Many people find it difficult to narrate a combat consistently. I am one of those people.
I often start out well, but after a few rounds I get caught up in the technical part of the combat. Also, in how many ways can I describe my attack with the same weapon, round after round?
Continue reading Combat narrative (tool)
Some characters enjoy using their downtime to craft mundane items. Repairing your armor, making some new arrows, concoct a potion of healing or whipping up a tanglefoot bag.
D&D is notorious for making the crafting rules complex or unusable for adventurers. I am talking about crafting mundane items, not magical ones. Let’s take a look at the rules for D&D 3.5 and 5th edition, and my suggestions for changing them.
Continue reading Useful crafting in D&D
About a year or so ago, I felt our group needed some extra incentive to use our imagination in combat. As a DM I had a hard time coming up with cool ways to describe my monsters’ and player characters’ actions, and often the players were just reciting attack roll results and damage rolls.
Asking the players to describe their attack helped a bit, but in my opinion we could improve more. That’s when I decided to start rewarding the players for coming up with cool heroic moves.
Continue reading Kick-ass role play with Hero Chips
Friday evening.
Five eager players sit at your dinner table while you set the scene for a series of adventures you have prepared for them. They come with expectations: enthralling stories, epic battles, terrifying monsters and beautiful damsels in distress for them to rescue.
And XP. Lots of XP.
I’ve found that there are a couple of ways to deal with XP. While most of them involve adding up numbers, there are a few more elegant solutions. Let’s explore and find out why I’ve done away with XP!
Continue reading Level up! 5 ways to deal with XP