Instant Campaign Builder Part VI: Hype This article is part of the Instant Campaign Builder Project. The Buzz Most great events are preceded by an insane amount of publicity, which sometimes generates anticipation. I believe the Saturday morning D&D session can benefit from fabricated buzz and hype.
Instant Campaign Builder Part V: LOCKing scenes This article is part of the Instant Campaign Builder Project. The LOCK technique I read about the LOCK system in a fiction writing book and quickly figured that it would be useful for my D&D game planning. According to this system here are the 4 elements of a…
Instant Campaign Builder Part III: Improvisation This article is part of the Instant Campaign Builder Project. Trust your improvisation skills The tools and tips described in the Instant Campaign Builder Project can only be used successfully by a dungeon master willing to improvise. A lot!
I stopped counting There’s actually more than that but I was tired of counting! Given the popularity of the 83 free D&D adventures article I decided to clear a few hours in my schedule and look for free D&D maps. I found so many of them that I didn’t have time to look into map…
This article is part of the Instant Campaign Builder Project.Knowledge is power The most important building block in a campaign is knowledge. Your knowledge of yourself, your Dming skills, your players and their characters. If the characters have yet to be created, I suggest you plan a first game around character creation before you start…
Edit: You can now download the complete Instant Campaign Builder. (pdf file) What is the Instant Campaign Builder Project? As a DM I always have 2 objectives when I plan a campaign.
I like to keep my NPC descriptions simple. I think that less is more when it comes to introducing an NPC in a campaign. Whether the character will never be seen again or is the uber-villain you should settle for one – only one – role-playable characteristic. Nothing else matters. The NPC’s motivations or stats…
It is impossible to defeat an army of goblins in 5 rounds. It takes at least 6 rounds. Role-playing sucks? They’re called role-playing games but for most of us the fun part is killing stuff. Why else would computer games like World of Warcraft get millions of players? Because they got rid of most of…
They’re famous because they’re real I was looking for a new concept for a D&D campaign this morning. I haven’t played D&D in 4 months because I’ve been away from home and I’m getting really pumped up to plan a ridiculously good campaign. After weighing all my options I decided to base my next campaign…
This article is part 1 of the “Start A Campaign… Now!“ series. Start A Campaign – Part 1: The first game Start A Campaign – Part 2: Before the second game Start A Campaign – Part 3: The second game Start A Campaign – Part 4: How to prepare a great game in 30 minutes…
Random thoughts I’ve been spending an awful lot of time on my laptop recently. I’m not getting much out of it except a tendinitis. Made me wonder about D&D characters who crawl dungeons non-stop. Do they ever get nagging injuries from the repetition of the same combat motions repeated over and over again? I can’t…
You need to read Better NPCs: 5 questions, 50 answers (Part I) before you read this post. All right. I was about halfway through my last post when real life interrupted my blogging. Let’s keep asking questions about our retired rogue Diedric Flagstone.
Random thought I was at the local Borders library last night for the launch of the Harry Potter book. Until the clock struck midnight, they had activities and games. It was promoted as a big party for Potter fans. There was only one problem. If you want to have a wicked party make sure that…
This article is part 1 of the “Start A Campaign… Now!“ series. Start A Campaign – Part 1: The first game Start A Campaign – Part 2: Before the second game Start A Campaign – Part 3: The second game Start A Campaign – Part 4: How to prepare a great game in 30 minutes…
This article is part 1 of the “Start A Campaign… Now!“ series. Start A Campaign – Part 1: The first game Start A Campaign – Part 2: Before the second game Start A Campaign – Part 3: The second game Start A Campaign – Part 4: How to prepare a great game in 30 minutes…