How-To DM: Rainy Days and…What Day is It? Thursday, You Say? Well, Yeah, Those Can Get You Down, Too…

Not sure what the weather is like where all of you are, but today is rainy and dreary. In a word: sucky. At least for me.

That said, when you are having such a day, and you have no games to prep for, what do you do with that extra time when you are in the mood to D&D or other such gaming?

Here are some suggestions:

1) Plan Your Next Campaign

You know you’ve had some great ideas floating around. Maybe you’ve been recently inspired by something you’ve read, seen, or an idea that just popped into your head. Write your idea out in more detail and work on a rough outline! Heck, if you get really ambitious, you could even write up an encounter or two!

2) Campaign Prep For Your Current Campaign

If I haven’t said it before, I’ll say it now: you can almost never do too much reading up, planning, or writing for your current campaign. Maybe you have yet to write in a way to tie your players’ backgrounds into the campaign. Maybe you haven’t fleshed out the BBEG. Maybe you just need to read ahead in the pre-published adventure you are running. Whatever it is, you can always work on what you are currently running.

3) Brainstorm a New Campaign Idea

If you haven’t read my previous post on inspiration for campaign, read it. I’ll wait.

Did you read it or skim it? If you skimmed, go READ it!

Okay, so now you get the gist. Go dream up a new campaign, write it down, and see #1 above.

Additional resources include:
Old issues of Dungeon Magazine*
Old adventures from earlier editions of D&D*
Lore from campaign guides and adventures
Other pre-published adventures

*Note: 1st and 2nd Edition materials are easily converted into 5e, in my experience

4) Read Up On New Source Materials

I made this separate from the rest, as I see it different than #3 or #1. There are literally TONS of materials to read or gather campaign stuff from. Everything from Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes, to Tash’s Cauldron of Everything contains a veritable shmorgesborg of materials, from new monsters, example dungeons and lairs, new spells and feats, to bits of lore about this race or that. You can even use the latter of those to create more depth to your NPCs and villians (looking at you, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything; an insight to how Xanathar thinks is littered throughout the book; see Waterdeep: Dragon Heist)

With all of these ideas, no rainy day should get you down or hold you back from getting your gaming on!

Until next time, Dear Readers…