Oscillating Interest

Dungeon Master's Screen artwork from Wizards of the Coast As someone who loves Dungeons & Dragons (& all sorts of tabletop RPGs) and has a decent amount of experience under my belt, I'm often asked by new or prospective DMs (Dungeon Masters) for advice. I hope I can start to compile that advice into a series of blog posts but that this one will stand well on its own! This is a decently long post, and the links I have may have many hours of content, but don't get intimidated , thinking you need to know everything before you start, I sure didn't! Instead gather some friends (ideally 3-5, any more can be overwhelming) , make characters together, and start playing ! (Check out this character sheet , I prefer it to the official one). You'll learn as you go and probably make mistakes, but that's fine, just have fun!  So You Want to Be A Dungeon Master series Table of Contents Intro Post Links to other advice givers Links to rules resources ...

I've been a running and playing Dungeons & Dragons off and on for the last decade. Recently I feel I've upped my game and found some useful tricks, props, and techniques that have helped enhance the game I'm currently running for my players and feel this would be useful for other DMs new and old. Today's post is about Rumours, that little blurb of plothook filled text at the beginning of a module that you're supposed to give to your players somehow. My problem with plot hooks and rumours is I was never sure how to present them to my players without feeling artificial. I was browsing the DnD subreddit one day and I either found this idea or I realized it was a good one: The bag of rumours.  Overview I'm currently using  Sly Flourish's Lazy DM  ideas for adventure design but to make things more sandbox/open world I have thrown in a combination of   Critical Hits ' 5x5 method. This means I have several adventures 'on the go' that have a...