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 ...

Image by: geralt License: CC0 Update October 29, 2019 - I tweeted a link to this and realized it was time for an update. I have switched over to iOS from Android and continue to use 1Password, it works even better on iOS. Fixed tenses/removed irrelevant/old paragraphs, and added notes about lack of sponsorship. Update January 18, 2019 - 1Password uses a monthly pricing model primarily now. I've started using 1Password instead of Keepass due to family sharing, their Watchtower service (powered by haveibeenpwned.com), and the amazing ease of use on all platforms. Update March 18, 2017 - LastPass has changed their business model and the mobile app does not require a subscription. I have also become aware of the Diceware passphrase generation technique. This post has been updated to reflect that. Preamble You can skip this section if you just want to get to the advice. NOTE: I realized I should point out to anyone reading this that I do not run ads on my site, nor a...

Many people have asked me about how exactly Steam Family Sharing works so I'll try and cover some of the tricks and special cases not covered in Steam's FAQ Sharing games with a child, parent, sibling, room mate or other person you live with is often quite simple when you use a shared computer. However, I'd like to cover the other scenario: sharing with friends. I like explaining concepts through examples so to go through all of these examples we will use two friends, Alice and Bob, who live in separate homes, use separate computers, and want to share games. For the purposes of example I will give them each a small library of games: Alice's Games: Hotline Miami (only Alice owns) FTL (both Alice and Bob own) Dota 2 (Free to Play so both Alice and Bob 'own' it) Bob's Games: Crypt of the NecroDancer (only Bob owns) FTL (both Alice and Bob own) Dota 2 (Free to Play so both Alice and Bob 'own' it) Alright great now we'v...