The 7 Best Gifts for Dungeon Masters – Keep Your DM Happy and Avoid the TPK!
There is perhaps no more important player in Dungeons & Dragons than the Dungeon Master. If you don't have a DM, you have no game. But finding a good DM can be hard – and there's a pretty big investment necessary to get all of the things a DM needs to run a good session (much less a good campaign)...
11 Things Every Dungeon Master Needs to Play D&D
Dungeons & Dragons is a collaborative game, but there's one person at the table who is more important than the rest: the Dungeon Master (sometimes called the Game Master). The DM is pivotal because they are the linchpin for every session: they set the stage, create the world, encourage the players, play the foils and non-player characters, and just allow the players to do their thing. Without the DM, there is no game – at least in Dungeons & Dragons anyway...
Investigation vs Perception: Which D&D Check to Make
One of the coolest mechanics in Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is rolling the dice for just about everything. From determining the order of play – rolling initiative – to determining whether a random encounter happens, both players and Dungeon Masters (DMs) roll lots during each and every session of gameplay...
Starting Equipment vs Starting Gold: Which One to Pick for Your Players
As the Dungeon Master (DM), you have lots of decisions to make – I mean, literally millions – over the course of a Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) campaign. If you're brand new to DMing, you also have to make a lot of decisions before the first dice is rolled. One such important decision relates to how your players set up their characters: should they have starting equipment or starting gold?...
Firbolg Name Generator: How to Create Your Firbolg Character’s Name
Creating a character for Dungeons & Dragons is always fun – it gives you the chance to start fresh, and try something new. Whether you’re designing your first D&D character or setting up one for your next campaign, an important part of your character is their name: it gives other characters and NPCs a sense of your nature and history right off the bat...
XP vs Milestone Progression: How to Advance Your D&D Party
Whether you're brand new to Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) or you've been playing for years, you've probably thought about it: how do characters level up? Leveling up – or progression – is an important part of every game, from TTRPGs to video games...
D&D Scheduling: 8 Tips to Get Everyone to the Table
It's so common that it's a joke: playing Dungeons & Dragons is great fun, but finding a schedule to get everyone at the table regularly kills all the joy. As D&D is a game that requires regular planning and coordination between players and the Dungeon Master (DM), it's important to have a schedule of sessions that's frequent enough that everyone remembers where they are in the game and what they want to do next – or roll attempt to do...
D&D Point Buy: How Does it Work & Why Do It?
Character creation is one of the most exciting parts of an early campaign; before you even sit down to roll your first initiative, you need to create a character you're excited to play. There are lots of considerations: race, class, and abilities among them. While most people roll to determine their skills and abilities, there's actually another way to do it, called point buy...
Roll for Initiative: How to Start Playing Dungeons & Dragons
For a game that's stereotypically played by socially awkward nerds in a basement, learning how to play Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) can be intimidating. I know that when I first got interested in D&D, I was fortunate to learn a bit about it from pop culture (Netflix's Stranger Things, of course) and some podcasts – these helped me get a sense of the basic rules and how to play...
