How long should a campaign be? Tl;dr answer: as long as you want, of course. But it’s an interesting question. Ultimately, it comes down to five things: How often do you play?How long are your sessions?Do you use XP or milestones?What level do you start at?What level do you want to reach? Think of these … Continue reading Seasons, one-shots, and epic levels: campaign length for beginners
If you’re a fan of RealmSmith, you might be following Champions of the Realm, a charity tournament of PvP (player versus player) combat. It’s good fun. They even got Bruce Buffer to do the announcements. If you want to run a PvP tournament in D&D, how do you make it work? Players and scheduling Realistically, … Continue reading Welcome to the Arena: How to Run PvP D&D
Generally speaking, I don’t believe in telling people how D&D ‘should’ be played. There are different DM styles and different game styles, and that’s OK. Even now, I’m really offering a tip, not an instruction. But if there’s one easy way to improve combat, it’s this: Stop describing every hit and miss. Sacrilige! I hear … Continue reading My Golden Rule For Making Combat More Interesting
How much of the Monster Manual can – and should – a DM make use of?
So, you’ve heard about this amazing game called Dungeons & Dragons. Perhaps you found out about it from watching Critical Role or Stranger Things. Maybe you were given the D&D Starter Set or Essentials Kit. Maybe you played years ago and want to get back into it. This article is a guide to getting started with D&D.
Want to start a new campaign? Run a session zero first. Here's how!
This week, I downloaded the World Builder’s Guidebook from DriveThruRPG, and my goodness, what a find. Many thanks to Twitter user @Archarzel for putting me onto this. The World Builder’s Guidebook is a 96-page supplement by Richard Baker, published in 1996 for the 2nd edition of AD&D. This was about a year before TSR was … Continue reading Building a New World: Part 1
cle, I look at the pros and cons of both milestone levelling and traditional XP in the hope to guide you as to which is right for your campaign. Tl;dr: they both have their place.cle, I look at the pros and cons of both milestone levelling and traditional XP in the hope to guide you as to which is right for your campaign. (Tl;dr: they both have their place.)
Some fantasy names are awesome. Some – a few – are awful.
Part One Part Two Part Three Over the last month, I have written three posts examining some of the most easily overlooked rules of the Player’s Handbook. Today I am looking at Chapter 10: Spellcasting. I am not doing Chapter 11: Spells because there are more than 300 spells in the PH alone! However, I might … Continue reading Spellcasting rules you never knew