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Charity Game: Post Game Wrap up

So a big thanks to everyone who was involved in Karen’s Extra Life fundraiser yesterday. Thanks to you she raised over $1100 for CHEO! I was thrilled to be able to be a part of that and had a great time running a D&D game as part of her stream. The game went a bit […]

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Gaming for Charity

Many of you are probably already aware of Extra Life, if not, here’s what you need to know: Extra Life is a children’s charity that benefits Children’s Miracle Network hospitals, and it’s run and sponsored by gamers. All kinds of gamers. The gamers who take part are able to designate which hospital the money they […]

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Homebrew Rules for Goat-Ball

As promised, we will briefly discuss goat-ball and I will then provide my attempt at homebrew rules for the game, should players want to engage their characters in the game more fully. As Written Goat-Ball is described thusly: Goat-Ball is a team sport similar to dodgeball. It uses a furry, misshapen ball made of stuffed […]

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Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden – First Impressions

So Wizards of the Coast has a new published campaign, and for the first time in 5th Edition we are going to the far northwest of Faerun: Icewind Dale. I have been excited to see Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden (RotF) come out because my Forgotten Realms experience began with The Crystal Shard, many, […]

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Real Life DM Tools

D&D players like stuff, and DMs are no exception to this rule. I have had many conversations with others where we spend a lot of time talking about the tools (re: toys) that we use to DM with. Here’s a few of mine. Dice There are two rules about dice: 1. You can’t play the […]

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Productive Writing Habits

I’ve been falling a bit behind lately, for a number of different reasons, and I know that getting writing done on time, whether it be homework assignments, personal projects, or (probably relevant to my audience) writing gaming content, can be difficult. So this seemed like a good time to discuss some tips on being productive […]

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Tracking Time in Forgotten Realms

There are many pre-existing campaign settings for D&D: Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Ebberon, Dark Sun, Theros, Ixilan, Ravnica, and Ravenloft among them. My default is typically Forgotten Realms (I’ll perhaps get into why at a later date), and many campaigns take place there. As DM, you may or may not want to adopt the standard measurements of […]

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Limiting Character Options

As I’ve talked with various other DMs, the question comes up over and over: “Should you limit the available options for character creation?” The answer is a resounding: “Maybe…!(?) As with most other issues, this is one that’s largely subjective, so rather than give you a definitive answer, let’s look at a few related subjects […]

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Fudging Rolls

This is a bit of a touchy subject for some people (including a few I know personally), and for good reason. What is it? Before I get into the subject, let’s define it. Broadly speaking, fudging a roll means that the DM rolls one or more dice in secret, then reports the result as being […]

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Leaving Well

Sometimes the best thing that you can do as either a player or a DM is to leave the game. While it may seem an unfortunate ending, the reality is that if done properly, it can save friendships. Conversely, done poorly, it can ruin them. People can get pretty serious about their D&D games, and […]