The Complete Guide to D&D’s Musical Instruments

Have you ever made a new bard character and wondered which musical instrument was a good fit? Have you ever looked at the equipment list in the Player’s Handbook and thought, hey, what even is a dulcimer? Do you want to use musical instruments to add depth and colour to your worldbuilding? If so, this post might be for you!

Epic background music to make your sessions memorable

I love having music on in the background when I’m playing tabletop RPGs. I now notice if it’s not there! In today’s article, I thought I would share some of my favourite tracks in the hope that you might suggest a few more in the comments. A few things I look for in backing music: … Continue reading Epic background music to make your sessions memorable

Enhanced Description: Unlocking the Power of Tier 2 Vocabulary

My real-life job is an English teacher on a secondary school. In the last few years, something we’ve been talking about a bit as a profession is the idea of Tier 2 vocabulary, and in this article I want to explain how it is relevant to your tabletop RPGs. According to this model, there are … Continue reading Enhanced Description: Unlocking the Power of Tier 2 Vocabulary

How To Make A Compelling Backstory

Do you need a character backstory? Here are the questions that are worth answering.

What does your favourite character look like?

One of the most popular articles I wrote last year was a bit of a surprise. Inspired by Legend of the Five Rings, I came up with 20 questions for deeper character creation. A year later, it is the most-read page on my site! The first question in the article is ‘What do you look … Continue reading What does your favourite character look like?

Make your own megadungeon with Dungeon 23

It's 2023, and many people in the tabletop RPG space have decided to do 'Dungeon 23'. The principle is simple: a 365-room megadungeon, with one room for every day of the year. What a great idea!

Make Your Goblins Unique: Thinking in Depth about Monsters and Factions

I have recently enjoyed watching Baron de Ropp’s YouTube videos about fantasy geopolitics, and it got me thinking about how we can do so much more with the monsters and factions in our games. I wouldn’t necessarily say that this post is ‘geopolitics’ per se, but that's certainly part of it. I think this approach … Continue reading Make Your Goblins Unique: Thinking in Depth about Monsters and Factions