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An Analysis of the #dnd Twitter Community
Before we begin, we have about a week left on our Fantastic Adventures Kickstarter. If you're a fan of the site and are looking for ten short adventures for your fifth edition RPG, please give it a...
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Character-Focused Ancient Monuments
Ancient monuments are a cornerstone of D&D games. They fill out the "exploration" portions of D&D. They're something weird to investigate when traveling across the lands of old. They're a...
View ArticleLooking at the History of D&D with DM David
Last month I had the privilege of talking to David Hartlage of the DM David website and Twitter account. Around the time that D&D Next came out, David started writing wonderful and deep-thinking...
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Thoughts on Exploration
The fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons describes three main types of gameplay in the game: exploration, roleplaying, and combat. Combat is probably the most well refined part of the game. We...
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Analyzing the Best D&D Advice
On 4 May 2017, Gill Sulivan posted a topic to the popular Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Facebook group asking for the best D&D advice in four words or less. This resulted in over 1,400...
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GM Walk-Away Kit
Note, this article updates the original February 2012 version. When we GMs are off to a game away from home, it can be tough to bring only what we need and avoid filling a U-Haul full of Dwarven Forge...
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The Villains of Storm King's Thunder: Iymrith
There are a number of villains in the published adventure Storm King's Thunder but few are as interesting and as as central to the storyline as the ancient blue dragon, Iymrith, the Doom of the Desert....
View ArticleStreaming D&D Full Time with Will Jones
In May 2017 on the DM's Deep Dive I spoke to Will Jones of Encounter Roleplay who plays D&D full time on Twitch professionally. For us old timers who barely have a handle on what Twitch is, this is...
View ArticleThe Top Traits of a Good Dungeon Master
On 9 May 2017, I posted a note to both Twitter and Facebook asking for, in one or two words, the three most important traits for a good D&D dungeon master. This returned roughly 162 total...
View ArticleInstant NPCs for Fifth Edition D&D
Note, this article has been updated from the original posted in February 2016. RPG sage Monte Cook wrote an interesting article called PCs versus NPCs in which he discusses the time we often waste...
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Dwarven Forge Buyer's Guide
Note: This article is an update from the original published in June 2010 and offers recommendations for the ongoing Dwarven Forge Dungeon of Doom Kickstarter. One of the interesting things about the...
View ArticleDM's Deep Dive with Tom Lommel on Improvisation
This past month on the DM's Deep Dive Tom Lommel, AKA the Dungeon Bastard, discussed the topic of improvisation and D&D. In a recent query of both Twitter and Facebook, creativity, flexibility, and...
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Letting Go of Defined Encounters
The fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons describes the core elements of the game as "exploration, interaction, and combat". In 4th edition, we spent a lot of time building clear "encounters" tuned...
View ArticleDM's Deep Dive Episode 1: New Dungeon Masters with Enrique Bertran
On 12 January 2017 I hosted the first of a new series of shows as part of the Don't Split the Podcast network hosted by my friends Rudy Basso and James Introcaso called the DM's Deep Dive. This monthly...
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Letting Go of Defined Encounters
The fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons describes the core elements of the game as "exploration, interaction, and combat". In 4th edition, we spent a lot of time building clear "encounters" tuned...
View ArticleMob Damage Calculator for 5e Dungeons & Dragons
D&D 5e Mob Damage Calculator Use this form to calculate the amount of damage inflicted to a character from a mob consisting of many monsters. See page 250 of the Dungeon Master's Guide for...
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Awarding Magic Items in Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition
A Quick Checklist for Distributing Magic Items Magic item rewards are an important part of D&D and worth our time to prepare. Tie magic items to the story we create with our group; whether it's a...
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Choose Monsters Based on the Story
A Short Summary for Narrative-Based Encounter Building Choose the type and number of monsters appropriate for the story and situation. Judge the relative difficulty of the encounter with our encounter...
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A Guide to Official D&D 5th Edition Published Adventures
This article will provide a guide to the official fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons adventures published by Wizards of the Coast. They are ordered in my own order of preference, from top to bottom....
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Managing Player Attendance with an On-Call List
The hardest part about running a Dungeons & Dragons game is finding players and keeping them coming back to your table week after week. We love to pontificate the importance of preparation,...
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