Short, bite-sized RPG advice, tips, and tricks for DMs and players of tabletop role playing games (TTRPG)
248 episodes transcribedIt's easy to come up with NPCs. What's hard is coming up with NPCs that feel like more than a one dimensional cariacature of someone real. In a topi...
This week we talk about two specialized martial characters: the Paladin and Ranger. These are not dumb fighters or mindless barbarians. These chara...
Continuing last week's discussion on encounter design, this week we tackle the environment, tactics, stakes and motivations of the combat. We discuss...
This episode is a deeper dive into what makes for a good encounter and how we GMs can make them more memorable by adding variety to the monsters, the...
Taverns are the most overdone trope of starting campaigns. Taverns are familiar and easy but also bland and boring. While you can start your campaig...
Kobolds are just moronic annoying little tunneling monsters who are just goblins in a different body, right? WRONG! Kobolds aren't like other monstr...
Wizards of the Coast released some radical character creation ideas in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything and Pathfinder 2e drastically changed the way an...
Curses have played major roles in numerous movies and media: the ring in Lord of the Rings, the Aztec gold in Pirates of the Caribbean, Ladyhawke, Sh...
GMs, do your players like treasure? Sure they do. Everyone does; and that's why mimics are always medium-sized treasure chests in the corner, right?...
PCs have a number of options when it comes to bringing more allies to the battlefield and to the campaign. What are some best practices for PCs who w...
This week we return to the class series, focusing on those classes that focus a lot on baddie hit points: fighters and monks. Do you want some ideas...
Is your game moving online or staying online longer than you expected? Mine are staying online for a while so I compiled a list of tips that can help...
Travel between adventures doesn't have to be a boring slog of survival checks or reinforcement of how empty your world is. Travel and exploration act...
Fair warning: I'm doing weird episodes again. This week, I advocate taking lessons from video games and movies and introducing new class abilities a...
Building worlds, countries, and even towns can be tough. There are a lot of moving parts to try to tame and it's easy to miss preparing some importan...
Goblins are classic low level one-note baddies that eat anything they can, kill everything else, except for the few things that they try to mate with....
Clerics and Druids are more diverse than most people realize. Playing them as Healy McHealface and Joe Ent-Lover may come second nature (ba-dum-tss)...
At the beginning of the D&D 5th Edition Dungeon Master's Guide there is a paragraph that was likely only included as a joke and it reinforced my b...
Skill challenges were one of the best things to come out of the much maligned 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons. What are they? How can you use th...
Like most people who have done something for a while, I look back at my early days of playing D&D and cringe at some of the mistakes I made as a n...
