really confident in your ability to read them. Simply ask, “Hey folks, […]
Random Encounters are Only Fun for You
I came to a realization the other day while planning a session that would involve my players trekking through some rough hills. Random encounters are only for DMs. For example: Your PCs are walking along when they get ambushed by evil gerblins. They fight the evil gerblins, defeat the ambush, and continue on their way. […]
Unique Initials
Quick tip today, if it’s not too late for your game. It makes your life exponentially easier to have each of the PCs at your table have a different first initial. You don’t want Alice, Adam, and Adrian at your table. You want Alice, Bob, and Carol. Makes tracking combat, saying the right name, and […]
War of Attrition
Last night my players mowed through a medium-difficulty encounter I’d made. Custom monsters and everything, too. Most of the monsters didn’t get a chance to do a whole lot, and only one player took real damage. It might have been disappointing, but I’m not worried. See, at its root, D&D is a game about resource […]
How Does Magic Work?
If your party is like most, you have some sort of spellcaster hanging around. And if your party is like most, you might not have really given thought to how that caster’s magic works. Yeah, there’s divine magic and natural ability and studied magic. That’s mechanics and flavor. But how does magic actually work in […]
Count ‘Em Up
If nothing else, being a DM makes you get pretty good at super quick math. But in a big combat, to make your life easier, try counting HP up instead of down. When I slot monsters into initiative, I write their AC, name, and max HP. And next to that, I’ll just start tallying up […]