How to Create Awesome NPCs On the Fly
Uh-oh! Your players took the path less traveled, and now you need an NPC. What do you do? Here’s some helpful advice for making great NPCs with little notice.
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Nerd Watching: Ejecting Jerks
Inspired by the Chatty DM, we look at problem players and party conflict.
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How to build scenes and stories
Story building how-to videos + ramblings on twitter addiction.
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New updates to the monster card tool
What’s new from the DM tools website?
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Size Matters: How to Manage a Big Gaming Group
Big gaming groups don’t have to mean big chaos. Here are some tips for running crowd control and cutting down on combat time when you’ve got lots of players.
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How to kick up your game energy: meta-gaming edition
Are your players dragging themselves to the table and struggling to lift their dice? Not sure how to jump start your players’ enthusiasm? Forget the Red Bull I.V., all you need are the tips from our Kicking Up the Energy series. First up, metagame edition!
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The DM’s guide to uber-villains
What comes out of a meeting between an uber-villain and a red dragon? A how-to guide!
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The Campaign Launch Pad
All the information you need to start, run, and end a campaign with as little preparation as possible.
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Are these DMs on fire? Why, yes, I believe they are.
Power your way to great gaming sessions by optimizing your prep time.
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Love-to-hate-them villains: a how-to guide
D&D Tuesday tips for DMs (DNDTTFDM) 04-15-08 PCs are the backbone of your campaign. Villains help flesh out the adventure! Here are some easy ways to make that villain brilliant, annoying, intrusive, challenging. In other words, these are my thoughts on making villains easy to hate and remember! The love-to-hate-them villains should: Miss appointments. The villain asks…
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Make your campaign better… NOW!
Random thoughts With the ever-growing geek population I wonder if we’re ever going to live through a “taped glasses and hunched back is sexy” trend. 7 quick ways to make your campaign better Just because you have planned a fun campaign and your next few games are prepared doesn’t mean your campaign can’t get better. …
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Cameo time!
Cameo time Looks like I’m going to have a special PC cameo during my next game. A good friend of mine who has never played an RPG has recently shown interest. So what will I focus on for that special occasion? Make him understand the DM gets free pizza, chips, and salsa. Let him roll…
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Better NPCs, better world
I bundled the Instant World Builder in a single file but I decided to wait for a few days before releasing the .pdf file. The reason? I want to make it better. So this is an unofficial addition to the project. Generic NPC quirks A great way to add flavour to a region of a…
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Instant world builder – Part VIII: Color Commentary
This article is part 8 of the Instant World Builder series. The color commentator Two of the characters in my ongoing campaign once met an NPC – completely improvised at the time – who stuck around and became a fan of the 2 PCs. The NPC was a bard and would travel the world singing…
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Instant world builder – Part VII: Hero Potential
This article is part 7 of the Instant World Builder series. Superstar factor I already wrote about making your players feel like superstars in the Instant Campaign Builder series. There’s not much more to say about the concept itself: your players will enjoy seeing the characters grow, have success, and achieve greatness in highlight reel…
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Instant world builder – Part VI: Paths
This article is part 6 of the Instant World Builder series. Working with paths Most quests require the PCs to travel. Sometimes the journey from point A to point B is an integral part of the adventure. Sometimes it’s just an uneventful journey. Some journeys have to be completed many times: traveling from one city…
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Pull a heist in 4 easy steps
How to run a heist adventure Heist movies are the essence of cool. Cool characters, intriguing situations, mind-boggling puzzles. A D&D heist adventure has tremendous potential since the campaign already has cool characters and a unique and rich setting – especially if you read the Instant World Builder and Instant Campaign Builder. Tim, a Dungeon…
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D&D Instant Campaign Builder
Prepare a better campaign in less time This is a quick read that will help you shave dozens of hours in campaign planning. A lot of work went into this document and the content was edited and updated since it was first written. Have fun. Dowload the Instant Campaign Builder (.pdf file) (right-click and “save…
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How to run a chase scene
Random thoughts This morning a rooster decided it was a good idea to start crowing right next to my bedroom window. It’s 8am right now and he’s been going for 3 hours straight. A wizard NPC looking to play mind games with his enemies should just summon roosters when they’re trying to sleep. Running an…
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D&D rat chase – Part 2
Have you read the first part of this article? Read D&D rat chase – Part 1 here! The Woldians say… This article stemmed from an e-mail discussion between Robert – a Dungeon Mastering reader – and Kim & Jerry from Woldian Games. If you haven’t done it yet take the time to check it their…
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D&D rat chase – Part 1
Running a chase scene – Part 1 Robert sent me an e-mail when I was in L.A. to get some tips on running a chase scene. I did not get to write down my thought at the time because I was hanging out with Merlin. Lucky for him and I, Robert also asked a few…