​My daughter is grumpy. She’s often grumpy — usually twice a day because she’s only a year old and naps and bedtime are basically the apocalypse. But she’s especially grumpy right now because she’s teething. Most of us have forgotten what that’s like ourselves, but from the looks/sounds of it, it’s just constant pain and […]

Last night, I made a character in a session zero for my first game of Vampire the Masquerade. The DM (well … “storyteller”) told us about a mechanic called “black card,” which is something you use when things get just a bit too much. It’s worth carrying over into D&D, too, and folks have written […]

Baby don’t hurt me… But seriously, though. What is magic? I’m working on getting my master’s degree in imaginative literature, so over the past month I’ve read four or five books, all of which discuss that exact question (through telling a fiction story of course). Each book has a different answer to that “what is […]

It’s the beginning of a campaign and you have players coming to your table. Do you use pre-gens or not? Here are a couple quick & dirty tips to keep in mind: Brand new players who just want to see what the fuss is about? Yes, pre-gens can be a great idea. Campaign where backgrounds […]

On Saturday, I DMed a long 5 hour session as we come to the close of a two-year campaign, running a modified Princes of the Apocalypse. I was looking at a fight beforehand, an encounter I knew would be an important one. The players would level up right beforehand, so they’d go in with new […]

There’s a polyglot on YouTube who goes out and speaks a bunch of languages with random strangers. He enjoys going out and practicing a language in a conversation, and he calls those videos “Leveling Up.” Why? ‘Cause he recognizes that “leveling up” is just vocabulary for “getting better at the stuff you do.” Really, that’s […]

I love electronic stuff as much as the next guy. I have stuff on D&D Beyond (because it’s cheaper than the hardcovers). I use an iPad or laptop while I run the game for tracking combat (seriously … check out improved-initiative.com). But sometimes it’s nice to drop that and get physical. With things. But not […]

I have a number of Spotify playlists for my game sessions. Sometimes I use them, sometimes I don’t. But most of them are somewhat similar-sounding, especially the combat lists. Epic-ish sounding cinematic scores and whatnot. But recently I was a player in a game where the DM put on something totally different for combat music. […]

I have a delightful mutt of a dog (mostly black lab) who adores orange slices. Until today. I was peeling one and offered her a slice, and she refused. Licked it once to make me feel better about myself (presumably), but would. Not. Eat. It. It was odd. Until today, she’s always scarfed them. “What’s […]

Occasionally I’ll hear a DM say something along the lines of “we had an amazing session the other day … it was all roleplay. We didn’t roll the dice once!” And my response to that is usually polite interest. Cause I don’t understand it. I mean … I understand the idea, I just disagree. People […]