Yesterday, I mentioned pre-rolling initiative as a way of getting into combat easier. Today, I’m going even further: don’t roll initiative at all. Seriously. A lot of encounters don’t really need it. The characters who would act instantly or who come into something prepared do their thing, and the monster does a thing. You know […]

Quick tip today as I get ready to sit down for a session: Pre-roll initiative for your monsters. You know how many will be there, you know what their mods are. Just roll ahead of time. It makes that odd suspended time bit before combat go just a little quicker.

Every once in a while, us DMs get stuck. Maybe the players are going into a location and we have to figure out what’s there. Or maybe we’re wondering what the villain’s motivations are. Or how an NPC made on the fly fits in the bigger picture. My suggestion? Take a walk! Set a question […]

Player: “I listen at the door.” DM: “You hear a couple voices talking … does anyone speak Goblin?” Players: *search sheet* “Nope.” DM: “Yeah you don’t know what they’re saying.” A bit odd, right? But it’s also pretty common. What if, instead, you had a list of all the players’ languages ready at hand so […]

​This past weekend I accompanied some of my students to a Model United Nations conference. It was pretty fun to watch them grow in confidence over the conference’s four days, but one of the most interesting bits was watching them get comfortable with the language. Before the conference, senior delegates were busy explaining what an […]

I realized the other day that I have a principle that guides both some classroom management and dungeon master decisions. Scenario: Someone wants to do something. Literally anything. My thought: Am I okay with saying “yes” every time I get asked this? If not, I say no. Sometimes someone will bring up a neat idea […]

My 20-month-old daughter’s current favorite song is the oft-dreaded “Baby Shark.” Big hit, largely ’cause it’s comprised of words she already knows. And because it’s catchy.  And repetitious. But that repetition isn’t necessarily a bad thing. As you design a session or encounters, it’s a good template to follow, actually. We see a bunch of […]

It might seem a bit obvious, but I was talking to a good friend and fellow DM the other day, and we realized that quite a fair few DMs may not have actually read the thing! If you’ve never had a chance to sit down and actually read the Dungeon Master’s Guide, it’s well worth […]

“I try to climb the wall … that’s an 8.” “Nope. You try, but you can’t find enough of a grip to actually get far.” “I try again!!” Sound familiar? The way I look at scenarios like these is a two-step process. First, if there’s no in-game reason why the party can’t just ram their […]

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that player characters in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a shopping spree. Left to their own devices, my table (and many others, I think) will spend an entire session just buying stuff. Why is that? Think for a second about what shopping is: a way […]