It was the early 90’s, and my group had moved away from heroic fantasy and charged headlong into the new hotness – Vampire the Masquerade. We absolutely loved this game and played it exclusively for several years. It was edgy. It was different. And it made your characters seem powerful, even when you were justContinue reading “DM TALES – MAFIA THE MASQUERADE”
Author Archives: Anonymous_Bosch
HOW-TO DM: GET YOUR HOBOS OFF THOSE RAILS
Hello everyone! In this week’s installment of How To DM, I’d like to talk about railroading. I’m sure everyone understands the term, but – just in case – let’s define the term. Railroading is a form of adventure design that essentially eliminates, or seriously limits, player choice. In reality, what we’re doing when we railroadContinue reading “HOW-TO DM: GET YOUR HOBOS OFF THOSE RAILS”
How-To DM: Combat Encounters – Design — The Daily Dungeon Master Blog
by yourdorkmaterials A Moon Druid, a Barbarian, a Rogue, a Monk and a Wizard walk into a cave…sounds like the start of a joke, doesn’t it? But a party like this can be a nightmare to build challenging encounters for. The Druid and Barbarian effectively have twice (or even three times at low levels) the […]Continue reading “How-To DM: Combat Encounters – Design — The Daily Dungeon Master Blog”
HOW-TO-DM: THE HOUSE RULE
Hello everyone! In this week’s installment of How To DM, I’d like to talk about house rules. Ah, the temptations of the house rule. Most of us can’t resist the urge to open the Pandora’s Box of Amateur Game Design and homebrew some rules while we’re homebrewing everything else, right? But fewer things can totallyContinue reading “HOW-TO-DM: THE HOUSE RULE”
HOW TO DM – HANDLING ROLEPLAY
Hello everyone! In this week’s installment of How To DM, I’d like to talk about everyone’s favorite controversial subject – roleplaying. You have one player who likes to roleplay his half-drow assassin’s abiding – but ultimately doomed – love interest with a dwarf paladin. Another considers his gruesome coup de grace descriptions the only roleplayContinue reading “HOW TO DM – HANDLING ROLEPLAY”
HOW TO DM – SESSION 0
Hello everyone! In this week’s installment of How To DM, I’d like to talk about the importance of Session 0. Frankly, once I started running them, I never looked back. I think they are absolutely critical to running a fun and successful campaign, But I’ve seen a lot of questions online recently about whatContinue reading “HOW TO DM – SESSION 0”
HOW-TO DM – THE SUICIDAL VILLAIN
Hello everyone! In this week’s installment of How To DM, I’d like to talk about villains. You spend a lot of time designing a super-cool bad guy to challenge your players, and he gets creamed in the very first encounter, or you have to resort to some shady shenanigans to save him. So, your playersContinue reading “HOW-TO DM – THE SUICIDAL VILLAIN”
DESIGNING ENCOUNTERS (PART 4) – HOW TO DM
Hello everyone! We’ve spent a good bit of time talking about it, so today I’d like to post up an actual encounter I designed and ran following these principles. Our group consists of a Goblin Totem Barbarian, a Halfling Moon Druid, A Human Fighter Archer, a Human TWF Hunter Ranger, and a Tabaxi Archer GloomstalkerContinue reading “DESIGNING ENCOUNTERS (PART 4) – HOW TO DM”
How To DM – Building Encounters (Part Three)
Hello Everyone and welcome! Last week we discussed some numbers and mechanics. Today, I’d like to talk about some ideas I use to balance out an encounter but still leave it challenging for everyone. For me, designing an encounter and then running that encounter are two entirely different things. So let’s talk for a minuteContinue reading “How To DM – Building Encounters (Part Three)”
THE ZIGS – ONE WAY TRIP
By yourdorkmaterials I have some pretty amazing players in my weekly game. I admit that I was more than a little nervous at first. This started out as a pick-up game at my local for Adventurer’s League. With one exception, I didn’t know them, or even know anything about them, and vice-versa. Would we meshContinue reading “THE ZIGS – ONE WAY TRIP”
Happy Thanksgiving!
For those of you in the U.S., we wish you a very Happy Thankgiving. For all of our readers, we wish you the very best of happiness and health!
The Australian Nightmare
Once again we take a stroll down Amnesia Lane back to the mid-1980’s, and this time the game was Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu. For those of you that are unfamiliar, CoC is a cosmic survival horror game based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft; it’s a very fun, very deadly game where you’re really justContinue reading “The Australian Nightmare”
How-To DM: Building Encounters (Part 2)
Hello Everyone and welcome! Last week we discussed one philosophy behind building encounters. Today, I’d like to talk about some practical mechanics behind implementing those philosophies into a game. For our purposes here, let’s assume a party of 5 4th level characters: a Goblin Totem Barbarian, a Human Moon Druid, a Human TWF Ranger, aContinue reading “How-To DM: Building Encounters (Part 2)”
DM Story: Tapping Him Gently With My Warhammer
Ah, the mid-1980’s. We had no computers. We had no cars. What we did have is the living room of my friend Bob’s house and his saintly mother who never complained about a mob of teenage boys in her house every Saturday and Sunday for hours at a time. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay was my 2ndContinue reading “DM Story: Tapping Him Gently With My Warhammer”
How-To DM: Building Encounters – Design
by yourdorkmaterials A Moon Druid, a Barbarian, a Rogue, a Monk and a Wizard walk into a cave…sounds like the start of a joke, doesn’t it? But a party like this can be a nightmare to build challenging encounters for. The Druid and Barbarian effectively have twice (or even three times at low levels) theContinue reading “How-To DM: Building Encounters – Design”
How To DM – To Roll or Not To Roll
by yourdorkmaterials We all love our shiny math rocks what go clickety clack. And rolling dice is the core mechanic of the game. But when do you let them roll? Not often enough, and your players might feel like they’re just observers. Too much, and the game bogs down, and your players are rolling forContinue reading “How To DM – To Roll or Not To Roll”
How To DM: Fighting on the Fly
This week’s How-To post is by my good friend yourdorkmaterials… So. You’ve meticulously planned your big boss fight, carefully balanced your CR’s and come up with cool, integral roles tailored beautifully for each player. It’s going to be epic! Aaaaannnd…two players can’t show. Or the wizard goes down early. Or what was supposed to beContinue reading “How To DM: Fighting on the Fly”
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