Character Backstories Are A Gamemaster’s Glimmering Treasure Hoard!
Are your players getting sick of rescuing princesses and searching for lost swords? Maybe what you need is a new source for story plots, and what better source than your characters’ own backstories!
To Add A Dragon
This article was first broadcast in Episode Sixteen on 21st March 2018. Raerae: So were you guys debating dragons this week? Ryu: No Raerae: Why not? Ryu: Because there isn’t a debate. Ostron: No, the point is that we’re asking if you should add dragons to a campaign or not. Ryu: I don’t understand the question. Ostron: I’m not sure how to rewrite that Ryu: Look, here, guys, why don’t we just read over this paper I wrote up on dragons instead, huh? Dragons are probably the most iconic creatures in the entire D&D mythos. I mean, they’re the second “D” in the name; it’s hard to argue they aren’t significant. That said, there’s sometimes confusion about how exactly they fit into the stories. Part of this confusion stems from dragons being part of so many different mythologies through millennia. We aren’t going to go into all the details of…
Weather in D&D Part 3: Advanced Weather
This article was first broadcast in Episode Nine on 20th January 2018. Raerae: Huh, so this is what it looks like back here Lennon: You mean you’ve never been backstage? Raerae: Well I’m not usually on stage to go behind it Ostron: Good point Raerae: Oooh, is this where Ryu keeps that hat? Ostron: Well, not quite, this is where we always go after the news for a Short Rest Raerae: Gotchya. So, what do you do when you take a Short Rest? Lennon: Oh, mainly we try and keep Ryu out of the Gnomish Workshop. Although the last couple of weeks we’ve been talking about the weather… So continuing on, you’ve caused a party wipe with a gentle summer shower, you’ve got your players looking for deeper meanings in every change of wind direction, surely this is all the weather you need in a D&D game, right? As you…
Weather in D&D Part 2: Weather as a Story Element
This article was first broadcast in Episode Eight on 17th January 2018. Ryu: Ok, I’ve fixed the spell, try the lights again Lennon: *click* Ahh, that’s bett–gah! *a crack of thunder, the sound of rain* Ostron: Hmm. That’s… ominous… although now I can barely see the script Ryu: Let me just cast the Light spell… Ostron: Much better! Last time, we discussed using weather as an encounter. While this is one way to incorporate weather into a campaign, if your party members are all equipped with slickers +2 vs hailstones, forcewall umbrellas, and galoshes of dry socks, you might have overused the tactic just a smidge. On the other hand, now that your players are paying attention to it, you can begin to expand the role that weather plays in your adventures beyond just weather encounters. Since D&D is a storytelling game, it’s appropriate to look at how weather is…
Weather in D&D Part 1: Weather as an Encounter
This article was first broadcast in Episode Seven on 10th January 2018. Ostron: It’s raining bears and frogs out there Lennon: Okay, the expression is cats and dogs and plate armor isn’t good in rain- Ostron: I’m going to stop you right there – look out the window. Weather: everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything about it. To be fair, most people can’t do anything about it…unless they’re the DM, in which case they can make it rain frogs for weeks because someone wanted frog’s legs for dinner. But aside from petty revenge and/or cheap laughs, it’s hard to know when or why to include weather in the game. In modern times, it’s largely demoted to be the bane of the commuter, but in earlier eras the prosperity of sailors, merchants, farmers, soldiers, and more depended heavily on the weather being cooperative. Since travel above-ground leaves the party…
Dying Players Everywhere
This article was first broadcast in Episode Three on 15th December, 2017. Lennon: Just to check, Ostron, you mean “Dying Characters”, right? Ostron: … suuuuuuuuuure. Most DMs know that only 10% of the reason you have a screen is to hide the notes of your nefarious plans from prying eyes of the players. Most of the time the screen allows you to avoid having a roadside bandit that wasn’t even supposed to make it to melee completely mutilate the level 1 bard because you rolled a critical hit followed by maximum damage. There are very different attitudes among groups and individual players about dying. There are also differences in opinion among Dungeon Master’s in how to respond. We’re going to quickly cover three general player attitudes toward character death, and three Dungeon Master approaches to killing playe–er, characters. Knights, Big Damn Heroes, and Roguelikes We’re going to group player’s attitudes…