#dungeon mastering

[oldschoolfrp]

Gamemaster at work (Didier Guiserix, Casus Belli 33, June/July 1986)

[dndspellgifs]

adding more details to my court intrigue adventure and now I have to think what the prince NPC’s favorite (not real) books are and how do I make it so it communicates their personality to the players

[flightyquinn]

Steal this encounter -

Before you stands a crumbling courtyard, uneven paths of mossy cobbles weaving between choked and overgrown flowerbeds. In the far corner, what remains of a statue sits covered in climbing ivy. In the nearer, an old, weathered well which might once have been covered by a small roof, now rotted away. The rope coil from its decaying timbers terminates in a frayed end, but a crude wooden bucket has been left nearby. A lone tree sits near the center of the garden, its roots thick and twisting. One particularly gnarled root has pushed up a thick chunk of soil, beneath which there is a faint glint of something metal.

Casual examination of the lifted soil reveals a half-buried wooden chest, fitted with brass.

A more careful examination and the right skills is needed to notice signs that the chest was placed after the soil was lifted by the root, not before.

The chest is unlocked, and contains only minor loot, but is also fitted with a fire trap, which will douse those nearby in flaming oil if it is still armed when the chest is opened. Breaking the chest open will also set off the trap.

The bucket by the well is actually a mimic.

The true value of the garden is in the medicinal herbs it contains, which can be harvested by a character with the proper knowledge to make potions at a reduced cost.

[cosperclick]

BG3 has fundamentally changed me as a DM, cause every time I have to introduce a new NPC I think: "Is there a voice actor from Baldur's Gate I can parrot?"

[ashknife]

A couple of weeks ago, my D&D group completed a modern psionics campaign with lots of weirdness and crazy things we never thought we'd see happen in a game, like taking over ownership of several fast food restaurant chains as a vehicle to help bring down some alien invaders. I think that campaign will always be remembered for that and for the army of elves who recreated Amazon.

Tonight, we will begin retelling the original Final Fantasy game using 5th edition D&D instead of our usual go-to of Pathfinder 1st edition. I might write the sessions up, especially if there's plenty of goofiness going on.

[legionofmyth]

How to play a tabletop RPG, and how to be an elitist jerk about it at the same time.

Level up your #TTRPG skills! 🎲 Our latest blog post demystifies tabletop RPG gameplay, explores the Hickman Revolution, and debunks elitist myths. Perfect for both newbies and veterans! Dive in now and roll your way to greatness. #TabletopGaming #RPGRevolution

I AM RIGHT; YOU ARE WRONG – GET OVER IT I received a lot of flack because of the second segment of the 12 Jan 2024 Some Rando RPG Livestream. There are many people who think that by focusing on one aspect of a role-playing game that they are some sort of true RPG purist or better at playing RPGs than other people. Newsflash: They are not! For my rant I cited my own RPG Harmony Axes graphic and…

[cosperclick]

I've started doing a (probably mediocre) Astarion impression for a character in my D&D campaign and I will definitely be using this line

[just-dnd-thingys]

[rugwurm]

[rollingtablesiguess]

Rolls to Alarm Your Players

Want to spice the game up? Why not try alarming your players for no real reason? Make sure to make a show out of counting the dice before you roll.

[parrish-the-thot]

A continuation of this post I made

I imagine Steve genuinely doesn’t think about Eddie, like at all. Besides the occasional “what is he yelling about in that table” or “ Munson actually showed up to class” or once in sophomore year he thinks “how much does Munson charge for an ounce of weed? Would he take a $50 for an ounce” which causes Eddie to wait around all day at the picnic table wishing for some shmuck to offer $50 for just an ounce, but no one shows up (Steve had to go pick up Dustin after school and didn’t want him to find weed the weed when he inevitably starts going through Steve’s car)

The lack of soulmate thoughts really irks Eddie, because he knows his soulmate is in Hawkins, but he never thinks about Eddie, like at all??? Positively or negatively?? Eddie jumps on more tables, he blares loud music from his van, he is in a band, he is the drug dealer for all the teens in Hawkins and all his soulmate thinks is “why the fuck did Munson double park his van, I’m going to be late looking for a parking spot now” it absolutely drives him crazy.

He eventually figures out his soulmate must be a jock of some kind because one day he hears “what is Munson doing under the bleachers?” when some sports team is let out of playing with balls practice. He is briefly heartbroken his soulmate isn’t a nerd like him, but then spends the night thinking about how a certain fluffy haired jock could play with his balls anytime.

Steve isn’t not thinking about Eddie on purpose, but they just don’t run in the same circles, so he doesn’t really think about him too much, just in a genuine, “I don’t know them, don’t interact with them, so I don’t really think about them” sort of way. Especially after befriending the kids, Steve’s focus goes to keeping them safe and being a babysitter instead of finding his soulmate.

Steve’s experience with his soulmates thoughts is completely different. Starting in middle school he heard his soulmate think he was cute which he thought was nice. As he got older his soulmate would still think he was cute, but also handsome or pretty which, he doesn’t know any girls who call their boyfriends pretty but ya know, he can roll with that. He thinks he will have to roll with a lot of stuff, since hai soulmate seems to into a…a lot of interesting things, to say the least. Steve has dated a lot of girls but none of them seemed to want to rub their face in his chest hair like his soulmate did, who also wonder is Steve was that hairy everywhere which- he was but he didn’t think a girl would want to know about that.

He would be in the middle of a basket ball game and he hit with a 15 minute monologue about how wonderful his ass looked in “thise little green shirts that ride up his ass in the best way” and how his soulmate “wanted to be those shorts” causing Steve to miss three different shots. Also with all this wildly kinky stuff and even general sex things Steve has never heard of or thought about he figures he should become more knowledgeable to better be prepared for his soulmate.

One day when Steve is cleaning up a drink he spilled in the cafeteria and heard “god Harrington looks good on his knees, bet he would look even better with my cock in his mouth” figures chances are his soulmate isn’t a girl at all.

With not much else to loose and a new door opened up to him, Steve starts spending time thinking equally horny thinvs about different guys he sees in class, just to see if they will react to what he is thinking. This is how he figures out Eddie is his soulmate.

Steve notices eddies table is getting a little rowdy, as is always does before Eddie gets up on someone’s table and he rants about jocks and preppy girls while stepping on people’s lunches, Steve thinks “what if comes over here, spits in my stretched out hole, and fucks me right next to Heathers Halloways tuna sandwich”

Eddie, whose soulmate didn’t even think about Eddie that one time his car got spray painted a fit was all the school talked about for a week, was NOT expecting that at 12:30 on a Tuesday and promptly trips on a chair and slams face first into the lunch table, breaking his nose.

Eddies friends rush him to the nurse and Steve is torn between this being a sign Eddie is soulmate or Eddie just clumsy, Steve has seen him walk into a door twice, so he don’t 100% sure. Steve decided to test this anytime he has a clear viewpoint of Eddie and starts thinking the most horny, kinky things possibly about Eddie to see if Eddie reacts proves he is Steve’s soulmate (also revenge because Steve had to go through years of Eddie horny pondering interrupting Steve during important tasks games or tests so Steve figures he should pay that forward during eddies dungeons and dorks games)

[ashknife]

I'm preparing tonight's session for my D&D group. Adventure prep is a rather complicated beast. It requires asking the hard questions. Questions like: What kind of shenanigans would an undead mafia syndicate engage in?

Clearly, this work is not for the faint of heart.

(So far, I've come up with running a call center for those annoying calls like extending your car's warranty. My players are gonna love it.)

[finn-from-adventure-time]

Maybe this is a silly statement, but I never realized how much love and care goes into being a dm and it’s made me really passionate about planning my current campaign. It’s like yeah you’re putting in a ton of work learning all the rules to the game and writing the story and planning so much shit, but you’re also making a gift for your friends. You’re sitting down in front of your laptop, energy drink in hand, asking yourself “How can I perfectly curate a world that my friends will love? How can I incorporate their interests and their wants and their needs?” It’s like no matter how hard writing the campaign gets or how tired I get of working at it endlessly, I never ever feel like giving up because it’s not just for me, it’s for my friends whom I love dearly. I love you enough to build an entire world for you, I hope you like it.

[salmonsalad69]

Making brennan lee mulligan proud by drafting a dnd campaign where you get hired to find a mercenary responsible for the death of a nobleman who owns every apothecary and healer in the city and along the way you discover more and more about the city's working class struggles and how the people have started to rally in support of this one man and can you guess what current event has inspired this one?

[umbraria]

Leftovers