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Scaring the Wildlife

I enjoy the role play aspect of D&D. While I enjoy puzzling my players and throwing difficult encounters at them, at the end of the day, I consider myself more to the RP side of the DM spectrum. As a result, I quite enjoy when my players come up with creative solutions and ideas, and […]

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Finding the Right Group: Sad Conclusions

I’ve previously written twice on the subject of “finding the right group”, and obviously there’s no way that I can cover every aspect of group dynamic that may pop up in a game. I have tried to cover a few general concepts, both problems and solutions, but the issue is one of human interaction, and […]

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Identifying Items: Cursed Items

Today I want to pick up from the last article on how I handle identifying magic items, and deal specifically with cursed items. The Dungeon Master’s Guide (DMG) states that: Most methods of identifying items, including the identify spell, fail to reveal such a curse, although ore might hint at it. A curse should be […]

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How I Handle Identifying Items

I’ve met a lot of people who play D&D and other tabletop RPGs, and they cover a very wide range of play styles, preferences, motivations, etc. But I don’t think I’ve ever met a player who didn’t get excited when their character finds a magic item. Whether it’s an intricately carved weapon hilt, a wand […]

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Product Review: Warriors of Waterdeep

From time to time I’m likely to provide my opinion on games, books, etc. that relate to D&D specifically. Recently I’ve found an app game called Warriors of Waterdeep that I’ve been playing for a little while. Since the game uses characters from Forgotten Realms and seems to be licensed by Wizards of the Coast, […]

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Finding the Right Group: Solutions

Last post I talked about problems that tend to crop up in a lot of tabletop RPGs. Today I want to look at some solutions. Preferences As mentioned previously, everyone has their own ideas of how the game should be played, whether it should be fun or epic, serious or comedic, war game or role […]

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Finding the Right Group: Problems

D&D, along with the majority of tabletop RPGs, is, at it’s heart, a social experience. Sure, there are modules designed for just one player, and there’s long and storied history of D&D computer games, but at the center of the game, the spirit of D&D, is not just the table, the rules, and the adventure, […]

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Character Development: Personality Matters

Let’s face it; for most of you, character race, class and background are the easy parts. It’s personality that you hate creating and roleplaying. I say this because out of all of the characters that I’ve seen over the past year and a half or so (easily one hundred or more), the only consistently vacant […]

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Playing with Awesome

Sometimes, a player does something remarkable that’s worth telling everyone about. Actually…I have a lot of these moments…not sure if that means my players are brilliant or maybe a tad broken…Either way, I think they’re awesome! This is a story about a character named Kryn.Kryn is a warlock who has proficiency with alchemy tools. She’s […]

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Flying Characters in Campaigns

“Can I play a character who has a flying speed?” OK, so most players don’t ask the question that way exactly, but if you’ve ever run a campaign or two, you’ve probably heard the question phrased one way or another. Aaracokra are the most infamous of the lot, but I’ve known DMs who won’t allow […]