You can get your players in character and roleplaying in your dnd game starting with these three steps + included bonus tips.
Check out the new video on Tiktok and Instagram for some more tips.
You are always welcome to post questions here or DM me!
Thank you all for supporting this patreon and hope these tips are helping you and your group.
Ethan
You want get far in your dnd dungeon master career before you hear about "calls to action". These are also referred to as the inciting incident, and the hook, and most groups won't get far without these!
I compose a list of 30 of the most famous calls to action in media to give you a ton of ideas on CTAs to introduce to your dnd group. Check out this infographic for some more tips and insights.
Keep an eye out for player-introduced arcs as your players grow in confidence and...
2023-09-09 14:47:50 +0000 UTC View Post
You can easily get your dnd campaign going using this method. A lot of dungeon masters get lost or overwhelmed because they plan too much of what happens in between. But if you just follow these steps, you'll be able to start quickly with an ending in mind and you're players will have tons of room for agency.
And since you're crafting the campaign pitch together, you can guarantee that everyone will show up excited and ready to play.
And thank you for answering the poll earlier!...
If you joined in the last couple months, you probably came from my social media posts! I've been a DM for over 20 years and do a ton of reading and analysis on actual plays, games I play in, and, of course, my own games that I run. So I've got a ton of insights, opinions, but I also create and consume a ton of D&D content both for my game and for my social media.
Please let me know what you're most interested in seeing more of on Patreon posts specifically :)
Thank you!
E...
Like if you want more of these. Just in time for Fall, an overland travel example. You can find the dice rolls included on the Morning card, and the six Times of Day I mentioned in one of my videos.
This example would be for some well-traveled road, half a day or more outside of the nearest town.
This map features 300', as it assumes the players are mounted. Throw a hill giant token up behind the boulders, and a random or repeat NPC hiding on the other side of them. Your players...
If you want to have an immersive world with heart-felt roleplay and touching moments backed up by challenging adventuring days and epic combats that push your players to the limit, then this is for you. And the best part is, you're really just capitalizing on what you already do well and just making a couple small changes to how you set up and run your dnd adventures.
Thank you, and please let me know anything more you want to see here!
Ethan
2023-09-05 21:59:29 +0000 UTC View PostThank you for supporting me here!
If you're still eagerly waiting for Train Heist, it's still in progress. Slow but steady!
Nine new scripts planned as well, 3 to go, so should have some new social media posts coming this weekend.
You supporting me here means you're my top priority in my content creation. I've been seeing which videos get the most engagement, which infographics get the most views, and any specific comments and questions from social media to figure out wha...
Player-driven campaigns are super popular right now, and a lot of DMs are interested in running them. Here are some of the things you can start with.
I made the shift to running more player-driven campaigns over the last few years, and my games are definitely better for it.
Thanks for supporting me on here
Ethan
You can do a lot to avoid toe-to-toe combats in D&D. These are 3 of my go-tos anytime I want to add a bit of movement to a battle.
I've been running games for over 20 years and these 3 have been a mainstay in my last several campaigns.
Give them a shot, and thanks for your support!
Believable NPCs make your world so much more immersive. These steps take less than a minute and have been my go to for the last few years. As a bonus tip, you can use scene goals and NPCs to create or release tension in your game.
2023-08-24 03:17:41 +0000 UTC View Post
You can run a great campaign and really care about your players and your game. But a lot of us get off to a wrong start. So here's what you do. First, schedule a session zero. This is a super low pressure, casual chat about your game. I've been doing session zeroes for about five years now, and it has dramatically changed how I run the game. This is my rough checklist for a campaign session 0, for the public.
Thanks,
Ethan
Travel inevitably pops up in every D&D game, and there's not much good advice out there on how to handle it. Unfortunately, this leads many DMs to skip travel altogether, and then later wonder, "How can I make my world feel more real and immerse my players?"
I started this with a more in-depth guide but I've got too many tips and tricks for each step! So for now, try out these steps, or even just one or two in your game, and see how much of an impact it makes on ma...
2023-08-20 16:06:56 +0000 UTC View PostHere's some notes from the Increasing Roleplay TikTok I made. These are just rough notes that I made to expand on what was in the TikTok script. They're rough! But I went ahead and added some bonus tips, and attached the example to the bottom. Down the road I might clean these notes up! Make them into an infographic. This technique is still a work in progress. Still analyzing the group and seeing what specifically is happening/working. And gathering and trying tips from other DMs.
D...
An infographic for an upcoming video looking at narrative structure more in-depth.
Thanks you for supporting me!
Patron exclusive infographic for upcoming D&D combat tip video.
Thank your for your support!
Free infographic from my TikTok
2023-08-07 23:22:02 +0000 UTC View PostHey everyone. I've been still playing a ton of D&D, as normal, as I have for, you know, the last decade, and then off and on for another decade before that. So that's been going good.
I've also been really working on my schedule and considering what sort of responsibilities I have for my day job, what sort of responsibilities I have to my friends and family, my sports, my health, in addition to this Patreon, and then, of course, my D&D games that I run and play during the week.<...
2023-07-27 17:06:33 +0000 UTC View PostWelcome back!
Dropping this preview of the train heist map here! The final will likely include a few revisions and post-processing, but the layout shouldn't change much from here!
With the map done, that means work is starting on the adventure itself! Super excited to get back to work on some of the heist gameplay ideas we brainstormed before the start of summer!
Also, I'm on Threads now - it's pretty chill! Good vibes!
Talk soon!
Ethan
Don't think I've abandoned you all!
I've been laid up the last week with a combination of allergies, cleaning supplies-induced respiratory irritation, and a cold ;_;
Since I've got a busy summer schedule and a lot of 9-5 work to catch up on, I'm going to pause billing for at least the next month!
Will be publishing the new Heist adventure soon and recording a bunch of new content for social media, as well as writing some guides. While I haven't been able to focus long en...
Tentatively named Gnome Ship in the Fey Hole, this new adventure for you is a heist adventure courtesy of one of the patrons in the Custom Adventure tier.
In keeping with the heist genre, we're having a Preparation stage. In the current iteration, the preparation stage will involve a handful of scenes the party can seek out in order to prepare for the upcoming heist.
The Scrying Shack is the first such scene, which can give the party the layout of the gnome s...
2023-05-14 15:10:46 +0000 UTC View PostRecently, I’ve been talking a lot about how challenging gameplay in D&D often makes you think about combat. And it’s true that a lot of DMs, those starting out and experienced DMs alike, often want to know how to challenge their players in combat.
And that’s very valid. Challenge is one of the 6 types of fun and very prominent in D&D players and DMs. If your combats aren’t challenging, that might disappoint your players, especially those that come up with specific builds...
2023-04-28 22:23:37 +0000 UTC View Post
Download it here!
Included for you:
3-6 hour adventure with a gold dragon finale
35 room dungeon (with keyed map)
12,270gp worth of treasure
9 new monsters plus tokens
Easy to run PDF
Custom maps
If you need any different files please let me know! I'll update this post with more over the next couple days!
Thank you for your support!
Updates:
4/25/2023 (v1.01) - Adds missing art and replaces default stat blocks<...
2023-04-25 04:39:02 +0000 UTC View PostThank you for joining! If there's anything you want to see more of or a guide you'd like, don't hesitate to comment or shoot me a message!
Gold Dragon Egg is coming along great! Five more room descriptions to go (out of thirty five!). A few of the rooms I want to go back and add some conflict too, specifically the ones with NPCs. You can do so much for increasing the difficulty of your game in RP by giving your NPCs values or goals, and putting them in conflict with both the PCs and eac...
2023-04-20 00:24:21 +0000 UTC View PostHello everyone,
I'm excited to share with you some news about the Gold Dragon Egg adventure! It's much larger than my previous two adventures, and I'm happy to say that it now has 33 rooms! I've been working diligently whenever I have free time to get it finished, but I regret to inform you that it's going to be delayed.
I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, as I know you were all looking forward to it. It's my bad for not realizing how much longer it would take, given...
2023-04-18 02:34:46 +0000 UTC View Post
30+ rooms in this dungeon for you
Breaking it up from the previous 2-location adventures. The final version will have some post-processing with lightning, color, and some additional assets on the map. As well as the no label and various formats. If there's anything specific you want please let me know!
Lot's of writing to do! Might have more this evening, but more likely you'll be seeing the final release tomorrow or Monday night!
Thanks so much for your support...
Some rooms for the frog people in Gold Dragon Egg
Amphitheater
Sleeping area
Sunken Library
Insect farm / storage
Part of the conflict in the dungeon involves how to interact with the frog people, who are on edge after being recently attacked by bandits seeking the gold dragon egg.
You can find it here in a couple days!
If you checked out the previous adventures, you may find this surprising... The dungeon in this adventure ...
Recently I posted about having a visual element to represent time and attention that players had generated while in a dungeon or on an adventure. If you're wondering what that looks like, it's a very simple technique. The first time I saw it, it was referred to as "tension dice" and you can see an example/adaptation in both Necromancer's Curse and the upcoming Gold Dragon Egg adventures.
But first I just want to recap the why and impact using this technique would have on your game, the ...
2023-04-12 21:24:04 +0000 UTC View PostYou might have seen my post on social about sandbox games being less work. And I do think that is the case, but I understand that that isn't how it may seem at first. I remember just struggling to run my first ever campaign, and the effort it took to execute the "story" in a satisfying way.
Now that was my first campaign ever, and the focus on the story was huge for me. I knew the end before the start, and a lot of the effort was getting the players on the right "track". Sounds like a r...
2023-04-08 19:04:04 +0000 UTC View PostJust a quick update. The $2 tier has been changed to Early Bird and caps at 25 patrons.
With this change, I've unlocked all the content in this Patreon for both the $2 and $3 tier.
The $15 tier is still the only one with the custom adventure benefit.
Thanks for your support!
